Meet The Newbie: Denis Gurianov

By JD Lagrange – The Montreal Canadiens have made their first move prior to this year’s trade deadline when they have announced having traded veteran winger and pending UFA Evgenii Dadonov to the Dallas Stars. In return, Montreal receives winger Denis Gurianov. The Canadiens will retain half of Dadonov’s salary until the end of the season.

Who is Gurianov?

AGE	25	DRAFT	12th overall 2015	POSITION	LW/RW	SHOOTS	Left
HEIGHT	6’3″	WEIGHT	205	CAP HIT	$2.9M – RFA
GP	43	GOALS	2	ASSISTS	7	POINTS	9

Gurianov was the 12th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft so he has/had potential. He has good size, skates well and he has very good scoring instincts. When he is at his best, he goes to the net with authority and finishes plays well thanks to a quick, accurate shot. The issue is that he prefers the perimeter and doesn’t use his body enough. Definitely NOT a physical player, he tends to disappear for long periods of time. So his problem continues to be consistency; he is one of those players who does not help his team a lot when he is not putting points on the board.

Comparable: I personally compare him to Joel Armia, but he’s not as good defensively as the big Finn. Skilled winger with size, good skater, he shows flashes of brilliance and brings your hopes up… only to disappear again. Statistically speaking though, he compares mostly to… Michael Pezzetta!

Stats comparables on the Habs

CATEGORY	STATS	COMPARABLE
GOALS	2	Evans
POINTS	9	Pezzetta
PTS/GP	0.21	Pezzetta
TOI/GP	12:08	Slafkovsky, Pitlick
PP TOI/GP	1:06	Harvey-Pinard, Ylönen
PK TOI/GP	0:00	–
HITS	23	Evans, Drouin
GvA	17	Anderson, Pitlick
TkA	11	Hoffman
BkS	17	Pezzetta, Hoffman

With that said, you can throw all comparatives and stats aside and we can only hope that Gurianov will be able to find his game under Martin St-Louis, and with the coaching of Adam Nicholas. With all of the Canadiens’ injuries, he should be getting a fair chance to show what he can do as right now, at $2.9 million on the cap, he is grossly overpaid.

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