Passing is THE key element in puck-movement and puck-possession. It is the most efficient way to move the puck out of the defensive-zone while maintaining possession, and it is the most efficient way to create scoring chances in the offensive-zone.
Below is a graph communicating the passing success-rate for every player that has played for the Montreal Canadiens this season. Every pass-attempt this season has been tracked and tabulated in order to produce these results.
Among forwards with significant playing time, David Desharnias has the best success-rate when attempting a pass in the offensive-zone. Desharnais completes 65% of his o-zone passes. Only Aaron Palushaj has a better percentage. That said, Palushaj has a limited amount of pass-attempts this season.Other forwards with success-rates above 60% in the offensive-zone include Tomas Plekanec, Mathieu Darche and Louis Leblanc. Newcomer Rene Bourque has the lowest offensive-zone passing-percentage, however there is still a limited amount of data for Bourque. Among forwards with significant pass-attempts, Brian Gionta has the lowest success-rate. The only other forward with an offensive-zone passing success-rate below 55% is Andrei Kostitsyn.
Chris Campoli and Tomas Kaberle have the top offensive-zone passing-percentage among defensemen, as both d-men have completed 75% of their o-zone passes. Alexei Emelin has the lowest o-zone passing-percentage among d-men at 60%; four percentage points below PK Subban.
Among players with significant events, Scott Gomez has the highest neutral-zone passing percentage. Gomez completes an impressive 82% of his neutral-zone passes. Other forwards with neutral-zone passing-percentages above 80% include Plekanec, Bourque, Palushaj and Andreas Engqvist. Although the latter three players have limited events.
Max Pacioretty has the lowest neutral-zone passing percentage (60%) among forward with significant ice-time, and is the only regularly-used forward with a lower n-zone passing-percentage than former Canadien Mike Cammalleri. Other forwards with n-zone passing-percentages below 65% include Petteri Nokelainen, Michael Blunden and Leblanc.
Tomas Kaberle has the best neutral-zone passing-percentage among defensemen. One percentage-point better than former Hab Jaroslav Spacek. Emelin and Yannick Weber have the lowest n-zone passing percentages among d-men.
Scott Gomez has the best defensive-zone passing-percentage on the Montreal Canadiens this season; this includes both forwards and defensemen. Gomez completes 82% of his d-zone passes. Bourque actually has a better success-rate (90%), but has attempted only 22 d-zone passes with Montreal this season. Other forwards with d-zone passing-percentages above 70% include Cammalleri, Nokelainen, Desharnais, Palushaj, and Lars Eller. Mathieu Darche and Blunden are the only forwards with d-zone passing-percentages below 55%.
Tomas Kaberle makes it a clean sweep, as he also has the best defensive-zone passing-percentage among the defensemen who have played with Montreal this season. Kaberle completes 77% of his d-zone passes. Other d-men with success-rates above 73% include Gorges and Subban. Emelin has the lowest d-zone passing-percentage, as he completes only 67% of his d-zone passes.
A QUICK RECAP
Desharnais and Kaberle are the most successful passers in the offensive-zone, while Gomez and Kaberle are the top passers in the neutral and defensive-zones. Emelin has the lowest success-rate among regularly-used defensemen in all three zones.
