Not only is Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki his team’s most productive player, he’s also one of the league’s best.
Don’t believe us? Well, the stats don’t lie.
With nine goals and 18 assists on the power play, Suzuki is tied for 10th in the NHL for power-play point production with 27 points over 55 games.
For those keeping count, that tallies up to a little more than half of his total points (53) on the season so far.
Interestingly, Suzuki’s power-play prowess has him ahead of superstar players like Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews, who have netted 26 and 22 games with the man advantage, respectively.
StatMuse.com
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old is tied with the likes of Cale Makar and Kirill Kaprizov (both of whom have a few games in hand) and finds himself just one point behind PP specialists like Steven Stamkos and Connor McDavid.
Suzuki’s production with the extra skater has coincided with Montreal’s overall improvement on special teams. His Canadiens teammate Mike Matheson is also among the NHL’s top guns with 22 points of his own from the blue line. Meanwhile, Cole Caufield is not far behind with eight goals and 10 assists of his own when Montreal has the extra man.
While they’re only 18th on the season’s leaderboard, scoring on 20.1% of their opportunities, the Habs’ power play has seen a major boost after the holiday break.
Since January 1, they’ve logged a 24.1 PP%, scoring on 14 out of 58 opportunities, which has propelled them to 11th (tied with the Dallas Stars) in the NHL for that time frame.
Funnily enough, 24.1% is exactly what the team logged on the PP in the 2007-2008 campaign, which remains their most productive power play of the last 25 years.
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