Article written by Mark Houle.
Entering the season one would have been hard pressed to find fans or experts who
would have predicted David Desharnais would be a solid contributor at the NHL
level for the Montreal Canadiens. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the
coliseum. Twenty-six games later we have a nice body of work to take a snapshot of, and see where he stands within his team.
Despite his having scored 181 points in his previous 172 games with the Hamilton
Bulldogs, skepticism abounded when it came to him making the jump to the NHL.
The obvious and most lobbied criticism of course was that he simply wasn’t big
enough, that when facing large NHL bodies he would be a boy amongst men. Some
surmised it would be embarrassing to play him against man sized players. Others
offered that he also wasn’t fast enough, that small players with exceptional
speed like a Martin St. Louis could excel in the NHL. Alas lacking in speed
David had no chance. Still others put forth that he was lacking in great
strength, and the small players with exceptional strength like a Theo Fleury
could make it in the NHL. Mr. Desharnais had none of these attributes, and was
destined to be a life long AHL’er, at best Corey Locke revisited. This is when
the funny thing happened: David Desharnais kept putting up points in the AHL no
matter who he was paired with. In past years he excelled, then he was teamed
with Pacioretty this season and they excelled. Yet, even after Pacioretty was
called up he continued to shine. Then Canadiens found themselves in need of a
forward who could put up points, and they finally made the call. Since then
David Desharnais had played 26 games and just under 320 minutes, while scoring 7
goals and 8 assists. One may wonder how this ranks him amongst his teammates.
Well in points per minute he ranks first by a fair distance with 0.0470, as can
be seen in the chart below. Interestingly this is exactly the total of Gomez
and Eller combined, higher than Plekanec, and over 20% better than any of his
teammates.
PLAYER |
|
|
|
|
David Desharnais, C |
0.0470 |
1 |
|
|
Max Pacioretty, LW |
0.0391 |
2 |
20.2% |
|
Mike Cammalleri, LW |
0.0387 |
3 |
21.2% |
|
Tomas Plekanec, C |
0.0373 |
4 |
25.9% |
|
Mathieu Darche, LW |
0.0371 |
5 |
26.6% |
|
James Wisniewski, D † |
0.0361 |
6 |
30.3% |
|
Andrei Kostitsyn, RW |
0.0361 |
7 |
30.3% |
|
Benoit Pouliot, LW |
0.0352 |
8 |
33.5% |
|
Jeff Halpern, C |
0.0288 |
9 |
63.0% |
|
Brian Gionta, RW |
0.0268 |
10 |
75.1% |
|
Scott Gomez, C |
0.0268 |
11 |
75.3% |
|
Roman Hamrlik, D |
0.0218 |
12 |
115.7% |
|
P.K. Subban, D |
0.0212 |
13 |
121.8% |
|
Lars Eller, C |
0.0202 |
14 |
132.7% |
|
Andrei Markov, D |
0.0187 |
15 |
151.1% |
|
Maxim Lapierre, RW† |
0.0180 |
16 |
161.0% |
|
Yannick Weber, D |
0.0169 |
17 |
177.6% |
|
Jaroslav Spacek, D |
0.0145 |
18 |
222.9% |
|
Travis Moen, LW |
0.0135 |
19 |
248.0% |
|
Alexandre Picard, D |
0.0113 |
20 |
316.0% |
|
Dustin Boyd, LW |
0.0102 |
21 |
361.9% |
|
Ryan White, C |
0.0100 |
22 |
368.4% |
|
Josh Gorges, D |
0.0092 |
23 |
411.3% |
|
Tom Pyatt, LW |
0.0075 |
24 |
530.0% |
|
Hal Gill, D |
0.0058 |
25 |
707.7% |
†
– player has spent a partial season with the Habs
When it comes to goals per
minute the competition is stiffer, yet David Desharnais remains the top Canadien
goal producer per minute slightly edging out Max Pacioretty. His average is
better than that of Plekanec and Gomez combined.
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Desharnais, C |
0.0219 |
1 |
|
|
Max Pacioretty, LW |
0.0213 |
2 |
2.8% |
|
Brian Gionta, RW |
0.0181 |
3 |
20.8% |
|
Benoit Pouliot, LW |
0.0176 |
4 |
24.6% |
|
Mike Cammalleri, LW |
0.0166 |
5 |
32.0% |
|
Andrei Kostitsyn, RW |
0.0160 |
6 |
36.8% |
|
Mathieu Darche, LW |
0.0159 |
7 |
37.9% |
|
Tomas Plekanec, C |
0.0152 |
8 |
43.9% |
|
Jeff Halpern, C |
0.0125 |
9 |
74.9% |
|
Maxim Lapierre, RW† |
0.0112 |
10 |
94.9% |
|
Dustin Boyd, LW |
0.0102 |
11 |
115.5% |
|
Lars Eller, C |
0.0078 |
12 |
182.3% |
|
James Wisniewski, D † |
0.0069 |
13 |
219.1% |
|
Andrei Markov, D |
0.0062 |
14 |
251.6% |
|
Scott Gomez, C |
0.0060 |
15 |
262.3% |
|
P.K. Subban, D |
0.0053 |
16 |
313.9% |
|
Alexandre Picard, D |
0.0048 |
17 |
353.0% |
|
Travis Moen, LW |
0.0037 |
18 |
495.4% |
|
Roman Hamrlik, D |
0.0029 |
19 |
654.8% |
|
Tom Pyatt, LW |
0.0019 |
20 |
1076.0% |
|
Yannick Weber, D |
0.0017 |
21 |
1195.4% |
|
Josh Gorges, D |
0.0013 |
22 |
1570.2% |
|
Jaroslav Spacek, D |
0.0009 |
23 |
2311.2% |
|
Hal Gill, D |
0.0008 |
24 |
2538.4% |
I am sure some will argue
about the type of minutes he is playing, the competition he is playing against,
or something of the sort. But the numbers on paper speak pretty clearly towards
David Desharnais being the top point producer and goal scorer per minute for the
Canadiens thus far this season. I wouldn’t argue this makes him the best player
on the team, but I would argue this makes him a valuable player to the Habs, certainly not embarrassing and definitely proving himself. By the way
Theo Fleury
was drafted in the 9th round, 165th overall. He was believed to be much too small
for the NHL, and he wasn’t recognized as a great player until he proved as much
on the ice. Martin St. Louis was not drafted, and cut by Calgary.
Like Fleury, St.
Louis was considered much too small for the NHL, and was not recognized as a great player
until he proved as much on the ice. Someday likewise maybe we will forget that
David Desharnais was once considered too small to play in the NHL, and he turned
out to be a great player. I for one am cheering for him!