Canadiens' Top 25 this century: Ranking standout Habs (Nos. 6-10)
With a long Olympic break in the NHL schedule, it seemed like a good time to put together a list of the top 25 Canadiens players since 2000.
There have been more lows than highs since then, with the Canadiens missing the playoffs 10 times. They advanced to the conference final twice (in 2009-10 and 2013-14) and the Stanley Cup final once (2021).
More than 300 players (331 to be exact) and 28 goalies have worn a Canadiens sweater since the start of the 2000-01 season. Twenty-five of them have stood out. In picking the top 25, we’ve factored in personal statistics and awards, impact on the team and fans, and longevity.
No. 6 — Brendan Gallagher
The Canadiens found a small diamond in the rough when they selected Gallagher in the fifth round (147th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft when he was listed at 5-foot-9 and 169 pounds.
Gallagher was coming off a season in which he posted 41-40-81 totals in 72 games with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, along with 111 penalty minutes.
“I score a lot of my goals around the net,” Gallagher said when he attended his first Canadiens development camp after the draft. “I try to get to the net and, every once in a while, I kind of bug some players and they come after me. I’m not going to back down. I don’t shy away from the rough stuff.
“I’ve heard the questions about my size my entire life, but I’ve always played the same way,” Gallagher added. “I don’t shy away from the bigger players and that’s not going to change any time soon.”
Gallagher has never changed during his 14 seasons with the Canadiens.
In 891 career regular-season games, Gallagher has 245-238-483 totals to go along with 581 penalty minutes. No player has scored more goals for the Canadiens since 2000-01, and Gallagher has become the heart and soul of the team.
But age is starting to catch up with the 33-year-old, who has one more season left on his contract with a US$6.5 million salary-cap hit. Gallagher has only six goals this season, but scored in each of the last two games before the Olympic break after being put on a line with fellow veterans Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson.
No. 7 — Max Pacioretty
Pacioretty scored 30 or more goals five times during his 10 seasons with the Canadiens, which began in 2008-09, including a career-high 39 goals in 2013-14.
During a four-year period between 2013-14 and 2016-17, Pacioretty scored 141 goals — an average of 35 per season. During that period no other Canadiens player scored more than 80 goals.
No offence to David Desharnais (who we ranked No. 25 on this list), but Pacioretty scored all those goals without having an elite centreman and as the only real offensive threat on the team.
In 626 career regular-season games with the Canadiens, Pacioretty had 226-222-448 totals and a plus-36 differential. Pacioretty’s 448 points rank fourth among Canadiens players since 2000-01, behind Tomas Plekanec (606), Andrei Markov (572) and Gallagher (483). In 38 playoff games — again as the only real offensive threat on the team, making it easy for opponents to focus on shutting him down — Pacioretty had 10-9-19 totals.
Pacioretty was captain during his last three seasons with the Canadiens before feuding with GM Marc Bergevin. He was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 10, 2018, in a deal that brought Nick Suzuki and Tomas Tatar to the Canadiens.
Pacioretty wasn’t a natural-born leader and the “C” seemed to weigh heavily on him at times. But he wore it with pride and understood the responsibilities that come with being captain of the Canadiens — both on an off the ice — and embraced them.
No. 8 — Cole Caufield
Like Gallagher, Caufield was asked about his size after the Canadiens selected him with the 15th overall pick at the 2019 NHL Draft.
“Now I kind of just laugh it off,” Caufield, who was listed at 5-foot-7 and 163 pounds, said after he was drafted following a season in which he scored 72 goals in 64 games with the USA Hockey National Development Program’s U-18 team. “Nobody’s going to stop asking me about it. I’m just going to have to continue to prove people wrong. I’ve been dealing with it my whole life.”
Caufield won the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in U.S. college after scoring 30 goals in 31 games at the University of Wisconsin in 2020-21. But he struggled to find the back of the net at first with the Canadiens under head coach Dominique Ducharme, scoring only once in the first 30 games of the 2021-22 season.
As soon as the Canadiens fired Ducharme and hired Martin St. Louis on Feb. 9, 2022, Caufield started scoring again — and he hasn’t stopped.
