Montreal Canadiens' captain Nick Suzuki is playing great on both sides of the puck and the NHL is starting to take note.
In Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki picked up a couple of points, which took him to an even 80 points on the season. With 15 games remaining, and if he keeps up the same scoring pace, he could set a new career high of 98 points.
As things stand, he’s in the top ten in points across the league. It’s been a long time since a Canadiens player has been in that position. What’s even more impressive, though, is how defensively sound he is. He’s currently sporting a plus-27 rating, which is the sixth highest amongst forwards, tied with Tampa Bay Lightning’s and Selke Trophy finalist in 2024-25, Anthony Cirelli.
At the Olympics, coach John Cooper called Suzuki a Swiss Army knife kind of player, the kind that can do anything you ask them to do on both sides of the puck, and the world has taken notice. With multiple-time Selke winner Aleksander Barkov not playing this season, the race for the Selke is wide open, and it could potentially be Suzuki’s year.
Last year, the centerman finished 13th in voting for the coveted trophy awarded to the most defensively sound forward. He had put up 89 points and had a plus-19 rating, and he has improved leaps and bounds since then. Of course, the fact that he doesn’t really play on the penalty kill is not great for his hopes to win the trophy, but anyone who has watched him play closely will tell you that it doesn’t get much more defensively sound than that. He leads by example on the ice and never hesitates to block shots and puts his body on the line to do so.
The 26-year-old is under contract with the Canadiens for another four years, and given the fact that he’s been improving year after year, it’s easy to think that we’ve yet to see the captain’s ceiling. He might not win the trophy this season, but it certainly seems like he will one day.
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