The Alexander Galchenyuk Saga

I was expecting Galchenyuk to be traded last year. My assumption and of many others was that the habs were offered nothing of substance that could interest them. Likely what was offered was a second or third round pick like the habs got for Beaulieu. Anything better the habs would probably have jumped at the offer. Instead Bergevin signed him for three years, and obviously nowhere was there discussion of a no trade or no movement clause. I have never seen a more reluctant offer being made by the habs since the Subban debacle.

So why did this third pick overall never pan out? His development or lack of development reminded me of another prospect of the habs that flamed out Guillaume Latendresse. The similarities were that the habs needed both of them to succeed at an accelerated pace. Latendresse was brought in as a scoring power forward and a francophone to boot. He never played a game in the AHL. Instead of a steady development and improvement in the NHL, Latendresse regressed season by season until he was gone. Many people blamed this accelerated pace and his lack of seasoning in the AHL for his failures.

Alexander Galchenyuk was selected by the habs to fill the decades long void of a talented, big, number one center. Alex never played a game in the AHL. Frankly, he never looked big and never played like a 6’1 power center. However, he seemed to have the all important soft hands that offensive superstars had.  In his first season, I thought the habs did a good job of slowly integrating him into the line-up and into the top 6. He had a slower pace of progress in the second year and his achilles heel started to appear as he had his first minus year. The following few years were the same seesaw of a good year followed by a bad year. Clearly he was not turning into what the habs had hoped for. He was no Malkin, no Backstrom, no Kusznetsov, no Barkov, no Kucherov.

The major issue among fans and the media was whether Galchenyuk should play center or wing? I thought the main issue was whether Galchenyuk could make a contribution on this team to make them a winner. I don’t expect offensive players to concentrate on playing defence. However, there is an expectation of playing defensively in a standard way like covering your man in the defensive zone and not giving the puck away on a consistent basis. There is an expectation that puck carrying defencemen like Subban or Karlsson will give the puck away on a more frequent basis because they have the puck constantly. However, Galchenyuk was not somebody who carried the puck into the defensive zone on a regular basis. His constant giveaways and blind passes created the impression that either he did not care or he lacked hockey acumen.

The issue is more if you don’t play defensively at all you better score on a consistent basis to compensate for this. Galchenyuk had a minus rating for four of his six years with the habs on a team that had Carey Price in nets and Subban or Weber on defence. Therefore his defensive frailities superseded what offensive production he was able to muster. Could the habs have taught Alex how to play defensively? I am not sure whether they could but the main problem was whether Galchenyuk wanted to put any effort in learning how to play defensively.  Did Galchenyuk understand that he was giving the puck away on a constant basis and leading to opposition goals?

As for the trade, clearly Habs management had downgraded Galchenyuk to such an extent that getting anything of substance would be difficult if not impossible. Playing him on the fourth line in the playoffs or Julien publicly dismissing him as a defensive liability was not helpful. Bergevin declaring that the team would not waste their time playing Alex at center did not help improve his value. His major knee injuries also played a part. In other words underachieving Max Domi is probably the best offer the habs got. This is not to belittle Max Domi or say Max Domi will not turn it around with the habs. He has proven that he does show up in important games like the world juniors and the world championships. He has some decent playmaking stats and he does play physically like his dad in spite of his small stature. It has been clear for awhile that the habs had reached the end of the wait and see road with Galchenyuk and have taken up a new development project with Max Domi.