Alex Galchenyuk

Galchenyuk struggled to 24 points in 59 contests split between the Penguins and the Wild last year. He never really clicked with the Penguins' top players, but he averaged 0.5 points per game after he was shipped to Minnesota, suggesting that he could rebound in 2020-21. With the Senators' relative lack of proven scoring talent, Galchenyuk will have a great chance to secure a top-six role, but he may need to generate his own scoring chances. Look for the 26-year-old to challenge for a 30-point output, with the potential of plenty of power-play time giving him a fairly high floor. Fantasy managers will want to have a plan to offset what will likely be a bad plus-minus year for Galchenyuk, however.

For the second year in a row, Galchenyuk will don a new sweater in October, as the Coyotes flipped him to the Penguins in exchange for Phil Kessel in a four-player deal. In his lone season in the desert, Galchenyuk had a team-leading 19 goals as well as 41 points. He had 21 points with the man advantage, and joins the Penguins' fifth-ranked power-play unit from last season. Galchenyuk will almost assuredly skate on either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin's wing throughout the year, which should be enough to push him past his career high of 56 points set in 2015-16 with the Canadiens. Don't get caught sleeping on the 25-year-old winger in drafts this year.

Galchenyuk's six-year tenure with the Habs came to a close in June when he was shipped off in a 1-for-1 trade for Max Domi. Once he returns from a lower-body injury sustained in training camp, it's expected that Chucky will move from right wing to center while reprising his role as a top-six contributor for Arizona. The Wisconsin native has averaged 0.62 points in his NHL career and has been a perennial power-play weapon to boot. Last season, the Coyotes and Canadiens were on the same level offensively, which is enough reason to hedge against a full-on breakout campaign for Galchenyuk, though the pieces are in place for the American winger to potentially lead the team in assists after he registered a career-high 32 in 2017-18. Already sitting on a high floor in the fantasy realm, Galchenyuk's shooting percentage should draw closer to the mean (12.4) following his substandard 8.9 conversion rate last season.

Having notched a career-high 30 goals in 2015-16, Galchenyuk was met with inflated expectations ahead of a new season. Montreal’s 2012 third overall draft pick responded with 23 points in the first 25 games, having made a strong case to stick as a top-line NHL center. He did have woeful faceoff numbers (42.7 winning percent) and a sketchy two-way game, but inspired play within the attacking zone made up for it. Unfortunately, a December knee injury shelved him for six weeks and lingered upon his return. Galchenyuk was eventually replaced on the top line by Phillip Danault, and he started getting bottom-six minutes following the coaching change to Claude Julien. The 23-year-old has been yanked between wing and center, which has slowed his development and consequently frustrated the organization. He may begin the season on the wing, where he can focus on scoring goals, but it’s unlikely that the experiment at center is over. The hope is that a full training camp with Julien should land Galchenyuk in a comfortable spot, preferably as a top-six forward.

Galchenyuk had a breakout year in 2015-16, reaching the 30-goal mark for the first time. And it didn’t really get going until March, when head coach Michel Therrien made him the top-line center beside Max Pacioretty and eventually Brendan Gallagher. The 2012 No. 3 overall pick produced 16 goals and 22 points in the season’s final 22 games. Deployment has always been an impeding factor in the development of the young forward, whose previous experiments at center were quickly aborted by Therrien. The coach has had Galchenyuk on simmer since entering the league, whether by handcuffing him to third-line duty with less skilled forwards, marginalizing him to the wing, or simply limiting his minutes. Even during last year’s breakout, he skated less at even strength than in the previous season. Thankfully, Galchenyuk also averaged the fourth-most power-play time among forwards, and he scored nearly a third of his goals in those situations. There are deficiencies in his game on the defensive end, but the coach needs to get past that. He should be expected to remain the Habs’ top center, especially for fantasy purposes.

Galchenyuk suited up for 80 NHL games for the first time last year at age 20, and the results were terrific. Granted more responsibility, he saw a rise in production, hitting 20 goals for the first of what should be many times in his career and tallying 46 points overall. The No. 3 pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Galchenyuk is well on his way to becoming a franchise player for the Habs, and this could be the year that he makes the leap to elite status. It remains to be seen whether he ultimately remains at left wing or returns to center, but either way, Galchenyuk should be in for another spike in fantasy value as he continues to gain the strength and stamina he needs to deal with the rigors of the NHL season and avoid those late-season dry spells he's been prone to falling into.

Galchenyuk suffered a couple of injuries in 2013-14 and was limited to 65 games. We were looking for some growth out of him coming off a promising rookie season, but he continued to make young-player mistakes. Most notably, Galchenyuk tended to have lapses in his own end, and he experienced a steep scoring drop-off after a strong start to the season. There's a ton of offensive talent wrapped up in the 21-year-old, so the Canadiens will be patient as he learns to be a more consistent contributor. There's been talk of a move to his natural center position, but the Habs are deep up the middle. The loss of Brian Gionta opens up a wing spot on the second line and Galchenyuk is an obvious choice to replace him, but coach Michel Therrien is not about to hand him the position unconditionally.

Galchenyuk, 19, scored 27 points in 48 games as a rookie in 2012-13. Having the high-prized prospect on the opening-night roster was a way for the Canadiens to excite the fan base before returning him to the juniors, but Galchenyuk showed enough and produced enough early on to show that he belonged in the NHL. There were many learning moments and some significant scoring droughts, but the experience will make the kid a better player this season. He'll be a top-nine forward to open the season with potential to move up.

The third overall pick in this past June's draft, Galchenyuk played just two games for the OHL's Sarnia Sting last year due to a knee injury, but the talented pivot snagged 31 goals and 83 points two seasons ago in the OHL. He'll turn 19 in February, but did sign a three-year entry level contract with the Habs in July. Odds are, Montreal will give him at least a piece of the requisite 10-game look that players still in juniors are allowed, but he's definitely a player worth remembering when he lands at the NHL level.