Joel Hanley

Last Season

No goals and seven assists in 68 games, minus-five, at 14:40 a night with 44 penalty minutes. Five goals in 314 career games.

The Finesse Game

There is genuinely none. Seventy-four unblocked attempts, none of which went in, from a median of 54 feet with three per cent inside twenty. He puts pucks toward the net from the blue line as a way of ending a shift, not of scoring.

Seven points in 68 games. Forty-five points in 314 career games.

The Physical Game

Five foot eleven and 186 pounds, which is very small for a defenceman, and he plays a positional game because there is no alternative. Forty-four penalty minutes suggests he competes rather than concedes.

The Intangibles

The most surprising number in the Calgary section: he was on for 54.1 per cent of the shot attempts — 86th percentile in the league — which is comfortably the best mark on this roster and one of the better ones anywhere.

The expected goals were merely level at 49.9 per cent, 52nd percentile, and the actual goals were 17-29 against. So: the puck went the right way when he was out there, the chances were even, and the goals were terrible. Two of those three are his and one is not.

He is 35, undrafted, and has made 314 NHL games out of being reliable and small. On a club with two teenagers on the blue line, having somebody who consistently moves play in the right direction is worth more than the seven points suggest.