As soon as teams were allowed to sign players on July 1st, 2014, the Montreal Canadiens called veteran Manny Malhotra to offer him a one-year deal worth $850,000. Many Habs fans had no clue who Malhotra was and most only remembered him from his days as a Vancouver Canuck.Three months later, the underrated impact of this signing is already felt after six games, the Habs being 5-1 and standing atop of the Eastern Conference standings.
Not known for his offensive abilities, the 34-year-old pivot has no point and no penalty minute so far this season, centering the team's fourth line. But we can't assess Malhotra's impact by looking at his offensive numbers, because his value truly likes at the face-off circle and in the dressing room.
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Malhotra currently leads the ENTIRE NHL with a face-off percentage of 66,3% among qualified players, winning at least 60% of his face-off in all but one game this year. His face-off skills also appear to help David Desharnais and Lars Eller, who have improved considerably at the dot. Desharnais' efficiency is up 5.6% while Eller's efficiency is up 1.9%. Only Tomas Plekanec continues to struggle at 46.1%.
Malhotra really improved at the dot under former Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock for whom he played between 2006 and 2009. That's where he started to take more draws and he quickly got better, consistently posting face-off percentages about 60%. It also helps a lot to have taken about 11,183 draws against a plethora of centermen during his 16-year career in both the Eastern and Western conference.
As a team, the Canadiens are currently sitting at 54.5% in their match-ups. Only two teams are better, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Columbus Blue Jackets, ironically two of Malhotra's former teams.
Malhotra's arrival has allowed head coach Michel Therrien to start Plekanec's line much more often in the offensive season as he is not the go-to-guy any more when it comes to defensive zone face-offs. Plekanec's offensize zone starts are up 7.6% from 38% last season to 45.6% this season, allowing him to start less often in his own end and get more playing time alongside his linemates, Alex Galchenyuk and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, in the offensive zone.
Behind the Lens: Manny Malhotra
The native of Mississauga, Ontario, is also an adept penalty killer spending a quarter of his playing time (12 minutes on average per game) down a man, and we all know how undisciplined the
Canadiens have been so far.
"That's why we wanted to acquire him this summer, said head coach Michel Therrien. We understand the importance of face-offs, but his contribution doesn't stop there. We can use him down a man or to protect a lead late in the game. He has been a very good acquisition for our team."
Playing on 2:55 minutes on the penalty kill this season, Malhotra allows Tomas Plekanec to get more rest and less defensive responsibilities. So far this year, Plekanec is spending 51 less seconds per game on the PK (2:57/game in 2013-14 and 2:06/game in 2014-15) and 49 seconds less overall on the ice per game down from 19:46 to 18:57.
This slight decrease might prove beneficial for the team over the long term as it would mean that Plekanec would play about a game less of taxing minutes over an 82-game calendar. The organization hopes that a rested and more productive Plekanec will help the team go even deeper in the playoffs than last season when the team lost in the Eastern Conference final against the New York Rangers.
So far so good as Plekanec is the team's leading scorer with seven points in six games to go along with a +3 plus/minus differential.
Do you agree that Malhotra's signing has been the best off-season move by GM Marc Bergevin?
