Players

G · Montréal Canadiens

A fifth-round goaltender who took the crease and did not give it back.

D · Montréal Canadiens

A big right-shot defenceman who plays twenty-two minutes and has never quite been the player his best season promised.

C · Chicago Blackhawks

Five hundred and sixty-five games, and a career year that landed on the worst possible team.

RW · New York Rangers

Thirty-seven goals, twenty of them on the power play.

G · Anaheim Ducks

The goaltender this club has committed to, coming off the season that made the commitment a question.

D · Los Angeles Kings

Eighteen years, two Cups and 1,279 games in one sweater, still playing the most minutes on the team.

C · Seattle Kraken

Six foot nine, a hundred and eight penalty minutes, and six minutes and forty-five seconds a night.

C · Edmonton Oilers

One of the two or three most dangerous goal-scorers alive, and he does it at a pace that looks like he is barely trying.

C · Nashville Predators

Plus-fifteen and the ninety-eighth percentile, from a fourth-line centre.

D · Philadelphia Flyers

The sixth pick in 2020, twenty-one and a half minutes, and thirty-two points.

C · Dallas Stars

Eleven hundred and ninety-five games, and fifty-four per cent of his shots from inside twenty feet.

LW · New York Islanders

The third percentile in expected goals, and a hundred and sixty-five career goals.

D · Los Angeles Kings

A two-time Cup winner whose entire job is to make sure nothing happens, and who is very good at it.

D · Seattle Kraken

Forty-four points, minus twenty-four, and fifty-two goals for against sixty-five expected against.

D · New York Rangers

Eighty-fifth percentile in Utah, and twenty-two assists from the second pair.

C · Philadelphia Flyers

Sixty-four per cent of his shots from inside twenty feet, and a median of fourteen.

RW · Seattle Kraken

Eleven hundred and forty games, and fifty-five per cent of his shots from inside twenty feet.

D · Los Angeles Kings

Six-five, mean about it, and last season the man asked to make a 22-year-old's mistakes disappear.

C · Nashville Predators

Six foot seven, and fifty-eight per cent of his shots from inside twenty feet.

D · Detroit Red Wings

Six foot six, twenty-two minutes a night, and the seventy-fourth percentile at twenty-three.

LW · Carolina Hurricanes

Seventy-one points, a hundred and sixty-eight pounds, and a shot chart that has never made sense.

C · Minnesota Wild

A six-three centre who wins faceoffs, kills penalties, stands in front of the net and quietly puts up fifty points.

D · Florida Panthers

The first overall pick in 2014, eight hundred games later, doing the quiet half.

D · Edmonton Oilers

The defenseman who makes mistakes disappear — quietly, twenty minutes a night, against the other team's best.

LW · Ottawa Senators

Minus thirty-one in San Jose, and dead level in the chances.

C · Florida Panthers

Eleven hundred and eighty-four games, and half his shots from inside twenty feet.

G · Buffalo Sabres

Sixteen games, a .903, and not enough of either to say much.

D · Edmonton Oilers

A steady, unspectacular right-shot defenseman doing exactly what a third pair is supposed to do.

RW · Florida Panthers

Minus twenty-nine in sixty-seven games, and no five-on-five record to explain it with.

G · Ottawa Senators

A .8696, the lowest of any goaltender who played twenty-five games.

RW · Nashville Predators

Forty-four assists and the ninety-fourth percentile, on a club that finished twenty-seventh in defence.

C · Montréal Canadiens

A seventh-round pick who made himself into a penalty-killing centre and has outlasted almost everyone drafted above him.

D · Seattle Kraken

Fifty-two goals for against forty-four, and the thirteenth percentile in shot attempts.

C · Boston Bruins

A hundred and nine shots in fifty-six games from a fourth-liner, and eight goals to show for it.

D · Columbus Blue Jackets

Fifty-four goals for and thirty-three against, and expected goals that say it was a coin flip.

D · Minnesota Wild

Twenty-three years old and already playing twenty-five minutes a night against the other team's best.

C · Dallas Stars

Seven hundred and sixty-six games of defensive-zone faceoffs, and the eleventh percentile.

C · Columbus Blue Jackets

Fifty-nine points at twenty-one, and a shot chart that still has a step to take.

LW · Calgary Flames

Twenty goals, and a shot chart drifting the wrong way at exactly the wrong age.

D · Detroit Red Wings

A thousand and fifty-eight games, sixteen goals from the blue line, and the thirteenth percentile.

D · Winnipeg Jets

A left-shot defenceman who spent seven years absorbing punishment on a bad team and now gets to do it on a good one.

LW · Los Angeles Kings

The most naturally skilled forward on the roster, and the one whose season you can never predict in October.

C · Detroit Red Wings

A two hundred and first overall pick who played all eighty-two games as a rookie.

D · Florida Panthers

Sixty-three NHL games across nine professional seasons, and no goals in any of them.

D · Seattle Kraken

Twenty-three games, a hundred career games, and two goals in all of them.

D · Winnipeg Jets

A seventh-overall pick, a decade on, with a minus-eighteen in thirty-eight games.

LW · Ottawa Senators

Thirteen goals and four assists, which is the strangest split in this book.

RW · Philadelphia Flyers

Thirteen goals in twenty-nine games, and eighty-third percentile behind them.

LW · Minnesota Wild

A heavy, honest winger fifteen years in, with the production falling away faster than the willingness.

LW · Minnesota Wild

Nineteen seasons, 1,287 games, and a fourth-line role he takes as seriously as any he has had.

G · Los Angeles Kings

A journeyman backup who quietly outplayed the starter last season.

LW · Nashville Predators

Forty goals from a median of thirty-five feet, which almost nobody does.

D · Florida Panthers

A hundred and twenty-sixth overall, twenty-two and a half minutes a night, and two goals.

G · Montréal Canadiens

A rookie goaltender with seventeen games and the best numbers of the three, which is either a small sample or the future.

D · New York Rangers

Fifty-three points in fifty-five games, and the best on-ice rate on the club by a distance.

C · Edmonton Oilers

A heavy, useful bottom-six forward coming off a year in which almost nothing went in.

C · Calgary Flames

Twenty-two goals from a median of twenty feet, and a minus-sixteen underneath them.

C · Minnesota Wild

A defensive fourth-line centre on his fourth organisation, doing the same job at each of them.

RW · Columbus Blue Jackets

Five foot ten, a hundred and sixty-five pounds, and the eighteenth percentile.

RW · San Jose Sharks

Seventeen goals in eleven minutes a night, and the tenth percentile.