Arseny Gritsyuk

Last Season

Thirteen goals and 18 assists in 66 games — 31 points, minus-three, at 15:10 a night. His first NHL season, at 24, after five years in Russia.

The Finesse Game

Skilled and quick, and he arrived finished rather than raw — which is what the extra years abroad buy. He handles the puck at speed and looks for the seam pass rather than the safe one.

The shooting is the questionable half: 209 unblocked attempts from a median of 34 feet, with 36 per cent from beyond forty and only 22 per cent inside twenty. Thirteen goals out of that is a fair return and the location needs to come in.

The Physical Game

Six foot even, 195, and he does not seek contact. Twenty-six penalty minutes. He is not winning wall battles and the game depends on getting to open ice.

The Intangibles

Fifty-seven point two per cent of the shot attempts, 95th percentile, and 53 per cent of the expected goals, 77th, across 923 minutes.

And the goals went 25 for and 44 against — a nineteen-goal hole on a rookie who was tilting the ice comfortably. Even by New Jersey’s standards that is severe.

Eight points in his last ten, four of them goals. He is 25, a hundred and twenty-ninth overall pick, and the underlying numbers say he is already a legitimate NHL forward. The minus-three is the kindest figure any Devil got.