Mattias Samuelsson

Last Season

Thirteen goals and 28 assists in 78 games — 41 points, and plus-41, at 22:50 a night. He had 84 points in his previous 290 career games.

The Finesse Game

Almost none of it is his. He is a defensive defenceman who had a season of offensive luck: 13 goals from 161 unblocked attempts of which only eight per cent came from inside twenty feet, median 45. Thirteen goals from the point at that distance is not a skill anybody repeats.

The passing is simple and safe. Twenty-eight assists is a career outlier from a man who had never had more than a dozen.

The Physical Game

The actual job, and he is very good at it. Six foot four, 229, and he clears his crease, closes gaps hard, and kills penalties. Twenty-eight penalty minutes in 78 games of heavy defensive work is remarkable discipline.

The Intangibles

The plus-41 led the National Hockey League and it is the least informative number on this page. At five-on-five the goals went 56-43 — plus-13, not plus-41 — and the expected goals went 61.2 to 61.6, which is dead level. He was on for 47 per cent of the shot attempts, 26th percentile.

So: a club that outscored its expected goals by more than any other in the league, and its most-trusted defenceman riding the top of that wave. He is a good defensive player having an unrepeatable season in the counting columns.

Price the defending. Do not price the forty-one.