A look at where the Canadiens' players' production could be by season's end.

By Bob Trask – With the season at the one-third mark for the Canadiens we can take a look at projected performances for the various players and you can see how they match up against your pre-season expectations. Games played are my own “guesstimates” and production estimates are extrapolated from that

NAME	GP	G	A	PTS
Nick Suzuki	82	42	45	87
Cole Caufield	82	48	36	84
Kirby Dach	82	12	45	57
Sean Monahan	73	18	32	50
Mike Matheson	63	7	35	42
Christian Dvorak	82	15	21	36
Mike Hoffman	70	24	12	36
Kaiden Guhle	82	3	30	33
Josh Anderson	75	21	6	28
Juraj Slafkovsky	72	13	13	26
Brendan Gallagher	70	10	16	26
Arber Xhekaj	75	12	12	24
Jordan Harris	69	3	18	21
David Savard	72	3	18	21
Evgenii Dadonov	60	5	8	13
Jonathan Drouin	51	0	13	13
Jonathan Kovacevic	70	3	9	12
Joel Edmundson	68	4	8	12
Jake Evans	72	0	11	11
Chris Wideman	40	0	11	11
Joel Armia	64	0	8	8
Rem Pitlick	44	4	0	4
Michael Pezzetta	42	3	0	3

One of the strengths of the Montreal Canadiens was supposed to be the balance in its lineup from top to bottom. They were supposed to have a 4th line, for instance, that other teams would ignore at the peril. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out that way and based on production to date. The bottom 5 scoring forwards are projected to score a combined 7 goals goals this year or an average of about 1.4 goals per player.

As the Canadiens look to improve next season, the obvious lack of a scoring threat from the 4th line and spare players will be one shortcoming that Kent Hughes and company will be looking to address. There are other disappointments on offense as well with Brendan Gallagher and Evgenii Dadonov falling far short of expectations but not all of the problems can be addressed at one time, mainly due to contracts that may prove to be unmovable.

Strengthening the bottom of the lineup is absolutely critical if the Canadiens hope to challenge for a playoff spot next year. In the meantime, we can watch and wait over the next couple of months or so to see which names remain on the list and which disappear.

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