Thursday Habs Headlines: Pacioretty and Gallagher are among the very best of the NHL

Montreal Canadiens news and notes

• Looking at both shots and passes that immediately result in shots, Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher appear near the top of the list of the most effective forwards./

Working my way through @RK_Stimp's primary shot contributions stat. Here's fwds most involved in offense per hour. pic.twitter.com/3JH7R6BTjc

— Sean Tierney (@SeanTierneyTss) August 24, 2016

• Phillip Danault is happy to be playing hockey close to home. So is his family. [Canadiens.com]
• Arpon Basu offers his projection of the opening-night lines for the Habs [TSN 690]
• Mark MacMillan spoke about his first season of professional hockey with the St John’s IceCaps. [Penticton Western News]
• You can bid on game-worn IceCaps jerseys to add to your collection. They won’t come cheap, however. [eBay]
• After a shoutout from the multi-talented Lil B, the Brampton Beast figure they have the upcoming ECHL season in the bag. [The Score]/

Around the league and elsewhere

• Niklas Kronwall will miss the World Cup of Hockey that starts in mid-September. The 22-year-old Hampus Lundholm will replace him. [Winging it in Motown | TSN]
• The Arizona Coyotes have hired Dawn Braid to be the team’s skating coach. She becomes the first woman to have a full-time coaching position in the NHL. [Twitter]
• The Dallas Stars signed Jiri Hudler to a very reasonable one-year deal. [Defending Big D]
• After the club stated they were looking to hire a new face as their next head coach, the Colorado Avalanche blog looks at some potential candidates to replace Patrick Roy. [Mile High Hockey]
• Some Minnesota Wild fans aren’t happy with the team’s new goal song. [Hockey Wilderness]/