Nick Suzuki is the top scorer among the Canadian forwards.
The captain has 43 points in as many games since the start of the season and Cole Caufield follows closely with his 42 points in 43 games.
In 3rd place among the best scorers (still among attackers) of CH, we find Juraj Slafkovsky. The great Slovakian boasts a total of 23 points in 40 matches in 24-25.
We took three players out of the equation and that leads me to ask you the following question.
Among the Canadiens’ 12 regular forwards, which of them has the fewest points since the start of the season?
If your choice is Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson or Brendan Gallagher, you are wrong.
And if your choice is Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine, Emil Heineman or Jake Evans, you’re not right either.
There’s only one left… And it’s Alex Newhook.
Yes, we’re talking about the same Alex Newhook who has been playing in the team’s top-6 since the Canadian’s very first game of the season… And who also plays on the power play.
When Kent Hughes picked him up in Colorado, we didn’t expect Newhook to arrive in Montreal as the savior of the organization and we didn’t expect him to bring a Stanley Cup to town.
But we didn’t expect it to be so difficult offensively for him either.
-10 points in 43 games… That’s not even 20 points over a full season of 82 games. Newhook is on pace to have (by far) his worst career offensive season since his National League debut and even though he’s been playing better lately, everyone will agree with me if I say he needs to. give more.
Ultimately, it must be remembered that he played a lot with Dach – who also had his share of difficulties – this season.
The second trio was invisible for several weeks and there is also the absence of Laine which plays a role in all that.
But still: if you play on a top-6 team in the NHL, you have to be able to produce. You have to be able to pick up points here and there, but that’s not the case with #15 this season.
Alex Newhook is 23 years old and he still has time to blossom. He was not drafted 16th overall in the 2019 draft because he has beautiful eyes: it is because he has interesting potential because of the qualities that we can see (at times) in his game.
On the other hand… He must find a way to give more offensively. He is playing for his place in the top-6 of the team and if he wants to do everything to keep it in sight for the next few years (which should not happen with the addition of Ivan Demidov), he must be replaced.
In burst
– What do you say?
– The Bell Center is going to explode.
– Ouch.
