Brady Tkachuk

Last Season

Twenty-two goals and 37 assists in 60 games — 59 points, plus-four, at 16:58 a night with 71 penalty minutes. His five-on-five work was done in Ottawa.

The Finesse Game

More skill than the reputation carries. Two hundred and twenty-one shots on goal in 60 games is a heavy volume, and the location is honest — 43 per cent of his unblocked attempts from inside twenty feet, median 24.

Thirty-seven assists is the part people forget. He is not a finisher who fights; he is a first-line winger who happens to be the hardest man on the ice.

The Physical Game

Six foot four, 226, and the most physically imposing top-six forward in the league. Seventy-one penalty minutes, a genuine willingness to fight, and a net-front presence that requires two men to move.

This is the archetype that was supposed to have died with the salary cap, and he is a first-line player.

The Intangibles

The number is extraordinary and so is what happened to it. He was on the ice for 60.1 per cent of the expected goals — 99th percentile in the league — with the chances running 42.7 to 28.3 in his favour across 758 minutes.

The actual goals went 33 for and 40 against.

That is a twenty-one goal shortfall, and it is the single clearest picture of what Ottawa’s goaltending cost last season. He did everything a forward can do to a hockey game and lost the ice anyway.

He is 26 and now plays on his brother’s wing. If Florida’s goaltending is merely average, this becomes one of the best forwards in hockey by the numbers as well as the eye.