Noah Dobson

Last Season

Twelve goals and 47 points in 80 games, plus-five, on twenty-two and a half minutes a night. He played 65 percent of his five-on-five time with Matheson, and the two of them took the hardest assignments.

The Finesse Game

The tools are considerable. He is a smooth skater for six-four, he moves the puck cleanly under pressure, and he has a genuinely heavy point shot that he gets through traffic. He can quarterback a power play, though on this roster he does not have to.

The passing is his best attribute — long, accurate outlets that start a rush before the other team has changed. When he is playing well he looks like a number-one defenceman.

The consistency is the recurring note. There are stretches where the puck decisions get loose and the offensive instincts pull him out of position, and those stretches have followed him from Long Island.

The Physical Game

Six-four and 200, which is tall rather than heavy. He defends with reach and stick rather than by punishing people, and a strong forward can establish position on him in front of the net.

The Intangibles

He put up seventy points once and has not been near it since, which has shaped how he is discussed — a little unfairly, since forty-seven points on a defensive pairing is a good season.

He is twenty-six, signed long-term, and playing beside a young defenceman who takes all the attention. What he becomes over the next three years determines whether this defence is good or genuinely dangerous.