Pacioretty poised for better season with Golden Knights, statistics show

The Vegas Golden Knights acquired left wing Max Pacioretty from the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday in exchange for forward Tomas Tatar, a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and prospect Nick Suzuki. NHL.com goes behind the numbers to analyze the impact on each team.

RELATED: [Pacioretty trade puts Golden Knights on track to win Stanley Cup | Pacioretty signs four-year extension with Vegas]

#

Golden Knights

The Golden Knights acquired a prolific goal scorer in Pacioretty, who has five 30-goal seasons in the NHL. His 158 goals in the past five seasons is the fourth most, behind Alex Ovechkin (236) of the Washington Capitals, Jamie Benn (172) of the Dallas Stars and Brad Marchand (159) of the Boston Bruins. What's perhaps most surprising about his production is that 39 of those goals during that span were on the power play. By comparison, Ovechkin has 102 power-play goals during the same span and Benn has 53.
Despite missing 18 games last season because of injury, Pacioretty finished with 15 power-play points (six goals, nine assists), two shy of his NHL career high of 17 (eight goals, nine assists), reached most recently in 2015-16. He averaged 3:06 on the power play last season, his most since 2011-12 (3:10) and the most on the Canadiens last season. Still, his low power-play shooting percentage (10.9 percent) kept him from making a bigger impact.
If Pacioretty's power-play shooting percentage reverts closer to his average during the past five seasons (16.7 percent), he could exceed his NHL career high of 10 power-play goals set in 2013-14 and make a sizeable contribution to a Golden Knights power play that finished tied for 10th in the NHL (21.4 percent).
Pacioretty has the fifth-most even-strength points (291) by an NHL left wing during the past seven seasons, 51 fewer than Benn, who leads all left wings with 342 points. Pacioretty had 21 even-strength points (10 goals, 11 assists) last season, his lowest total since he scored 16 (seven goals, nine assists) in 2010-11.
The struggles of the Canadiens at even strength last season likely impacted Pacioretty's totals. Montreal scored the second-fewest goals at even strength in the NHL with 148, behind the Buffalo Sabres (140). He'll be joining a Golden Knights team that scored the third most even-strength goals (207), giving Pacioretty the opportunity to revert toward his even-strength norm.
Pacioretty has lacked an elite center for most of his 10 seasons with the Canadiens. During the past five seasons, the most productive center on Pacioretty's line was Tomas Plekanec in 2015-16 (54 points). Statistically speaking, Pacioretty will be playing with the best center of his career in either William Karlsson (78 points in 2017-18) or Paul Stastny (53 points in 2017-18; 60 points in 2013-14).
Stastny played his best hockey with 28 points in 34 games (.82 points per game) since 2009-10 (.97) with linemates Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine after being traded to the Winnipeg Jets from the St. Louis Blues Feb. 26, 2018. His success could continue if paired with Pacioretty in Vegas.
The Golden Knights scored the fifth-most goals in the NHL last season (268, significantly more than Montreal's 207) and made the Stanley Cup Final, so Pacioretty should have the opportunity to generate points and approach his even-strength point total average (42.4) during the past five seasons.

Canadiens

Tatar, who split the season between the Detroit Red Wings and Vegas, had his lowest point total (34) since his rookie season in 2012-13 (seven points in 18 games) and played below his NHL career average of .53 points per game. After being acquired by Golden Knights Feb. 26, Tatar played mostly a third-line role (14:48) in 20 regular-season games for Vegas, but he was a healthy scratch for 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Despite having lower production at even strength, Tatar had 13 power-play points last season, his third-highest total since entering the NHL in 2010-11.
Since the Canadiens hired associate coach Kirk Muller on June 2, 2016 to help address special-teams play, their power play has improved; it was ranked No. 25 in 2015-16 (16.2 percent), No. 13 (19.7 percent) in 2016-17 and tied for No. 12 (21.2 percent) last season. The Canadiens' trade of forward Alex Galchenyuk to the Arizona Coyotes on June 15 bodes well for Tatar. Galchenyuk had NHL career highs in power-play points (24) and power-play shots (78) last season; without him on the top unit, Tatar could be counted on to fill the role of Galchenyuk.
Tatar, 27, could also see more offensive-zone starts with Montreal. He had the second lowest 5-on-5 zone-starts percentage of his NHL career (51.50) last season, meaning he started shifts in the offensive zone a little more than half of the time. During his 2014-15 NHL season, when he scored a career-best 56 points (29 goals, 27 assists), his 5-on-5 zone-starts percentage was 59.04.
Prospect Nick Suzuki (No. 13 pick in 2017 NHL Draft) finished fourth in the Ontario Hockey League with 100 points (42 goals, 58 assists) in 64 games for Owen Sound. He finished tied for third in shots on goal (282) and strengthens the Canadiens prospect pool at the center position. Suzuki, 19, also played one playoff game for Chicago of the American Hockey League last season.
With the departure of top-six forward Galchenyuk, Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (No. 3 pick in 2018 NHL Draft), another center, should be able to compete for a roster spot in training camp. The Canadiens' top two centers are Phillip Danault and Jonathan Drouin. Danault had 40 points (13 goals, 27 assists) in 2016-17. He was on pace for 39 points last season but missed 30 games because of injury and finished with 25 (eight goals, 17 assists). Drouin was converted to center after being acquired by the Canadiens from the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 15, 2017.