Miro Heiskanen

Last Season

Nine goals and 54 assists in 77 games — 63 points, plus-nine, at 25:28 a night, the heaviest workload on the club.

The Finesse Game

The skating is the best of any defenceman in this book and it is not close — effortless, four-directional, and fast enough that he retrieves pucks he has no business reaching. He exits the zone by simply leaving with it.

Fifty-four assists is a top-five figure at the position. The shot is a means rather than an end: 222 unblocked attempts, median 45 feet, nine goals.

The Physical Game

Six foot two, 197, and he defends almost entirely without contact. Thirty penalty minutes in 77 games of the hardest available minutes.

That works because he is never beaten to a puck, and it is the part of his game that a heavy series tests. He is not clearing anybody from in front of his own net.

The Intangibles

Fifty-three point four per cent of the expected goals, 79th percentile, and 49.4 per cent of the shot attempts, 50th — on a club that gave up volume by design and finished fourth in the league in even-strength expected goals against.

That is the Dallas system stated in one player: concede the outside, take away the middle, and let the goaltender see it.

He is 27, the third pick in 2017, and 346 points into 552 games. No goals in his last ten. He is the most important defenceman in this section and the club’s whole defensive structure is built around what he can cover.