Alexis Lafrenière

Last Season

Twenty-four goals and 33 assists in all 82 games — 57 points, minus-seven, at 17:36 a night with nine power-play goals. A career high.

The Finesse Game

The shot selection has improved every year and is now good: 259 unblocked attempts with 46 per cent from inside twenty feet, median 22, and 23 goals.

He is not fast and never was. What he has is strength on the puck and hands that work in a crowd, which is why the ice he shoots from keeps getting closer to the net.

Thirty-three assists is a fair return.

The Physical Game

Six foot two, 191, and he plays heavier than the frame — he protects pucks along the wall and does not get knocked off them. Twenty penalty minutes.

The Intangibles

Fifty-two point one per cent of the expected goals, 71st percentile, and 52.3 per cent of the shot attempts, 77th — the second-best forward mark on a club that finished 29th in even-strength expected goals for.

The first pick in 2020 spent four years being called a bust in the loudest market in the sport. He is 25, has 250 points in 462 games, and just had the best season of his career on a team that could not generate offence.

Seven points in his last ten. This is a good NHL winger. Whether that is what a first overall pick is supposed to be is a separate and less interesting question.