Zachary Bolduc ahead of Patrik Laine in the top-6: a strong argument in favor of the Québécois

Yesterday, I wrote a piece on the offensive issues to watch for at the Canadiens’ training camp , including, of course, the composition of the second line, where I see Ivan Demidov. Ultimately, I think Kirby Dach and Zachary Bolduc will be there too,but that remains to be seen in due course.We know that Dach and Alex Newhook will battle it out at center. The loser of the “duel” could go to the wing of the second line, but I can see Patrik Laine battling Bolduc for the other wing position. By necessity, this will be an important duel. After all, Laine and Bolduc are both talented players, and the presence of Ivan Demidov means he’ll have to be well surrounded. Would he be well surrounded by Laine? In terms of talent, yes. Demidov would get a lot of assists playing with the Finn, we can all agree on that.But on yesterday’s Sick Podcast, Brian Wilde and Tony Marinaro made an excellent point: Bolduc’s defensive play must be an argument for bringing the Québécois onto the second line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCtnLgyOt5c [content-ads]Are we saying that defensive play is everything? No. If we were, we’d be bringing Jake Evans into the debate,but what we are saying is that, as one of the factors that can make the difference when it comes to deciding on a winger for the second line, defensive play has to be part of the discussion.

If Demidov were ever to play with Dach and Laine, he’d be playing with a center who had one of the league’s worst injury differentials and a winger who doesn’t give a damn about his defense. To me, differential isn’t the most representative statistic… except in extreme cases. And guys like Laine and Dach are in the extremes. So is Alex Newhook, for that matter.