The 24 year old Russian was drafted 3rd overall by Montreal in 2012, while Domi was drafted 12th overall in 2013 by Arizona.
June must be Marc Bergevin’s favourite month of the year, because it’s when he has made a major transacation three years in a row now. First, it was Subban for Weber, then it was Sergachev for Drouin, and now, Galchenyuk for Domi. The Subban trade was a huge loss for the Canadiens, the Drouin trade is too recent to determine who came out on top, and it seems most fans in Montreal have already said that the Domi trade was a bad one. Pump the brakes people! Slow down for a second. Don’t just go and search Domi’s stats and compare them with Galchenyuk’s stats. Sure, it’s one way to go about it, but it’s only looking at the trade rationally. Let’s analyze both players and see what they offer as NHL players. We’ll start with Galchenyuk.
Galchenyuk is a skilled player with a shot that can beat any goalie clean. He’s a goal scorer with a big body that can skate really well. In today’s NHL, goals come at a premium, and Galchenyuk can provide that. The only question about him is, can he score on a consistent basis? He definitely has the chance with that young core he will be playing with in Arizona, such as Clayton Keller, Dylan Strome, Christian Dvorak and Lawson Crouse. The other question for him is: will he play centre? There’s a good chance he will. Rich Tocchet, head coach for the Arizona Coyotes, is a coach who’s known for developing players to their full potential, like Steven Stamkos. If Tocchet can do the same with Galchenyuk, that would be huge for him.
Domi, on the other hand, is smaller, but faster, and comes from a hockey background. His father, Tie Domi, used to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The main difference beween Tie and Max is that Tie was a fighter and Max is a goal scoring winger with tremendous skill. His competitiveness and his edge is something the Habs can really use in their lineup. He reminds me a bit of Brad Marchand in that sense. He had a down year in Arizona and a fresh start should do the trick to get himself back on track, same goes for Galchenyuk. There has been speculation that the Habs will consider using Domi as a centre, but Marc Bergevin said that they view him more as a winger, and that won’t change. When it comes to Bergevin though, always expect the unexpected.
Considering they are two different players, it will take more time to see who really got the best out of the deal. For Bergevin and Montreal, this is the first step towards changing the attitude of the team, and Bergevin is not done yet. He still has a lot of work to do. For Arizona, they received a potential first line centre that can score goals. It will be interesting to see how both players will do in their first season with their new clubs, and what kind of impact they will have on the team.
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