Kirby Dach and Nick Suzuki in the top 25 best passers

Many people know it, but the Montreal Canadiens lack punch up front.

Cole Caufield was excellent in his second NHL season. He scored 26 goals and added 10 assists over 46 games.

He is by far the club’s best marksman, but Nick Suzuki managed to catch up with him in terms of goals at the very end of the season, playing all 82 games.

To have punch in attack, you need at least one pure sniper, which is what Caufield aspires to become in the next few years. However, it would take at least one more top-6 forward to acquire this lack of punch.

But even more important, in my opinion, you need outstanding playmakers. And in this respect, the CH seems to be in a very good position.

According to statistics compiled on the AllThreeZones website by EP Rinkside analyst JFresh, the Tricolore have two of the NHL’s top 25 playmakers.

Suzuki and Kirby Dach are ranked 20th and 24th respectively.

To help you decipher this interesting stat, the number shown for each player is the “pass score”. It’s based on several types of passes made by players at 5-on-5, over equal playing time for everyone.

Obviously, the higher the number, the better the player is at passing, but to give you a comparison, a score above 1 is very good and above 1.25, the player is among the NHL’s elite.

As you can see from the table, Suzuki (1.09) and Dach (1.04) all have very good scores, placing them in the top-25 at this level.

It should also be borne in mind that both players, especially Dach, are fairly young and haven’t yet reached their full potential.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dach crack the top-10 in a few years’ time. That’s one of the reasons why I support the decision to separate Caufield and Suzuki next year.

Realistically, though, Suzuki will probably become a better overall player than Dach. In fact, his defensive skills place him among the NHL’s elite on the power play.

In any case, the CH is in a good position with two of the league’s best playmakers.

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