Players

D · Edmonton Oilers

The defenseman who makes mistakes disappear — quietly, 20 minutes a night, against the other team's best.

LW · Ottawa Senators

Minus 31 in San Jose, and dead level in the chances.

D · Toronto Maple Leafs

1,137 games, and 31 assists at 35.

C · Florida Panthers

1,184 games, and half his shots from inside 20 feet.

G · Buffalo Sabres

16 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 29 in 67 games, and no 5-on-5 record to explain it with.

G · Ottawa Senators

A .8696, the lowest of any goaltender who played 25 games.

RW · New Jersey Devils

44 assists and the 94th percentile, on a club that finished 27th 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

52 goals for against 44, and the 13th percentile in shot attempts.

C · Boston Bruins

109 shots in 56 games from a fourth-liner, and 8 goals to show for it.

D · Columbus Blue Jackets

54 goals for and 33 against, and expected goals that say it was a coin flip.

D · Minnesota Wild

23 years old and already playing 25 minutes a night against the other team's best.

C · Dallas Stars

766 games of defensive-zone faceoffs, and the 11th percentile.

C · Columbus Blue Jackets

59 points at 21, and a shot chart that still has a step to take.

LW · Calgary Flames

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

D · Detroit Red Wings

1,058 games, 16 goals from the blue line, and the 13th percentile.

D · Washington Capitals

380 games, 27 goals, and 67 goals for.

D · Winnipeg Jets

A left-shot defenceman who spent 7 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 · St. Louis Blues

6-6, 44 games, and 5 points.

C · Detroit Red Wings

A 201st overall pick who played all 82 games as a rookie.

D · Florida Panthers

63 NHL games across 9 professional seasons, and no goals in any of them.

D · Seattle Kraken

23 games, 100 career games, and 2 goals in all of them.

D · Winnipeg Jets

A seventh-overall pick, a decade on, with a minus-18 in 38 games.

LW · Ottawa Senators

13 goals and 4 assists, which is the strangest split in this book.

RW · Philadelphia Flyers

13 goals in 29 games, and 83rd percentile behind them.

LW · Minnesota Wild

A heavy, honest winger 15 years in, with the production falling away faster than the willingness.

LW · Minnesota Wild

19 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

40 goals from a median of 35 feet, which almost nobody does.

D · Florida Panthers

a 126th overall, 22 and a half minutes a night, and 2 goals.

D · St. Louis Blues

1,124 games, and 26 assists at 34.

G · Montréal Canadiens

A rookie goaltender with 17 games and the best numbers of the 3, which is either a small sample or the future.

D · New York Rangers

53 points in 55 games, and the best on-ice rate on the club by a distance.

RW · Washington Capitals

Undrafted, 12 goals, and 58 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet.

C · Edmonton Oilers

A heavy, useful bottom-6 forward coming off a year in which almost nothing went in.

C · Calgary Flames

22 goals from a median of 20 feet, and a minus-16 underneath them.

RW · Vancouver Canucks

911 games, 5-9, and 246 goals.

C · Minnesota Wild

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

RW · Columbus Blue Jackets

5-10, 165 pounds, and the 18th percentile.

C · Vegas Golden Knights

Undrafted, 88 games, and 10 minutes a night.

RW · San Jose Sharks

17 goals in 11 minutes a night, and the 10th percentile.

C · Seattle Kraken

Undrafted, 478 games, and the 2nd percentile.

C · Boston Bruins

214 games spread across 10 seasons, which tells you the shape of it.

LW · Anaheim Ducks

41 goals, and almost none of them from where you would expect a 40-goal scorer to stand.

D · New York Rangers

1,600 5-on-5 minutes, and 14 goals from the blue line.

C · Boston Bruins

39 goals on 181 shots, which is the single most fragile number in this book.

G · Detroit Red Wings

A career .909, a season at .901, and a finish at .863.

D · Pittsburgh Penguins

5-10, 170 pounds, and 66 goals for against 21.

C · Tampa Bay Lightning

844 games, and 57 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet.

RW · Ottawa Senators

1,345 games, 1,165 points, and plus 20 at 38.

C · New Jersey Devils

19 goals and 7 assists, which is a very strange season.

C · Tampa Bay Lightning

The 95th percentile, plus 26, and 13 minutes a night.

C · San Jose Sharks

731 games, undrafted, and the 2nd percentile.

D · Carolina Hurricanes

50 points in 55 games from the second pair, at 33.

C · Tampa Bay Lightning

5-9, undrafted, and the 79th percentile at 34.

RW · San Jose Sharks

Undrafted, 21 goals, and 60 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet.

C · Anaheim Ducks

651 career points, and a body of work that keeps outrunning the eye test.