Players

C · Carolina Hurricanes

Eighty points, and the hundredth percentile in shot attempts while he was out there.

G · New Jersey Devils

A .903 in front of a club that could not score, and a .887 finish.

RW · Ottawa Senators

Fifty-four per cent of his shots from eighteen feet, from a fourth-round pick.

G · Edmonton Oilers

One of the most efficient goaltenders of his generation, now thirty-six, coming off the worst save percentage of his career.

RW · Montréal Canadiens

Six-foot-three, 226 pounds, and one of the fastest players on the team, which somehow keeps adding up to fourteen goals.

D · Los Angeles Kings

A fourth-round pick who quietly plays the hardest defensive minutes on the team and produces almost nothing, on purpose.

G · Nashville Predators

Stopped .938 over his last ten, behind the twenty-seventh-best defence in the league.

C · Detroit Red Wings

Four hundred and sixty-five games, and the fifth percentile.

RW · Los Angeles Kings

A big Finnish winger who kills penalties, disappears for a month at a time, and then scores three goals in a week.

LW · Detroit Red Wings

Five foot ten, twenty-five goals, and plus-twenty on a club that was minus-seventeen.

D · Boston Bruins

Plus-thirty as an undrafted rookie at twenty-seven, and a five-on-five record that says he broke even.

C · Dallas Stars

Two-thirds of his shots from inside twenty feet, and a median of fifteen.

C · Calgary Flames

Eleven hundred and forty-eight games, and still first over the boards against the other team's best.

D · Calgary Flames

Twenty-two minutes a night, and the eleventh percentile to show for them.

D · Florida Panthers

Undrafted out of Latvia, and twenty goals of bad luck in seven hundred and seventy minutes.

C · Colorado Avalanche

A seventh-round Russian who arrived at twenty-four and played sixty games without anyone noticing.

C · Florida Panthers

He does not appear anywhere in last season, because he did not play a minute of it.

D · Nashville Predators

A first-round pick on his third club, and no goals in fifty-two games.

C · Winnipeg Jets

A six-foot-four Cornell graduate who kills penalties and has quietly become a fixture on the fourth line.

C · New York Islanders

Fifty-three assists, and a club that could not finish them.

RW · Ottawa Senators

Thirty-three goals from a fourth-round pick, and the ninety-fourth percentile.

D · New York Islanders

Two hundred and seventy-five games, and none in the last two seasons.

C · Chicago Blackhawks

Seventy-five points at twenty, on the worst offensive team in the league.

C · Florida Panthers

A first-round pick, six foot three, and twenty-eight points in a hundred and sixty-five games.

RW · Montréal Canadiens

Thirty-five years old, undrafted, and finally getting a real run of NHL games.

LW · Dallas Stars

Twelve hundred and fifty-two games, nine hundred and ninety-two points, and eight to go.

C · Florida Panthers

Eighty-two penalty minutes, twenty-six goals, and the player other teams complain about in June.

LW · Buffalo Sabres

Five foot ten, a hundred and seventy-seven pounds, and he does his shooting from thirteen feet.

D · Detroit Red Wings

Two hundred and seven games, twenty-nine points, and the twelfth percentile.

LW · Chicago Blackhawks

Thirty-two goals from a median of thirteen feet, which is the shortest in this book.

D · Dallas Stars

Six foot seven, two hundred and thirty-seven pounds, twenty-one years old.

RW · New York Rangers

Nine power-play goals, and a hundred and seventy-five pounds.

C · Dallas Stars

Five foot eight, a hundred and ninety-fourth overall, and three hundred and sixty-eight NHL games.

G · Colorado Avalanche

A big goaltender with a long history of carrying bad teams, finally on a good one.

RW · Carolina Hurricanes

A fourth-round pick with fifty-three points, shooting from eighteen feet.

D · Minnesota Wild

Eighteen years on from being the third pick, still playing a hard fourteen minutes and hitting everything that moves.

RW · Montréal Canadiens

A first-round pick on his second organisation, still looking for the role that fits him.

LW · Minnesota Wild

A big, skilled winger who took the leap last season and is now the second thing opponents have to plan for.

D · Boston Bruins

Sixteenth percentile in shot attempts, twentieth in expected goals, and eighteen minutes a night regardless.

D · Edmonton Oilers

A 95-point defenseman with the hardest shot on the team and a turnover in him that will take a year off your life.

C · Nashville Predators

Twenty goals as a rookie, and the ninety-first percentile behind them.

LW · New Jersey Devils

The ninety-second percentile, sixty-one expected goals for, and thirty-eight actual ones.

C · Colorado Avalanche

Five-foot-eight, twenty-one years old, and already holding down an NHL job on a contender.

RW · Minnesota Wild

Five-foot-eight, no speed to speak of, and he keeps producing anyway.

D · Minnesota Wild

The quietest good defenceman in the league, and the one this team can least afford to lose.

RW · New Jersey Devils

Eighteen goals from a median of twenty-one feet, at thirty-two.

D · Detroit Red Wings

Five foot nine, three hundred and four games, and the fifty-first percentile.

D · Calgary Flames

Thirty-four games at twenty-one, and nothing yet that says which way it goes.

LW · Ottawa Senators

Minus thirty-two, and the seventeenth percentile to go with it.

D · Colorado Avalanche

Forty-one years old, 1,579 games, and he was plus-thirty-three playing nineteen minutes a night.

D · Dallas Stars

Thirty-nine penalty minutes in under eight minutes a night.

G · Carolina Hurricanes

Thirty-one wins in thirty-nine games, on a .894, which tells you everything about the team in front of him.

RW · Los Angeles Kings

Six-five, 230 pounds, and skates like a winger half his size — the question has always been what he does with it.

D · Chicago Blackhawks

Twenty-two minutes a night, forty-two points, and the only defenceman here whose numbers are average.

D · Dallas Stars

A hundred and seven games across eight seasons, and not one shot from inside twenty feet.

C · Anaheim Ducks

The centre the rebuild was for, and last season he started looking like it.

C · Buffalo Sabres

Six goals in his last ten games, at thirty-four, in ten minutes a night.

D · Montréal Canadiens

An undersized right-shot defenceman who plays nineteen honest minutes and asks for nothing.

LW · Carolina Hurricanes

Ten and three-quarter minutes a night, and half his shots from inside twenty feet.

RW · Montréal Canadiens

Five-foot-eight, and he just scored fifty-one goals.