The Most Underappreciated Star of the Canadiens

When discussing star players for the Montreal Canadiens, the same names always come up, such as Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, and Ivan Demidov. One guy that doesn’t get mentioned enough for how good a player he has been this season is defenseman Noah Dobson. During Wednesday night’s Sick Podcast episode with Tony Marinaro, Sportsnet’s Eric Engels talked about how despite playing like a star on most nights, the truth is Dobson doesn’t get the appreciation that he deserves for what he does for the team. When thinking about it, Engels has a great point, and Dobson does deserve to get more credit for just how good he has been.

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The fact that Dobson no longer needs to be the star offensive defenseman like he was in New York with the Islanders, thanks to Lane Hutson being the top offensive defenseman in Montreal, has allowed him to have less pressure from a team perspective. Dobson doesn’t have to be the guy who produces on the power play, and he is able to focus on rounding out other parts of his game that maybe weren’t able to develop as much when he was expected to be the guy that brought all the offence from the backend.

Despite not getting as much power-play time, he is still on pace to produce the 2nd highest point total of his NHL career. A huge reason for that is he has shown a serious knack to produce offence at even strength, where he is quietly just one point back of Slafkovsky and Demidov in points at 5-on-5 with 38. The truth is the Habs are actually led by 6 players offensively, but Dobson often gets forgotten as he’s the only one who doesn’t get a huge chunk of his points on the power play.

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As good as his offence has quietly been, Dobson’s overall defensive game has continued to improve more and more as the season goes along. For example, he is the leader in blocked shots on the Canadiens by a very wide margin with 170 blocks, followed by Alexandre Carrier’s 148, which is something that many people don’t realize about him. Dobson was criticized by Islander fans in the off-season regarding his overall defensive game and inability to be physical. However, he continues to prove that he can be very solid defensively as a mainstay on the penalty kill block shots and clearing the puck from harm’s way.

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Now, the Canadiens’ penalty kill haven’t been great this season, but that isn’t on him, as he’s usually always in the right spot when down a man; it’s usually more of an issue with the system itself or his other defensive partners during the PK.

One thing that Engels praised Dobson for in his play lately is adding a little bit more physicality to his game. Dobson isn’t particularly throwing hits very often, as it has never been part of his game, but he is still leaning on guys with his 6’4″, 200 lb frame, which has forced pucks to come loose where he is then able to get the puck out of danger.

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His overall game is very solid on both ends of the ice, as he is still improving on certain aspects, but Dobson definitely deserves to be praised as a great 2-way defenseman that can perform well at both ends of the ice.

What are your thoughts on Noah Dobson’s play this season? Do you agree with Engels that Dobson is underappreciated for what he brings to the Habs?