At five-feet, nine inches tall and weighing just 184 pounds, Brendan Gallagher may not look like a professional hockey player off the ice, but it's what he does when he is on the ice that leaves no doubt in the eyes of the critics.
Quite simply, Gallagher is a spark plug for his team. He's a guy who never takes a night off or mails it in. He will give you a concerted two-way effort every single night and, as GM Marc Bergevin notes, "he drags his teammates to the fight".
"Gally: low-maintenance, high return," Bergevin said. "Every night, every shift, you know what you're getting and it's 150 per cent every night, every shift."
Unlike other undersized athletes, who seem to use comments about their size (or lack thereof) from detractors to fuel them, Gallagher chooses to take a more positive approach to how he finds his motivation to get in there and grind every single shift.
"People say they get motivation from people saying you're too small or you can't do that," Gallagher said. "That's never really affected me in one way or the other. There's been so many people who have helped me along the way, I take a lot of pride in making sure that their belief goes somewhere.
"They put a lot of trust in me, a lot of belief in me, and I just want to make sure that I'm proving them right rather than proving the naysayers wrong."
A former 5th round draft pick (147th in 2010), Gallagher has never let his size or his draft status dictate how he performs out on the ice. Through 524 career NHL games, Gallagher has registered 319 points with 295 penalty minutes to show that he is not afraid to get his hands dirty in the process. He truly is a player who works for everything he has, even though he is often punching out of his weight class.
"I guess my growth spurt might still come," Gallagher said. "But you try and get better at other aspects of the game and do what you've always done.
"I've always been a responsible player, I've always found ways to contribute just trying to do the same things regardless of what level you're playing at."
Gallagher, a bit of a jester by nature, has no qualms with being an undersized player and he just may be one of the better ones out there. He certainly has a great attitude, and that is something you just cannot teach.
"I enjoy what I do, I have fun with it. I understand I'm not going to grow. That part I can't change".
Gallagher, currently sits first in Habs scoring with 15 goals and third in points with 28.
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