Mathieu Olivier

Last Season

Fifteen goals and 11 assists in 61 games — 26 points, plus-13, at 14:14 a night with 101 penalty minutes.

The Finesse Game

More than the role requires. A hundred and forty-six unblocked attempts with 47 per cent from inside twenty feet, median 22, and fifteen goals — a genuine third-line scoring rate from a man whose job description is fighting.

Eleven assists in 61 games is the ceiling and nobody is asking for more.

The Physical Game

Six foot one and 232 pounds, undrafted, and one of the two or three most willing fighters left in the league. A hundred and one penalty minutes in 61 games.

He is also fast enough to forecheck a defenceman into a turnover, which is the difference between a job and a liability.

The Intangibles

Fifty-four point seven per cent of the expected goals, 86th percentile, with the goals 47-29 in his favour across 799 minutes. That is the second-best forward mark on the club, from the fourth line, from the enforcer.

This is the clearest single data point for the argument this book keeps making. The 1991 edition’s equivalent took two hundred and fifty minutes, scored twice, and could not be on the ice when it mattered. Olivier takes a hundred, scores fifteen, and drives play at an 86th-percentile rate.

He is 29 and has 311 NHL games. Four goals in his last ten. Under a salary cap, this is the only version of the job that survives.