Ryan McDonagh

Last Season

Six goals and 15 assists in 48 games — 21 points, plus-14, at 19:15 a night with six penalty minutes. Thirty-four games missed.

His 1,058th career game.

He turned 37 in June.

The Finesse Game

Sixty-nine unblocked attempts from a median of 52 feet, and six goals — an extraordinary conversion for a defenceman who barely shoots. Eighty-six goals in 1,058 career games.

Fifteen assists in 48 games is a fair rate. The first pass is quick and the reads are the reason a thirty-seven-year-old is still taking nineteen minutes on a contender.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 216, and he defends by position and by stick. Six penalty minutes across 48 games is the fourth-lowest rate of any defenceman who played forty times — a man past a thousand career games who took three minor penalties all season.

He still clears his crease. The skating is honest and no longer quick.

The Intangibles

Fifty-two point five per cent of the expected goals, 75th percentile, and 50.4 per cent of the shot attempts, 62nd, across 746 minutes, with the goals 32-27 in his favour.

Thirty-four games missed is the story and it is now two seasons running.

Eight points in his last ten. He is 37, two Stanley Cups, and one of the two or three most respected defensive defencemen of his generation. Tampa is carrying him, Hedman and Carlson at 37, 35 and 36 on the same blue line, which is either depth or a plan that requires all three to be healthy in May.