By the Numbers: Brandon Montour 

On July 1, Kraken general manager Ron Francis announced that he had signed defender and Stanley Cup champion (2024, Florida Panthers) Brandon Montour to a seven-year deal with Seattle. A strong skater who can play big minutes, the 30-year-old knows what it takes to play fast and feed offense from defense. With the Kraken, he is expected to continue to see significant time both at even strength and on the power play.

You’ve heard about his strong skating, his stellar 73-point season (16-57-73, 2022-23) and his ability to play a whopping 23:26 ice time per game (25th among NHL skaters), including 3:54 of power play time per game (13th most in the league). But what should we know about what Montour can bring on the ice beyond a quick glance at point totals and the championship pedigree?

Let’s dig in.

Stop (the opponent) and then Go

The Kraken are at their best when their defense doesn’t just stop opponents’ attack, it quickly gains possession and becomes the jump start that moves the puck up the ice for an offensive push from Seattle skaters.

This won’t be anything new to Montour.

According to Corey Sznajder’s All Three Zones project, when it comes to getting the puck away from the other team, Montour has strong forechecking ability – effectively pressuring opponents when they are in the offensive zone. The blueliner also delivered 5.65 hits per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play last year (per Evolving-Hockey.com) - almost one hit more than he took – putting him in the top two of Florida defenders in terms of hits plus-minus and top three among the Kraken last year.

And once he got the puck loose – via those pressures or hits - Montour knew what to do there, too. Last year, the Brantford, ONT native ranked among the best in successful puck retrievals that led to zone exits (per All Three Zones), and Sportlogiq ranked him 43rd (among 274 defensemen with at least 100 minutes of even strength time) in loose puck recoveries in the defensive zone. No Seattle or Florida blueliner ranked higher.

Watch here how Montour (FLA 62) perfectly uses a shoulder check to read the oncoming forecheck by Montreal and then uses body and stick positioning to protect space, allowing him to ultimately get the puck up to his teammate. After that, Florida is able to effectively transition to the offensive zone and begin their own attack.

Montour can also contribute on the other end of the transition game. Last season, his success rate when it came to entering the zone and generating a play after was a healthy 57.1-percent.

Here, Montour isn’t doing the work to get the puck he’s in support of the play on the breakout. He uses his skating ability to take advantage of the fact that Colorado is changing, move up the ice and get a shot off that creates a little bit of follow up net front chaos for good measure.

Here, it all comes together as Montour leads on the exit, joins the rush, and then follows a shot to the net to capitalize on the rebound.

Powered Up

Another area to look for Montour to have an impact is on the power play. Here, too, he can play big minutes when called upon and last season, Montour generated 17 points with the skater advantage (that’s one more point than Vince Dunn, however Montour played in seven more games).

His ability to not just run a power play from the point, but also move around the formation to challenge opponent’s penalty kills is part of what helped him tilt the ice significantly for his team last year.

Watch as Montour starts high in the zone and then sinks down to the left flank to challenge Buffalo from there.

We see even more movement when Florida had a 4-on-3 versus Los Angeles and Montour is able to shift from the point, to the left flank and then to the right.

Making it Count

All in all, last season, in 5-on-5 play, in Montour’s team leading 17:33, he was able to tilt the ice for his team. The Panthers generated 53.9-percent of all shot quality and 56.2-percent of all shot volume. Both measures rank as the best among all Kraken and Panthers defensemen (per Evolving-Hockey.com).

And while Montour’s point totals last season (8-25-33) were down from the career-high two years ago, it’s worth noting that the defender played 14 fewer games after undergoing off-season shoulder surgery in 2023. He also suffered from the second-lowest shooting percentage of his NHL career. His expected goal total based on shot quality was 3.1 higher than what he actually notched (according to Sportlogiq), so some positive regression is fair to expect.

One thing to be sure about with Brandon Montour... as he slots into the Kraken defense, he improves it by being able to contribute on the scoresheet; take on big assignments defensively; and execute the details of the game in all areas of play that lead to success.

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