Caufield finished the 2021-22 season with 23 goals in 67 games. In 344 regular-season games with the Canadiens, Caufield has 150 goals, including a career-high 37 last season. He already has 32 goals in 57 games this season and is on pace to finish with 46. The Canadiens’ haven’t had a 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse reached 40 in 1993-94 and haven’t had a 50-goal scorer since Stéphane Richer notched 51 in 1989-90.
Caufield has also become a 200-foot player under St. Louis.
“He’s just a more complete player and he hasn’t stopped scoring goals,” St. Louis said.
No. 9 — P.K. Subban
Subban has never lacked confidence or cockiness.
After the Canadiens selected him in the second round (43rd overall) of the 2007 NHL Draft, Subban approached the team’s table in Columbus, started shaking hands and said: “You guys made the right choice.”
The selection was a bit of a surprise because Subban was ranked No. 102 among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
“I think I’m ready to play (in the NHL), and I’m going to camp with the idea of making the Canadiens and helping them win the Stanley Cup,” Subban said after the Canadiens drafted him.
Subban had to wait three years to make his NHL debut and a star was born during the 2010 playoffs, when Subban posted 1-7-8 totals in 14 playoff games while averaging 20:44 of ice time as the Canadiens advanced to the Eastern Conference final before losing to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Three years later, Subban won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman after posting 11-27-38 totals and a plus-12 differential in 42 games during the lockout-shortened season. He was the first Canadiens defenceman to win the Norris Trophy since Chris Chelios in 1989.
In 434 regular-season games with the Canadiens, Subban had 63-215-278 totals and was plus-35. The only Canadiens defenceman with more points since 2000-01 is Markov, who had 572 points in 990 games.
While the vast majority of Canadiens fans loved Subban, his flamboyant personality rubbed GM Marc Bergevin and head coach Michel Therrien — along with some of his teammates — the wrong way. As a result, Bergevin traded Subban to the Nashville Predators on June 29, 2016, in exchange for Shea Weber (ranked No. 11 on this list).
Subban helped the Predators advance to the Stanley Cup final in his first season with Nashville.
PK Subban and Carey Price with one final triple low five at Bell Centre 🤝🥺pic.twitter.com/CCiLqd9Rv2
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 13, 2023
The Canadiens held a Homecoming Night for Subban three years ago at the Bell Centre and he received a huge ovation from fans when he was joined on the ice by Carey Price and they did the triple low-five they used to do as teammates before it was outlawed by Bergevin and Therrien.
No. 10 — Lane Hutson
While longevity was one of the factors in making this list, Hutson is such a special and unique talent that he simply had to be included in the top 10.
Like Gallagher and Caufield, the Canadiens took a chance on a small player when they selected Hutson in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. He was listed at 5-foot-8 and 148 pounds at the time.
Hutson quickly proved size isn’t everything — even for a defenceman — posting 6-60-66 totals while playing in all 82 games last season and winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. No Canadiens player had won the award since goalie Ken Dryden in 1972.
Hutson has been even better this season, with 10-48-58 totals in 57 games to go along with a plus-22 after finishing minus-2 last season. Hutson is on pace to finish the season with 83 points. The Canadiens’ record for most points in a season by a defenceman is 85, set by Larry Robinson when he had 19-66-85 totals in 1976-77.
“I didn’t know when we signed him out of college — I’d like to say I knew — but I didn’t know he was going to be that good, that fast,” Hughes said when asked about Hutson at his mid-season news conference last month.
No. 11: Shea Weber
No. 12: Alex Kovalev
No. 13: José Theodore
No. 14: Patrice Brisebois
No. 15: Jaroslav Halak
No. 16: Mike Cammalleri
No. 17: Brian Gionta
No. 18: Phillip Danault
No. 19: Michael Ryder
No. 20: Richard Zednik
No. 21: Jeff Petry
No. 22: Mike Matheson
No. 23: Juraj Slafkovsky
No. 24: Ivan Demidov
No. 25: David Desharnais
Tomorrow: Nos. 1-5
