The David Savard situation

The argument surrounding David Savard has always been that his presence is important for the development of the young defencemen on the Canadiens. It may be time to revisit that argument. With Savard now in his fourth season with the Habs, the same mistakes continue to be made. The question is, where is the development?

According to moneypuck.com, after six games Savard has the worst 5v5 expected goals against among defencemen on the team per 60 minutes played. He lacks the speed and mobility to retrieve pucks dumped in by the opposition. That in turn leads to more defensive zone time for the Canadiens and makes clean breakouts more difficult to achieve. And breakouts have been a problem.

If that sample size is too small, last season’s results paint a similar picture where Savard had the second worst metrics in this category behind Jayden Struble.

In fairness, Savard was solid against the Islanders last night but one strong game is not enough, particularly when it’s against a team that struggles to score.

Another argument that has been made is that the team would be worse without his leadership and steadying influence. The question here is, worse than what? In the last two seasons Montreal finished low enough in the standings to qualify for the fifth overall pick. Would it have been a disaster if they had dropped a couple of more spots in the standings because of Savard’s absence?

While unlikely that his departure would help the team in the short term, it does open up the opportunity for Barron and Mailloux to show their wares. Both seem to be at the point where they need the opportunity to prove whether or not they are ready for greater responsibilities and when Guhle returns, carrying eight defencemen is not ideal. If they seize the opportunity, it’s a win for the Canadiens; if they don’t, the Canadiens will have still likely gained an asset by moving Savard.

The next few games will provide a better idea of how competitive the Canadiens are likely to be and if they continue to play at a sub-.500 level, team management will have to make some tough personnel decisions. It’s unlikely that Savard would be on the move list so early in the season but it should be something to consider.