Matt Boldy

Last Season

Forty-two goals and 85 points in 76 games, plus-18, eleven power-play goals, on 254 shots. He had never scored more than thirty before. Sixty-nine percent of his five-on-five ice time came with Eriksson Ek, which is the tightest forward partnership on the roster.

The Finesse Game

The release is the best part of him. He shoots quickly off the catch, changes the angle with his hands rather than his feet, and scores a lot of goals from the inner slot where a bigger winger has bought himself half a second. The shooting rate has climbed every season, and so has the willingness to take the puck to a dangerous place before releasing it.

He is a genuine playmaker as well — a patient one, who holds the puck along the wall until a linemate finds soft ice. Playing with a defensively responsible centre has let him do that without the mistakes costing much.

The skating is good rather than explosive. He is not going to beat an NHL defenceman wide on speed alone, and does not need to.

The Physical Game

Six-two and 201, and he uses it properly now. He goes to the net front, wins his share of wall battles, and takes the abuse that comes with setting up where he scores from. That was the missing piece in his first two seasons.

The Intangibles

The twelfth pick in 2019, and the development curve has been steady rather than dramatic — which is the version that tends to hold. At twenty-five he is entering the years where this should be his normal level rather than his peak.

With Zuccarello and Johansson both gone, the club needs him to drive a line rather than complement one. Nothing so far suggests he cannot.