Artemi Panarin

Last Season

Twenty-eight goals and 84 points in 78 games, on nearly twenty-one minutes a night — the most ice time of any forward on the roster. The minus-seven is the number people will point at, and it is worth reading carefully: he plays against everyone, starts a great many shifts in his own end, and does not defend hard enough to make up for it.

The Finesse Game

The hands are the best on this team and among the best anywhere. He works from the left wall, holds the puck under pressure longer than a player his size should be able to, and finds passes that do not appear to exist until the puck is already through the lane. The give-and-go off the wall is his signature and it is close to unstoppable when he has a linemate who moves without the puck.

The shot is underrated because the passing is so conspicuous. He scores from distance, off the rush, and he is genuinely dangerous shooting from the off wing on the power play.

He is not fast so much as elusive: quick feet in a phone box, excellent edges, and a habit of changing speed at exactly the moment a defenceman commits.

The Physical Game

Six feet and 176 pounds, and it has never mattered much because he does not spend time in places where it would. He avoids traffic, does not forecheck with any conviction, and can be separated from the puck along the wall by a defenceman who gets there first. He is durable, which at his size and age is its own achievement.

The Intangibles

The criticism follows him from New York and it is not unfounded: the defensive detail is casual, and his playoff record is thinner than a player of this quality should have. He has had series where he was the best player on the ice and series where he disappeared for a week.

He is thirty-four and still the most talented player on his team. How much of that is left, and whether it shows up in April, is the whole question of the next two seasons.