Mikko Rantanen

Last Season

Twenty-two goals and 55 assists in 64 games — 77 points, even in plus-minus, at 20:11 a night with 93 penalty minutes.

The Finesse Game

Enormous and skilled, which is the rarest combination in the sport. He protects the puck on the wall with his back to a defenceman and waits, and the pass that comes out of it is usually the one nobody else saw.

Fifty-five assists in 64 games is a first-line rate anywhere. The shooting has fallen off: 223 unblocked attempts, 25 goals, median 26 feet with 38 per cent inside twenty — good ice, fewer of them going in than the 316 career goals would predict.

The Physical Game

Six foot four, 228, and he uses it properly — 93 penalty minutes, a willingness to be unpleasant, and he is very difficult to move off a puck.

On a Dallas roster that is otherwise not heavy, he is the one who makes the top line hard to play against.

The Intangibles

The five-on-five numbers are strange and worth stating. He was on for exactly 50 per cent of the expected goals, 53rd percentile — and only 44.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 11th percentile.

That is a player whose line gets badly outshot and gives up nothing dangerous, which is either excellent defensive structure or the sign of a team that survives on quality over volume. Dallas as a club was 47.5 per cent in attempts and 50.5 in expected goals, so it is systemic rather than personal.

He is 29, 782 points into 716 games, and nine points in his last ten. He arrived here at a price that assumed a hundred-point player, and 77 in 64 is close enough.