Season recap: Phillip Danault

MONTREAL – With the Canadiens’ 2019-20 campaign in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look back at how it all went down for the Habs this season. Next up: Phillip Danault.

The skinny

Looking to follow up on his breakout year centering the Habs’ No. 1 line last season, Danault built off his successes pivoting Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher once again in 2019-20. The Victoriaville native matched his career high in goals (13) and enjoyed the second-best output of his career with a 47-point season, placing him second on Montreal behind Tatar. Danault was projected to edge out his 2018-19 total of 53 by one point had the current campaign been played to completion.

Danault picked up the bulk of Montreal’s faceoff work, taking 1,336 draws – tops on the Habs and sixth-most in the NHL. He won 54.5% of them, second on the team behind Nate Thompson, including 66.3% on the power play and 57.1% in the offensive zone. The 6-foot-1, 207-pounder was far and away the Habs’ plus-minus leader, posting a plus-18 differential on the season, and his 18:51 of ice time per game was second among forwards behind Ilya Kovalchuk. Ever the two-way player, Danault led all Montreal attackers with 2:31 of shorthanded action per game, and was also deployed for an average of 1:34 per contest with the man advantage. The 27-year-old scored the first goal of the game five times in 2019-20, tied with Gallagher for most on the Habs. He also finished third among Canadiens forwards in hits (119) and blocked shots (34) and was fourth in takeaways (34).

Notable numbers

Playoff punditry

With Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki offering up bigger contributions in the postseason, Danault’s versatility was put to good use. On top of producing three points (1G, 2A) in 10 games, he was Montreal’s ice time leader among forwards at 19:34 per outing. Danault was third behind only Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot in average shorthanded ice time at 4:17, and led the Habs in winning 54% of his 224 draws in the playoffs.

Goal of the year

They said it

“I love to produce and I want to continue improving my offensive game. I really liked my role the past few years. I know I’m able to get to another level, so I don’t know if I want to limit myself to just a defensive role. I want to improve every year.” -Danault, in an end-of-season conference call with the media in August