The signing of George Parros over the summer clears up the identity of the Montreal Canadiens thirteenth forward heading into the 2013-14 season. What still remains to be determined is who the Habs twelfth forward will be.
As the roster currently stands, Ryan White is the most experienced player vying for the Habs twelfth forward spot. He can play both center and wing, he's physical, and only Jeff Halpern had a better face-off winning percentage (among Habs centres with at least 150 faceoffs) than White last season. Dropping that face-off minimum down to at least 46 faceoffs, we see Gabriel Dumont with an impressive winning-percentage of 63%.
SHORT-HANDED
White enjoyed just over 25 minutes of short-handed ice-time last season, while Dumont spent only 2.7 minutes short-handed. White's short-handed risk/reward rating of 1.12 was second to Lars Eller among Montreal centres, while his short-handed d-touch success-rate of 74% in the defensive-zone was tops among Montreal centres.
White also averaged the most successful short-handed dump-outs per-minute played among Montreal centres, while only Lars Eller blocked more shots short-handed. Among all Montreal forwards, only Eller recovered more loose-pucks in the defensive-zone while short handed than White; another important aspect to strong penalty-killing.
OVERALL EVEN-STRENGTH
Moving to even-strength numbers, Dumont played 87 minutes at even-strength in 2013, while White played 198 minutes. Dumont engaged in 3.82 events per-minute played, and produced an even-strength risk/reward rating of 1.75. White engaged in 3.94 events per-minute played, and had an ES risk/reward rating of 1.45.
OFFENSIVE-ZONE AT EVEN-STRENGTH
In the offensive-zone, Dumont engaged in 1.71 events per-minute played, and produced an offensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.79. He had an offensive-zone o-touch success-rate of 75%, and a d-touch percentage of 74%. He completed 0.28 offensive-zone passes per-minute, and was able to get 0.29 shots through to the net. Dumont had a true-shooting-percentage (goals per-attempted shot) of 3.13%.
White engaged in 1.75 events per-minute played, and produced an offensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.48. He had an offensive-zone o-touch success-rate of only 49%, and a d-touch percentage of 79%. He completed 0.27 offensive-zone passes per-minute, and was able to get 0.08 shots through to the net. White produced a true-shooting-percentage (goals per-attempted shot) of 2.5%.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE AT EVEN-STRENGTH
Dumont engaged in 1.21 defensive-zone events per-minute played and had a defensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.57. He had a defensive-zone o-touch success-rate of 70% , and a d-zone d-touch percentage of 75%. He blocked 0.08 shots per-minute played, and recovered 0.355 defensive-zone loose-pucks per-minute played. He also produced a ratio of 4.08 defensive-zone takeaways for every 1 defensive-zone give-away.
It is important to note that White played center more than Dumont; which has a direct impact of defensive-zone responsibility and event totals. White engaged in 1.4 defensive-zone events per-minute played and had a defensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.63. He had a defensive-zone o-touch success-rate of 69% , and a d-zone d-touch percentage of 75%. He blocked 0.03 shots per-minute played, and recovered 0.403 defensive-zone loose-pucks per-minute played. He also produced a ratio of 3.22 defensive-zone takeaways for every 1 defensive-zone give-away.
NEUTRAL-ZONE AT EVEN-STRENGTH
Dumont engaged in 0.89 neutral-zone events per-minute played, and had a neutral-zone risk/reward rating of 0.39. He had a neutral-zone o-touch success-rate of 72%, and a d-touch percentage of 72%. He completed 0.33 dump-ins per-minute played, and blocked 0.03 opposition passes in the neutral-zone per-minute.
White engaged in 0.79 neutral-zone events per-minute, and produced a neutral-zone risk/reward rating of 0.33. He had an n-zone o-touch success-rate of 70%, and a neutral-zone d-touch percentage of 72%. He completed 0.25 dump-ins per-minute played, and blocked 0.04 opposition passes in the n-zone per-minute.
MOVING FORWARD
Ryan White has a clear advantage over Gabriel Dumont when it comes to NHL experience; particularly at center and killing penalties. Dumont did however, produce consistently better numbers than White at even-strength. That said, it is important to note that White faced a substantially better quality of competition than Dumont.
There are arguments to be made for both players. All told, this upcoming training camp could not be more important to both players' careers. This is their shot; this is their moment.
