In the span of 12 months David Desharnais has gone from a small centreman seeking his first one-way contract, to the Montreal Canadiens number one offensive-centre. Desharnais is a great puck-distributor, who has been helped by both the emergence of Max Pacioretty, and the arrival of Erik Cole. Desharnais' risk/reward is carried by his play when he has possession of the puck. He has the top success-rate for events requiring him to maintain puck-possession, as well as the top offensive-zone passing-percentage.
REFERENCE POINTS
These averages have been calculated over hundreds of games and approximately 2000 individual scouting reports:
Average grade: 67
Average ratio: 2.03
Average risk/reward: 1.31
Average offensive-zone risk/reward: 0.30
Average defensive-zone risk/reward: 0.62
Average neutral-zone risk/reward: 0.30
Desharnais has the fourth-best overall grade (69) among Canadiens forwards. His overall risk/reward rating of 1.26 is fifth-best among forwards, while his even-strength ratio is actually thirteenth among forwards and equal to the team average. Desharnais has produced an above-average overall risk/reward in 26 games this season, and has shown a slight improvement as the season has worn on. In fact, he has produced above-average ratings in 10 of the last 16 games.
He has a success-rate of 69% when engaging in plays the require him to obtain or remove puck-possession from the opposition; these plays in include puck-battles, blocked passes, etc. As previously mentioned, he is the Habs best forward when in possession of the puck, as his success-rate for plays involving him to maintain puck-possession is a team-best 65%; these plays include passes, dekes, and shots on-net.
POWERPLAY
Desharnais has the second-best powerplay risk/reward (2.16) among forwards with substantial powerplay time. He wins only 50% of his powerplay puck-battles in the offensive-zone, but is successful with an incredible 80% of his PP passes. He also gets 67% of his shot-attempts on-net.
PENALTY KILL
Desharnais only has 29 minutes of short-handed ice-time this season. In those minutes he has produced a solid PK risk/reward rating of 0.73. He has won only 50% of his PK puck-battles, but has completed 80% of his short-handed pass-attempts, and 83% of his attempts to dump the puck out of the defensive-zone.
OFFENSIVE-ZONE
Desharnais has the seventh-best offensive-zone risk/reward rating (0.40) among forwards at even-strength, and an o-zone ratio of 1.69 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He wins only 45% of his o-zone puck-battles, and is successful with 64% of his offensive-zone pass-attempts; best among forwards. He is successful with 54% of his attempts to beat opposition players 1on1 (deke), and gets 61% of his attempted shots on-net.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE
Desharnais has the seventh-best defensive-zone risk/reward rating (0.40) among forwards at even-strength; exactly the same rating as he has in the offensive-zone, and a d-zone ratio of 2.12 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He wins 54% of his defensive-zone puck-battles, which is equal to the team-average. He is successful with 72% of his d-zone pass-attempts, but only 50% of his attempts to beat opposing players 1on1 (deke). He has the third-most blocked shots (33) among forwards, and the third-most intercepted passes (63) among forwards.
NEUTRAL-ZONE
Desharnais has only the fourteenth-best neutral-zone risk/reward rating (0.22) among forwards at even-strength, and has a neutral-zone ratio of 2.03 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He is successful with 54% of his neutral-zone puck-battles, and 70% of his neutral-zone pass-attempts. His rating is hurt by a below-average success-rate (74%) when attempting to dump the puck deep into the offensive-zone. He has recovered 81 loose-pucks in the neutral-zone, and has intercepted 63 opposition passes.
