Canadiens Rookie Defenceman Providing Surprising Results

The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2022-23 training camp with a giant red flag on defence.

The question, at the time, was which rookie defenceman would earn a job on the blue line.

Fast forward several months later, and not only have the Canadiens featured five different rookies in their defensive group, but for the most part, the youngest members of the blueline have also outplayed their veteran teammates.

Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic, Arber Xhekaj, and Justin Barron to produce fantastic underlying numbers.

They’re inexperienced and playing on one of the worst teams in the league.

But a quick look at the team’s possession numbers with various defencemen reveals that three rookies are among the top four defencemen in terms of shot share (CF%).

The only veteran that features among the rookies happens to be Mike Matheson, which shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The same can be said about another important statistical category, expected goals for (xGF%). Once again, Kovacevic leads the charge, with Harris and Barron not too far behind and Matheson somewhere in the middle.

And while injuries to Guhle and Xhekaj have certainly mitigated some of the fun, there’s been a surge in production from the back end in recent games, powered by solid performances by Barron, Harris, and Matheson.

Justin Barron launches one in for the power play goal. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/cmvDqG9Woi

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 15, 2023

To put a fine point on how rare it is to ice a roster with so many rookies on the blue line, we can refer to a graphic shown by Sportsnet during Saturday’s broadcast.

Compared to the rest of the league, the Canadiens haven’t just played their rookies with more frequency, they’ve almost played their inexperienced blueliners more than the following three teams combined.

The Canadiens lead the league in games played by rookie defensemen this year. And not by a little bit. pic.twitter.com/oiPXGDqgID

— HabsLinks (@HabsLinks) February 19, 2023

It’s not ideal.

It’s not pretty.

And it’s definitely not a recommended approach.

But given all that could have gone wrong with the Canadiens this season, the mere fact that these rookies are treading water is rather impressive, and a very encouraging sign for a young team that is searching for its identity during a franchise-defining rebuild.