Rasmus Dahlin

Last Season

Nineteen goals and 55 assists in 77 games — 74 points, plus-18, at 24:11 a night. Nineteen goals from a defenceman is a top-five figure at the position.

The Finesse Game

The skating is elite and it is the whole engine. He escapes a forecheck by accelerating through it rather than around it, and he can carry the puck the length of the ice when the situation asks for it — which, at 24 minutes a night, it does most games.

The passing is the better skill. Fifty-five assists, and the ones that matter are the seam feeds he makes at full speed with a man on him. He walks the line on the power play and manipulates penalty killers the way a forward does.

The shot is a point shot, honestly used: 59 per cent of his attempts from beyond forty feet, median 44, and 19 went in anyway because he gets it through.

The Physical Game

Six foot three, 204, and he is willing without being punishing — 76 penalty minutes is a defenceman who competes and occasionally loses his temper. He is not moving anybody out of the front of the net.

The Intangibles

The first pick in 2018 and for several years the results underneath did not match the highlights. Last season they did: 53.6 per cent of the expected goals, 81st percentile, with the expected goals running 67.9 to 58.8 in his favour across 1,481 minutes against the other team’s best.

Nine points in his last ten games. He is 26, he is the best player on this team, and the argument about whether he is a genuine number one defenceman is over.