Losing Emil Heineman to injury is obviously not the same as losing, say, Patrik Laine. However, it still takes away a certain dimension from the Montreal Canadiens’ offense, with the former now out three-four weeks after having gotten injured in a car accident.
The injury itself is thought to be (relatively) insignificant. However, Heineman’s loss is far from, despite how he plays a 13th-ranked 11:09 per game, just below Oliver Kapanen, who’s obviously no longer playing in North America. So, there’s no denying Heineman is a fourth-liner. However, he’s still a staple on that fourth line, comprising pending-unrestricted-free-agents Joel Armia and Jake Evans, two players who have suddenly reignited interest among fans over potential new contracts.
Heineman Helps Make Evans Line
Keep in mind, both Armia and Evans are players whose contracts couldn’t expire soon enough heading into this season. In the minds of many Canadiens fans, prospect Owen Beck was ready for primetime this season and chomping at the proverbial bit regarding the latter, as a potentially superior centre. Regarding the former? Well, he was demoted out of training camp last season, only to eventually get a second shot at a full-time NHL position due to a rash of injuries.
Now, all of a sudden, on the strength of Evans’ 10 goals (scored on an unsustainably high 23.8% shooting percentage) and the career-high 36 points Armia is on pace to score, they’re worth committing to for several additional seasons? When firsthand accounts have surfaced that the Canadiens have tried to trade Armia specifically, going back several?
Pierre McGuire: "They've been trying to trade Joel Armia for a long time I can tell you right now. I was working for a team where they offered Joel Armia to us and that was 3 years ago" 👀
— The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro (@thesickpodcasts) November 15, 2024
Full pod👇
Watch: https://t.co/tIx0TWQPek#GoHabsGo #thesickpodcast @TonyMarinaro pic.twitter.com/pc2pH45j91
It’s fairly clear, Heineman, a 23-year-old rookie, isn’t the secret sauce alone here. It’s more so logical to conclude the line as a whole, the Canadiens’ third-most-used this season, simply has chemistry. And it’s easy to envision the play of Armia and Evans suffering as a result of Heineman’s absence, in large part due to their impressive success as a unit.
As Canadiens analyst Jon Goyens recently said on an episode of Daily Faceoff Live: “… Recently, I called them the ‘dream line,’ because they’re a coach’s dream. They can go out there against anybody in the league, and they’re consistently a pain in the ass to play against, and they can chip away offensively.”
The point is, this is likely a case of the sum being greater than the individual parts. Take away Heineman, who has the same amount of goals as Evans and was a runner-up to teammate Lane Hutson for December Rookie of the Month honours (in the entire NHL), and chances are that line likely doesn’t function nearly as well.
Pezzetta Not a Long-Term Solution
Ultimately, with Michael Pezzetta having drawn into the lineup to replace Heineman on that line against the Utah Hockey Club, similar to how he played on Line 2 when Laine had been out with flu-like symptoms recently, that line becomes significantly weaker, all due respect to him. And, without a fourth (or third based on your perspective) line that is nearly as dominant, you find yourself unable to roll four lines as much, meaning you’re less likely to be able to compete on a nightly basis.
To their credit, the Canadiens beat Utah 5-3 on Tuesday in the end. However, there’s probably a reason they got outshot 14-3 in the first by a team lower than them in the standings, when in the recent past the Habs have regularly outplayed significantly tougher competition. Part of that stems from the four penalties against in the first, Pezzetta himself getting called less than 30 seconds in for holding. An eventual five-on-three disadvantage resulted in a goal against… and probably his mere 3:50 in ice time that game. His previous game, subbing in for Laine, against the Washington Capitals? He played just 3:05, having gotten benched with Jayden Struble for similar reasons. It gets to the point where you’re effectively dressing 11 forwards… and, while that has worked out for the best over the last few games, another month of this without Heineman is a huge ask of your players. Something needs to be done.
Related: Top 5 Impressive Facts About Canadiens’ 2025 Playoff Push
Admittedly, there isn’t exactly an easy fix. If you do manage to navigate the team’s fairly precarious salary-cap situation and call someone up to complete the Evans line, you’re still not guaranteed to get back what you had with Heineman. And calling up Joshua Roy, who leads the Laval Rocket in scoring, to play fourth-line minutes when his development is probably best served getting a regular shift, is less than ideal. And, while the development of the Rocket’s second-leading scorer, 27-year-old Alex Barre-Boulet, shouldn’t be a factor, he may not be as effective as Heineman had been in a checking-line role.
Beck the Logical Choice
With that, Beck, who’s been having a good first professional season with the Rocket, is the logical, maybe even ideal choice. Like Heineman, his skillset lends itself to bottom-six success. In fact, he projects as a bottom-six centre, potentially Evans’ eventual successor, as early as this season’s trade deadline. And, if there are reservations putting the young centre on the wing, why not put him in fellow-pivot Christian Dvorak’s spot between Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher? Dvorak can play on Evans’ left wing instead. He’s played wing before. Better yet, keep Dvorak on Beck’s wing as a veteran faceoff-taking presence and move Josh Anderson down instead, seeing as he and Evans played together regularly in 2023-24.
Other options exist. For example, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Lucas Condotta are each left wingers like Heineman. It’s nevertheless hard to envision either one staying in the organization, at least at the NHL level, from here on out. With Beck, the Canadiens would be giving a deserving, productive prospect, who fits in with their long-term plans, valuable NHL experience without necessarily hurting them on the nightly basis, at least not as much.
Under the circumstances, when it’s no longer a case of trying to fix what isn’t broken by theoretically giving a healthy Heineman more ice time, the Canadiens must do something that risks altering team chemistry, because Pezzetta isn’t working on an every-night basis. Beck may not be Heineman. He may not show the same chemistry in the lineup. However, the Habs took a chance inserting Laine into the lineup when he was finally healthy, because he gave them their best chance at success. Of course, it would have been crazy not to, as they made him their big offseason acquisition for a reason. However, they also drafted Beck for a reason. Ignoring this opportunity afforded by this tragedy is just as crazy.
