Matthew Tkachuk

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

42 goals and 62 assists in 82 games for Calgary — 104 points and a plus-57 — at 17:54 a night, the 74th percentile among forwards — with 68 penalty minutes.

60.9 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,213 minutes — the 5th-highest of the 393 qualified forwards. Calgary finished 3rd in the league in attempts, 4th in chances and 2nd on the penalty kill.

The Finesse Game

3.67 even-strength points per 60 is the 4th-most of the 393 qualified forwards, behind Johnny Gaudreau, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mason Marchment. Twenty-eight per cent of his points came on the power play, which is ordinary.

10.34 shots per 60 is the 91st percentile and 42 goals on 253 shots is 16.6 per cent, the 89th. 63 per cent from the slot at a median of 19 feet — he shoots from the paint and he shoots a great deal.

3.72 giveaways per 60 is the 5th-most of the 393 qualified forwards against 1.68 takeaways at the 54th. He holds the puck longer than almost anybody and loses it more often than almost anybody, and on a line that took sixty-one per cent of the chances that trade was worth making.

The Physical Game

6-2 and 202, and the skating file is the most surprising thing in this chapter.

20.9 mph is the 4th-lowest top speed of the 365 forwards the tracking covers. 0.45 bursts over 20 mph per 60 is the 3rd-fewest. 8.85 miles per 60 is the 12th-lowest. Only Kevin Hayes, Nicklas Backstrom and Patrick Maroon recorded a lower maximum, and he crossed twenty miles an hour about four times in eighty-two games.

A 104-point forward is among the twenty slowest, least-sprinting and least-covering men the league measures. That is not a caveat; it is the description. He wins the puck standing still and he arrives because he never left.

1.43 penalties drawn per 60 is the 91st percentile and 1.35 taken is the 88th — sixty-eight minutes in eighty-two games, and the net is almost exactly zero. He is in it constantly and comes out even.

3.80 hits per 60 is the 48th percentile and 0.82 blocks the 7th. The reputation is for a heavy game and the hit count does not carry it; the penalties on both sides of the ledger do.

The Intangibles

Sixth overall in 2016, and 431 NHL games at 24 with 382 points and a career plus-85.

A plus-57 is the third-largest of the 2021-22 season, behind two Calgary team-mates — Johnny Gaudreau’s plus-64 and Elias Lindholm’s plus-61 — and it came on a club that took 55.2 per cent of the chances with the second-best penalty kill in the league. Both the player and the environment were exceptional and the record cannot separate them.

He arrives in Florida to replace Jonathan Huberdeau, who had 115 points and 3.88 even-strength points per 60 — the 2nd-most of 393. Two of the four best even-strength producers in hockey have swapped clubs, and the man arriving here is four years younger.