Veteran alternate captain Brendan Gallagher had quite an eventful season for the Montreal Canadiens. On the ice, he seemed to finally find the right chair for himself in the later stages of his career, and off the ice, he became a dad and lost his mother Della to cancer. One thing remained constant through the highs and lows: his effort and dedication for the team that drafted him 147th overall at the 2010 draft.
For the first time since the 2018-19 campaign, the right winger remained healthy all through the year and was able to wear the Sainte-Flanelle for all 82 games. That in itself is an accomplishment for the 33-year-old, who has now played 833 games as a member of the Tricolore, the 20th highest total in franchise history.
The 21 goals he scored this season also made him the 15th most prolific goal scorer in franchise history with 239 lamp-lighters, just four short of Mats Naslund in 14th place. His 17 assists allowed him to leapfrog former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty to reach 39th place with 225 helpers. He wasn’t the only one to pass Pacioretty in that department, though. Nick Suzuki’s 59 apples gave him a total of 237, good for 36th place in the team’s history.
If the offensive production allowed Gallagher to climb up in the Canadiens’ record book, his 38 points weren’t the kind of output you expect from a player who’s earning $6.5 M a year, even though they were an improvement compared to the 2023-24 campaign in which he could only muster 31.
Some will be shocked to realize he only put up seven more points, considering how much better he played, but that’s just because there’s more to hockey than offensive production. While his 21 goals (third most on the Habs) were a big help for the team, his most significant contribution was how efficient the line he formed with Josh Anderson and Christian Dvorak was.
Gallagher improved to a minus-six this year from a minus-24 rating in the previous season, thanks to how committed his whole line was to forechecking and working hard on the other side of the puck. It took some time, but the veteran now looks perfectly comfortable in the role coach Martin St-Louis cast him in.
On top of that, his leadership was once again clutch for this group of youngsters and essential in the culture that Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton, and St-Louis have worked so hard to implement in Montreal. For all these reasons, I think he fully deserves a B for his performance this year. Gallagher now has two years left in his six-year pact, and I don’t expect him to go anywhere for now; he’s still a key part of this team.
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