Finding A Late-Season Canadiens Role For Oliver Kapanen

Now that the Montreal Canadiens have decided to send Oliver Kapanen to the NHL rather than the AHL, the team will have to find a role for the 21-year-old centre.

However, given the Habs are currently embroiled in a hard-fought playoff race, there’s very little margin for error when it comes to adding new players in the mix. For the record, Kapanen will not play on Thursday as the Habs prepare to face the Bruins.

Even though Kapanen enjoyed a very solid season in the SHL for Timra IK, which led to 15 goals and 20 assists in 36 games, he’s not yet acclimatized to his new settings. Not only does he have to learn the playbook as quickly as possible, he has to form instant chemistry with his linemates. He’s also dealing with a new coach, a new arena, a new country, and a new city, among other things.

Fortunately, Kapanen has a little experience in that regard, as he spent 12 games with the Habs earlier in the season.

Things have changed significantly since then, and it would be a little unfair to expect Kapanen to immediately get up to speed, but on the flip side, time is running out, which means a decision will have to be made rather quickly.

Finding A Role For Oliver Kapanen

Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis is unlikely to touch his first line, as they’re the only combination that provides some semblance of consistency from an offensive standpoint.

The third line, featuring Brendan Gallagher, Christian Dvorak, and Josh Anderson, doesn’t move the needle as much as the top line, but they have formed a reasonable amount of chemistry, while offering some stability.

That leaves two lines.

Kapanen could be used on the second line, with Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine, or they could decide to place him on the fourth line in an attempt to re-ignite Jake Evans’ offensive game.

If I had to guess, St-Louis loved what he saw from his fourth line prior to the Emil Heineman injury, whereas he’s struggled to find a solution for the second line. Returning Heineman to the fourth line while giving Kapanen an audition on the second line seems like the most logical choice, but it would put a lot of pressure on a player who is already dealing with a fair amount of adversity.

Simply put, the second line has been a mess for the most part, and their 5v5 play tends to be sub-par, but I’m not convinced Kapanen is capable of stabilizing the line, due to his lack of NHL experience. The Habs have tried several different options, and all have fallen short of providing a little depth and secondary scoring to the equation.

On that note, Kapanen did play on the first line for Timra, connoting that if the Habs expect him to produce anything close to what he did in Sweden they’ll have to use him in the top six.

Current Montreal Canadiens Forward Lineup