David Pastrnak

Last Season

Twenty-nine goals and 71 assists in 77 games. A hundred points, plus-four, 20:39 a night. Two hundred and sixty-one shots on goal for 11.1 per cent — his lowest full-season rate in a decade.

The Finesse Game

The shot is still one of the three or four best in the world and it did not go in last season. That is worth separating carefully, because the two facts sit next to each other and only one of them is a skill.

Where he shoots from has drifted. Only 27 per cent of his unblocked attempts came from inside twenty feet and 32 per cent came from beyond forty, median 33. A player who used to arrive at the top of the circle and rip it now spends more of the night distributing from there — hence 71 assists, a career high by some distance, and the lowest goal total of his prime.

The playmaking is genuinely excellent and is not a consolation prize. He runs the power play and he sees the back-door play a beat early.

The Physical Game

Six foot even, 199, and he is not avoiding contact so much as declining to seek it. Seventy-two penalty minutes is mostly stick fouls and frustration.

The Intangibles

Here the report and the numbers pull apart hard, and the reason is the club rather than the man. Boston finished 21st in even-strength expected goals for and 24th against; Pastrnak drew the other team’s best pair every night and came out with 47.5 per cent of the expected goals, which reads as 31st percentile.

Ten points in his last ten games and none of them goals. Four hundred and twenty career goals say the finishing comes back. The question this season is whether the team around him is good enough for it to matter.