Max Jones

Last Season

Three goals and five points in 21 games, on eight and a half minutes a night — the smallest role of his career.

The Physical Game

The reason he is on a roster. Six-three and 216, and he plays a heavy, aggressive forechecking game: he takes the body on every retrieval, he is hard to handle below the goal line, and he is willing to drop the gloves. Two hundred and thirty-eight penalty minutes over 305 games is about right for the type.

The Finesse Game

Thin. The hands are functional around the net and not much use anywhere else, the shot is ordinary, and he does not make plays for linemates. Thirty-five goals in 305 games tells the story accurately.

The skating is better than you would guess for the size — he gets in on the forecheck quickly, which is the one place his speed matters.

The Intangibles

Injuries have taken large pieces out of what was once a more promising career; he was a first-round pick and has never had the offensive season that pedigree suggested. What he is now is a thirteenth forward who changes the temperature of a game when the coach wants it changed.

That job is real, it is worth a roster spot on a contending team, and it is one bad month from being given to somebody else.