Pavel Zacha

Last Season

Thirty goals and 35 assists in 78 games — 65 points and a career high, at 16:51 a night. A hundred and thirty-one shots on goal, which is 22.9 per cent.

The Finesse Game

Two Bostonians shot better than a fifth last season and the shot charts tell different stories. Geekie’s median attempt came from thirty feet. Zacha’s came from nineteen — 51 per cent of his unblocked attempts were inside twenty feet, and only 11 per cent from beyond forty.

That is a man scoring from the paint, which is the one place a high percentage is partly earned rather than borrowed. Six foot four with soft hands in a crowd, arriving late and unmarked. It will still regress — nobody holds 23 per cent — but he has built a shot profile that will keep him in the twenties when it does.

The playmaking has quietly become good. Thirty-five assists from a player who spent years being called a disappointment.

The Physical Game

Six foot four, 211, and he protects the puck properly below the goal line. Twenty-eight penalty minutes; he is big without being mean, which was the knock on him in New Jersey and is now just a description.

The Intangibles

Sixth overall in 2015 and written off twice before this. He is 29 and has finally had the season the pick implied.

The underlying numbers were poor — 45.9 per cent of the expected goals, 18th percentile, the lowest of any Boston forward with real minutes. Thirteen points in his last ten games. Both of those are true at once, and the shot profile is the reason to believe the scoring more than the process.