One of the biggest questions surrounding Alex Galchenyuk during his days as a member of the Montreal Canadiens was whether or not he could finally stick at the centre position.
Former head coach Michel Therrien never fully trusted the forward’s two-way game enough to make him a full-time centreman, and Claude Julien, had even less patience for Galchenyuk’s perceived defensive weaknesses.
Now with a fresh start upon him following Friday night’s trade to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for another versatile forward in Max Domi, Galchenyuk might finally be able to shed the “winger” from his “winger/centre” designation.
Coyotes general manager John Chayka believes that’s the case, and said as much during a conference call that followed the transaction.
“Our thesis on it is he has the ability [to play centre] and we think that he has natural tendencies that lend itself to that,” Chayka told reporters Friday. “We feel, just based off of our research and what we’ve looked at, that he has the capacity to do it.”
Like many of his now-former Canadiens teammates, Galchenyuk has struggled to find consistency over the course of his six NHL seasons, giving fans glimpses of brilliance at both positions as one of the lone bright spots of a dismal 2015-16 season that saw him reach 30 goals for the first time in his career.
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“I think versatility is valuable. I think having depth at that position and having players who can play that position is something that we desired in this trade,” said Chayka, who targeted the centre position last June, too, with the acquisition of Derek Stepan from the New York Rangers. “He’s had success playing the centre position. I don’t think we’d make this trade if we didn’t think he had the ability to play centre.”
Galchenyuk made great strides on the scoresheet in 2017-18, too, shedding his early-season struggles to finish the year with 19 goals and 32 assists for 51 points in another year that didn’t give Montreal hockey fans much to cheer about.
“We were looking for a guy that could score some goals for us and we were looking for someone that has some versatility and some experience playing up the middle and give us some depth in that position,” Chayka said, adding that Glachenyuk “checks all those boxes.”
“When you start going through the league and you look at players that have produced at the level he has, at the age he has and at that price point, we looked at all these different things and, quite frankly, there’s very few of these guys,” Chayka continued. “So, obviously you have to give to get in this league and Max is a very talented young player in his own right. Hopefully it’s one of those things where the fit works on both sides and works for everybody.”
