Bobby Brink

Last Season

Fifteen goals and 30 points in 68 games on fifteen minutes a night, three of the goals on the power play. Across 214 career games he has 98 points, which is a real middle-six rate for a player nobody projected to stick.

The Finesse Game

The hands and the head are the whole player. He is a genuinely creative passer in tight spaces, he finds seams from below the goal line, and he protects the puck far better than a five-eight forward should be able to. The shot is quick and accurate from the slot.

He does his best work on the half-wall and on the cycle, where the lack of speed matters least and the vision matters most. Give him a linemate who goes to the net and he will find him.

The skating is the flaw and it is not a small one. He does not separate, he does not win races, and he is easy to defend in transition — which is why the ice time has never grown beyond the third line.

The Physical Game

Five-eight and 169, and he cannot play a physical game in either direction. He is willing enough on the puck and completely unable to take it off anyone by force.

The Intangibles

A second-round pick who took four years and a change of organisation to become an NHL regular, and who has outlasted the doubts about his size by being smarter than the players trying to check him.

At twenty-five, this is probably close to what he is: a skilled, slow, useful third-line winger who makes a power play better and cannot be hidden defensively.