Noah Ostlund

Last Season

Eleven goals and 16 assists in 60 games — 27 points, plus-11, at 13:58 a night. His first real NHL season, at 21.

The Finesse Game

Quick, clever and light. The skating is the best part — he is elusive in small spaces rather than fast in open ice — and the passing is a step ahead of the finishing.

The eleven goals came from sixty shots, which is 18.3 per cent and will not hold. The location is fair without being brave: 36 per cent of his attempts inside twenty feet, median 26. Expect six or seven from the same process next time and judge him on the assists.

The Physical Game

Five foot eleven and 180 pounds, and there is nothing here yet. Fourteen penalty minutes in 60 games. He is removed from pucks by men who simply weigh more, and on a fourth line that is where a lot of shifts are decided.

Two summers in a weight room is the standard answer and it has not happened yet.

The Intangibles

The encouraging part is that the process was good, not just the scoring: 52.8 per cent of the expected goals, 76th percentile, in 756 minutes, with the expected goals 31.5 to 28.1 in his favour.

He was the sixteenth pick in 2022 and there was a stretch where it looked like a reach. Seven points in his last ten. He is 22 and this is a real NHL player, probably a third-line one, with the ceiling depending entirely on what he can add physically.