When Montreal Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes went out of his way to acquire Phillip Danault from the Los Angeles Kings for a second-round pick right before the Christmas roster freeze, some wondered if that was a good move. After all, the centerman came with a $5.5 million cap hit and another year left on his contract. Was he going to get in the way of young talent’s progression?
Four months later, nobody can argue that it wasn’t an astute move from Hughes. Not only did Michael Hage elect to stay with the Michigan Wolverines for another season, but Danault played a key role in the Canadiens’ 3-2 Game 5 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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Martin St-Louis put Danault on his fourth line on Wednesday night, alongside Brendan Gallagher and Alex Newhook. He knew that wouldn’t give him that much ice time, but since both Danault and Newhook play on the penalty kill, they’d get some more ice in case of penalties and as for the centerman, he had another plan for him.
With Cole Caufield struggling to make an impact in this series, St-Louis elected to put Danault on Nick Suzuki’s line at various times during the game. For important defensive faceoffs, it’s always a plus to have two centers on, and once the Canadiens had taken the lead early in the third, Danault spent more time on the ice.
In the final frame, he played for 8:16, across seven shifts. From 16:29 onwards, he was on the ice; he didn’t get off. When the Lightning pulled their goaltender and attacked relentlessly at six-on-five, he was there, taking faceoffs, attempting to block shots and clearing pucks.
In the end, Danault spent 19:40 on the ice, landed two hits and had one takeaway while winning six of the 10 faceoffs he took. Speaking to the media after the game, Kirby Dach explained:
Phil’s been awesome for us all year. Ever since he’s come in, he’s really steadied our lineup. I mean, as a young centerman, there’s so much you learn from him, how good he is on draws and how responsible he is on the ice. He’s definitely a treat to have, his veteran leadership, his presence in the room and on the bench to kind of calm things down, and if we need a shift, he’s willing to go out there and put the puck in deep, and work to create momentum for the next line out there.
– Dach on Danault
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Dach also added that even when he’s not on the scoresheet, Danault impacts the game each and every night. What Dach described is exactly why Hughes went out of his way to get Danault, and there’s definitely no buyer’s remorse there.
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