|
Habs Report Cards: Brendan Gallagher |
|
|
|
|
|
Habs Report Cards - Brendan Gallagher
Grade: A
The 2015-2016 season may have been the toughest of Brendan Gallagher’s career due to multiple injuries that caused him to miss 19 games. Despite missing so many games, Gallagher still managed to record 40 points in 53 games, 19 of which were goals. Gallagher likely would have enjoyed a career year had he managed to stay healthy as his points per game improved to 75% from 57% the year before and he scored 10 power play goals, up from 8 in 2014-2015.
Before the season even began, Gallagher was officially added to the Canadiens leadership core as he was made an alternate captain. Management recognized Gallagher’s efforts on and off the ice and decided that he very much deserved the honour of having an ‘A’ stitched onto the front of his jersey. He may be hated by many for spending so much time in a goalie’s crease, always with a smile on his face, but I believe he has the respect of everyone in the NHL.
After seeing the way the Canadiens played without him in the lineup, it became evident that Gallagher is truly the heart and soul of the Canadiens forwards group. Without Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty had difficulty continuing the top lines success. The powerplay suffered as few others would spend the hard time near the crease screening goalies. Gallagher may be barely 5’9” but he plays as if he’s the biggest player on the ice. Gallagher was also one of the most consistent players on the Canadiens this season as his largest pointless drought was only 3 games and that happened just 4 times throughout the season. He started the season with 19 points in his first 22 games and he ended it with 5 points in his last 4 games when he returned from his second injury. Those 4 games playing alongside Alex Galchenyuk and Pacioretty were a preview of how good the Canadiens #1 line could be. Pacioretty and Galchenyuk were already playing well together while Gallagher was out of the lineup. However, Gallagher’s return made the line reach an even higher level of play.
Perhaps the greatest compliment that a player can have is when he makes his teammates better. That is absolutely the case with Gallagher. Max Pacioretty, his frequent linemate describes it best, as per a recent NHL.com interview by Dave Stubbs:
You'd like to keep Gallagher on the other wing?
"Everyone wants to play with [Gallagher] (laughs). He's a spark plug, you know he's going to mix it up and always work hard, and get to the net and make little plays that make a line better. It's always a lot of fun, playing with [Gallagher], I've always had a lot of success playing with him.
He's such a great leader. He has a way of getting a message across without sounding too hard on someone.”
Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has a history of playing tough with restricted free agents, especially coming off their rookie contracts. However, even he recognized the importance of rewarding Gallagher to a long term contract and it may just be one of the biggest steals in hockey. Gallagher just finished the 1st year of his 6 year contract and earns $3.75 million usd a season. For what he brings to the Canadiens: scoring and all of the intangibles like leadership and camaraderie, Gallagher’s contract is a bargain. There is no replacing a player like Gallagher and we have already seen how the Canadiens perform without him in the lineup. He is the engine that makes the Canadiens offence go. It was nice to at least see him rewarded with a gold medal at the World Championships this Spring:
Cheers & follow along!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»