An unexpected visit

Quebecers in the NHL: It’s very thin this season

No Quebecer is participating in the National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Weekend this year, and the top scorers column partially explains the reality, with players from here virtually excluded.

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With the Bettman Tour holding its skill show and annual classic at the Florida Panthers’ home stadium, the top 100 points-scoring players of 2022-2023 are revealing: Only two skaters from La Belle Province find themselves there. They are the Winnipeg Jets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois and Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron.

The first of them holds 29th place thanks to his 22 goals and 30 assists for 52 points in as many games. In second place, he ranks 91st with 38 points, including 18 goals, in 51 duels. Behind the two men are Phillip Danault (36), Jonathan Huberdeau (33), Jonathan Marchessault (32) and Yanni Gourde (32) respectively 103rd, 123rd, 132nd and 134th in the NHL.

In the last regular calendar, Huberdeau (115) finished third in the race for the Art Ross trophy and was the only Quebecer to make the top 50. However, a few other fleur-de-lis skaters made the top 100: Kristopher Letang, Marchessault, Bergeron, Dubois, Anthony Duclair, and David Perron finished 57th, 62nd, 64th, 80th, 89th, and 96th, respectively.

The last season without Quebecers in the top 50 was 2016-17, when Jonathan Drouin, then with the Tampa Bay Lightning, was the province’s best offense, amassing 53 points and finishing 77th.

few guards

On the web, the representatives from here can be summed up by two names: Marc-André Fleury and Samuel Montembeault. You have good stats but are not worthy of an NHL star. At the Minnesota Wild, Fleury went against average with a 16-10-3 record, 2.87 goals, and a .905 percent save rate. For his part, the Montreal Canadiens goaltender maintained a respectable 10-10-2 record as well as odds of .909 and a 3.19 average despite his club’s troubles.

In 2021-22, seven Quebec-born men have played at least one league game, including Fleury and Montembeault. The others were Jonathan Bernier, Maxime Lagacé, Louis Domingue, Zachary Fucale and Jean-François Bérubé. Apart from Bernier, who has been out for more than a year with a hip injury, they have played in the American League this season.