To close 2023-24, the Montreal Canadiens iced a second line of centre Alex Newhook between wingers Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia. Each of the three forwards ended the season on a high.
Armia scored six goals and nine points in his last 12 games. Newhook scored three goals and nine points in his last nine games. Perhaps most impressively, taking into account the decline in his production over the last few seasons, Gallagher, who jumped on that line to replace an injured Joshua Roy, scored five goals and 10 points in his last eight contests.
Newhook Gels Between Gallagher and Armia
It’s incredibly possible those last few weeks merely represented outliers in the careers of each of those three instead of a display of lasting chemistry. However, the opposite is also possible based on how Armia is entering the last year of his contract and will be playing for a new one, Newhook is just 23 and by most objective accounts a player on the rise, and, in spite of Gallagher’s decreased production, he hasn’t stopped helping to drive possession and play in the offensive zone.
The point is, in principle, that line could work again. And, while Newhook is a logical candidate to play opposite the newly acquired Patrik Laine on centre Kirby Dach’s second line, the emergence of Roy as a viable top-six option means Newhook, Armia and Gallagher (why not NAG for short?) could still end up being a thing… just as the third line, not second, which should tell you all you need to know about how vastly improved the team’s offense as a whole projects to be.
For a team that finished with just 236 goals, that’s good news. For some context, the average playoff team scored 274. Only a single non-playoff team scored more than 270, with the Detroit Red Wings (278) finishing tied with the wild-card Washington Capitals in the standings, only to fall short due to a tiebreaker. The implication should be clear, that the playoffs become more of a possibility the more goals the Canadiens score, which really shouldn’t have to be implied. It’s downright logical.
Laine Fills Need for More Offense
Granted, an effective offense all alone doesn’t guarantee the Canadiens anything. However, it’s worth noting that, in acquiring Laine, general manager Kent Hughes effectively filled the biggest hole they faced. And he did it with relative aplomb, getting a former 44-goal scorer in his prime. Seeing as they gave up little offense in exchange to acquire him, Laine alone could make up the difference between where the Canadiens were offense-wise and where they need to be to make the playoffs.
Of course, there are other holes. As executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton pointed out at the team’s annual golf tournament, the defense needs to be better. To a degree, that should happen organically, in the sense the defense is still young overall but has gained experience relative to last season. Not for nothing, but the defense has officially improved on its own over the last few seasons as well.
In 2021-22, when the Canadiens finished in last place, they gave up 317 goals and 34.4 shots per game. In 2022-23, those figures stood at 305 and 33.6. Last season? 281 and 33.4. The offense has taken a similar trajectory in the opposite direction, having improved organically too. Even without Laine, there was every reason to believe the Habs would improve on that front… significantly too, with Dach returning from injury after playing just two games last season.
Three Offensively Capable Canadiens Lines?
Seeing as Dach gave the impression he could develop into a legitimate top-line talent in his first season with the team, potentially as a centre who could eventually surpass Nick Suzuki, he and Laine could become a similar dynamic duo to Suzuki and Caufield. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Caufield has displayed 40-goal scoring potential in the past, giving them significant firepower on the top two lines at least… which brings us to the bottom two.
As illustrated at the top of the piece, the third line can work in theory. It of course remains to be seen how head coach Martin St. Louis deploys his lineup, but it’s incredibly encouraging to think that a guy like Josh Anderson could end up being the team’s fourth-best option at right wing, when, prior to Laine getting acquired, he could realistically have been pencilled into that second-line spot instead.
Related: Canadiens Face No Other Option but to Move Dvorak After Laine Trade
If you look past Anderson’s struggles last season and his ugly $5.5 million cap hit (until 2027), underneath it all is a 6-foot-3, speedy power forward who can score, himself (just with less presumed frequency than in the past). However, if Gallagher can suddenly rediscover his scoring touch under the right circumstances, there should also be hope for Anderson, fourth-liner Jake Evans being the only centre with whom he displayed chemistry in 2023-24.
All this depends on the Canadiens staying healthy, which is no small feat based on how the last few seasons have gone. Again, the only reason Newhook ended up pivoting a second line between Armia and Gallagher is because of the team’s injury situation last season. However, there’s obvious cause for optimism based on how well that unit gelled together.
Come a certain point, you have to take a leap of faith that things will work out as intended. Considering the team is officially entering Year 3 of a rebuild, having improved each season in the standings, they kind of are already, just not to the degree they can. The difference is, if it comes to the next trade deadline and the Canadiens are icing that same projected third line, you can be reasonably certain things have worked out about as well as possible.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be able to stay together, as Armia is a pending unrestricted free agent who can’t realistically be in the team’s future plans. However, he would be the only one who isn’t that deep into the lineup proposed. That’s pretty deep into the lineup… and that’s undeniably significant offensive depth.
