Noah Hanifin

Last Season

Three goals and 25 assists in 71 games — 28 points, even in plus-minus, at 22:36 a night with only fourteen penalty minutes.

His 829th career game and his 353rd point.

The Finesse Game

A hundred and ninety-six unblocked attempts from a median of 51 feet, 68 per cent from beyond forty, and only three goals — a very poor conversion, and his lowest total in nine seasons.

Twenty-five assists in 71 games is a fair rate. Seventy-five goals in 829 career games.

The skating is genuinely excellent and it is the whole reason a fifth overall pick has played eight hundred games.

The Physical Game

Six foot three, 206, and he defends with position and feet rather than by punishing people. Fourteen penalty minutes across 71 games at twenty-two minutes a night is among the lowest rates in this edition.

He is strong enough for the front of his net without being physical about it.

The Intangibles

Fifty-four point five per cent of the expected goals, 85th percentile, and 52.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 81st, across 1,385 minutes, with the chances 59.3 to 49.6 in his favour.

The goals came out level at 56-56 on chances ten goals to the good, which is the same story as Theodore’s and the same story as the club’s.

Five points in his last ten, none of them goals. He is 29, and this is a genuinely good top-pair defenceman whose scoresheet says nothing at all about the season he had.