FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 42 is Montreal Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov. Pop quiz: Who was the second highest scoring defensemen in the NHL this past season? Nicklas Lidstrom? Zdeno Chara? Dion Phaneuf? Good guess. Nice Try. Not even close. The answer? Montreal's Andrei Markov with 68 points.
The 30-year-old has been one of Montreal's top players the past four years, and trailed Alexei Kovalev by just a single point for the team lead in scoring in 2008-09, registering a team-high 39 points on the power play.
The NHL's Top 50 Players: See the Entire List
Despite Markov's presence as the quarterback with the man advantage, Montreal's power play plummeted down the rankings in the first half of the season. After finishing 2007-08 with the top unit in the league (by a wide margin), the Canadiens found themselves in the bottom third of the league for much of the season due in large part to the absence of Mark Streit's cannon from the point.
The in-season acquisition of Mathieu Schneider from Atlanta gave the ailing unit a shot in the arm, as it quickly climbed up to the top half of the league, finishing 13th with a 19 percent success rate. Unfortunately, Markov missed the final four games of the regular season -- and all four playoff games -- due to injury, as the Canadiens lost all eight games, scoring just three power play goals.
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Draft Year: 1998
The 162nd overall pick, Markov was part of a relatively strong sixth-round that included Trent Hunter, Chris Neil, Ales Kotalik, Kent Huskins, Antero Niittymaki and Pavel Datsyuk.
Why He's On My List
While he's prone to the occasional turnover at the wrong time, Markov is still more than capable in his own end, and one of the elite defensemen in the league when it comes to leading a power play and providing offense from the blue line. As I already mentioned, he trailed only Washington's Mike Green in terms of points for defensemen this past season, and he led all blue-liners with 52 assists. He's probably at his peak right now in terms of performance, but his production has improved the past three years.
Obligatory YouTube Video
It's bizarre tributes like this that made me add this section to these profiles.
