Nick Schmaltz

Last Season

Thirty-three goals and 41 assists in all 82 games — 74 points, plus-17, at 19:43 a night with eleven power-play goals and 28 penalty minutes.

His 670th career game and his 497th point.

The Finesse Game

A career playmaker who has turned into a scorer. Two hundred and eighty-nine unblocked attempts, 33 goals, median 22 feet with 44 per cent from inside twenty — good ice, and a career-high total by ten.

Eleven power-play goals is the largest part of the jump and it comes from a man who spent a decade being the passer on that unit.

Forty-one assists says the old game is intact. Three hundred and twenty-two career assists.

The Physical Game

Six foot even and 184 pounds, and light. Twenty-eight penalty minutes.

He does not forecheck with weight and does not win pucks. The skating and the hands in tight are the whole proposition, and both are genuinely good.

The Intangibles

Fifty-five per cent of the expected goals, 88th percentile, and 55.4 per cent of the shot attempts, 91st, across 1,189 minutes, with the chances 52.4 to 42.9 in his favour.

The goals came out 39-43 against, which on a club whose goaltending finished six goals worse than its chances is about right.

Eleven points in his last ten, seven of them goals. He is 30, a twentieth overall pick, and has played the best hockey of his career on the club’s best line beside Keller.