Jonathan Huberdeau

Last Season

Ten goals and 15 assists in 50 games — 25 points, minus-nine, at 18:08 a night. He has 807 points in 962 career games and 115 goals in the four seasons since he left Florida.

The Finesse Game

The vision is still there and it is the last thing that will go. He sees the seam pass before the seam opens, and on the rare shifts when a linemate arrives where he expects, it still looks like the player who had a hundred-and-fifteen-point season.

The shot has quietly become his most efficient tool: 48 per cent of his unblocked attempts came from inside twenty feet, median 21, and ten went in on 83 shots. He has stopped trying to beat people wide and started going to the net, which is what players do when the legs go.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 200, and he has never been physical. Forty-one penalty minutes. Along the wall he is finished before the battle starts.

The skating is the problem and it is not coming back. He was never fast; he was elusive, and elusive requires a half-step he no longer has.

The Intangibles

Here is the thing the counting stats hide. His on-ice rate was the best of any Calgary forward — 50.9 per cent of the expected goals, 61st percentile, and 52.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 81st — in 673 minutes.

Twenty-five points and the best possession numbers on the team, at the same time. He is still making the play; the club is not finishing it, and 31st on the power play is where a man like this goes to disappear.

He is 33 with a contract that will outlast the rebuild. Four points in his last ten.