Cole Smith

Last Season

Eight goals and four assists in 63 games — 12 points, minus-seven, at 13:17 a night with 40 penalty minutes. His five-on-five work was done in Vegas.

The Finesse Game

Thin, and pointed in the right direction. Fifty-five per cent of his unblocked attempts came from inside twenty feet, median 18 — one of the shortest averages of any forward in this edition — and eight of 110 went in.

Four assists in 63 games is the whole of the playmaking. He is not there to make plays.

The Physical Game

Six foot three, 195, and fast for it. He forechecks hard, finishes checks, and kills penalties. Forty penalty minutes.

The Intangibles

Fifty-one point three per cent of the expected goals, 66th percentile, and 51.6 per cent of the shot attempts, 72nd, in 707 minutes on a good team.

Undrafted, 292 NHL games, 64 points. He is 30, and he is exactly the modern fourth-liner this book keeps describing — quick enough to play a real shift, willing enough to do the unpleasant part, and capable of eight goals rather than two.

He joins a club whose forwards finished in the bottom fifth of the league almost to a man. He will not fix that. He will make one line harder to play against, which is worth having.