Nick Paul

Last Season

Seven goals and eight assists in 51 games — 15 points, minus-15, at 13:41 a night with 32 penalty minutes. Thirty-one games missed. His five-on-five work was done in Tampa.

His 537th career game.

The Finesse Game

A hundred and nine unblocked attempts, seven goals, median 22 feet with 46 per cent from inside twenty. Good ice, modest volume, poor conversion.

Two hundred and fourteen points in 537 career games. Eight assists in 51 games is thin and this was the least productive full season of his career.

The Physical Game

Six foot four and 234 pounds, and among the physically strongest forwards in the league — he protects pucks below the goal line, wins the wall, and forechecks with genuine weight.

Thirty-two penalty minutes is disciplined for the size.

The Intangibles

Fifty-one point four per cent of the expected goals, 66th percentile, and 51.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 75th, across 595 minutes in Tampa, with the goals 31-32.

Those are good figures and they were produced on the best possession club in the conference, which is the caveat attached to every Tampa number in this book.

He is 31, a fourth-round pick, two Stanley Cups, and thirty-one games missed. Toronto is buying playoff experience and size for a lineup that had almost none of either; the question is how many nights it gets.