Alexander Holtz

Last Season

Three goals and six assists in 28 games — nine points, minus-one, at 11:29 a night with ten penalty minutes.

Fifty-five points in 191 career games.

The Finesse Game

The shot is genuinely excellent and always was — it is the reason he went seventh overall and it is the only thing that has kept him in the league.

Fifty-three unblocked attempts, three goals, median 23 feet with 45 per cent from inside twenty. That is good ice and a very small sample.

Fifty-five points in 191 career games is the record of a first-round pick who has not established himself anywhere.

The Physical Game

Six foot even, 198, and he does not engage. Ten penalty minutes in 28 games.

The skating is ordinary, the forechecking is absent, and the defensive reads have been the criticism at every stop. Three organisations have now decided the shot is not enough on its own.

The Intangibles

Fifty point nine per cent of the expected goals, 61st percentile, against only 44.8 per cent of the shot attempts, 11th percentile, across 319 minutes — a six-point gap in a small sample, and on this roster the weakest attempt share of anybody.

Six points in his last ten, two of them goals.

He is 24, and there is still a real shot in there. On a club this good he will be the thirteenth forward on most nights, which is not how a scorer finds his game.