Montreal: Habs firing on all cylinders in strong start TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button assigns his letter grades for the Montreal Canadiens at the one-quarter mark of the NHL season. They are a straight A team that gets bumped to A-plus overall.

Craig Button TSN Director of Scouting Follow|Archive

The Montreal Canadiens burst out of the gate like few teams in NHL history, winning nine straight games on the strength of phenomenal goaltending, a terrific four-line game and an improved offence.

At the quarter mark, Montreal is top five in goals per game, goals against average, power-play efficiency, penalty-killing efficiency and 5-on-5 play. They are a straight A team that gets bumped to A-plus overall.



Below are the Canadiens’ individual player grades.



Three factors were considered in assigning grades: performance, results and expectations, as framed by age, previous performance and cap hit/contract average annual value (AAV). Skaters must have appeared in a minimum of 10 games and goalies, five, to be graded.

Spotlight Player Grade: Montreal has the distinction of boasting three A-plus players, two of which are hardly surprising – reigning Hart Trophy winner Carey Price and former Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban. What may come as small surprise is that 5-foot-9 winger Brendan Gallagher is shoulder to shoulder with them on the Montreal report card.



Gallagher has developed into one of the NHL’s most industrious and impactful players, earning a place on Team Canada’s World Cup radar. The whirling dervish is not only effective, he is cost-effective, delivering near point-per-game production (9-10-19 in 22 games) at a $3.75-million cap hit.

Gallagher is in the middle of everything – including the crease area with great frequency – and most definitively providing maximum bang for the buck. Gallagher’s no guts, no glory game put him in harm’s way Sunday when he fractured two fingers blocking a Johnny Boychuk slap shot. The injury put an end to a seven-game point streak and sidelined Gallagher indefinitely.

Editor’s Note: Follow TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button at @CraigJButton and join the discussion on his Interim Report Cards.

Grading System

A Excellent

B Very Good

C Satisfactory

D Poor

F Failing

Inc. Incomplete