Ryan Poehling

Last Season

Eleven goals and 25 assists in 75 games — 36 points, a career high — plus-eight, at 15 minutes a night. Twelve penalty minutes all year.

The Finesse Game

He is a straightforward third-line centre. He wins his share in the circle, he supports the puck, and he does not turn it over trying things he cannot do. Twenty-five assists is more than he has managed before and most of it is the simple play made on time.

The shot is modest — 94 of them, ten goals, median attempt 23 feet. He is not going to score his way into a bigger role.

The Physical Game

Six foot two and 206, and he uses it to protect pucks rather than to punish anyone. Twelve penalty minutes in a full season is either excellent discipline or a player who is never in the middle of anything; here it is closer to the first.

The Intangibles

Twenty-fifth overall in 2017, four goals in his first NHL game, and then several years of being not quite good enough for Montreal or Pittsburgh. He is 27 now and he has become useful, which is a decent outcome for a first-rounder who looked like a miss.

The plus-eight is flattering. At five-on-five the goals went 49-53 against him and the expected goals 38.4 to 42.1 — 33rd percentile. He is being asked to hold down a middle-six role on a team whose defensive numbers were among the worst in the league, and he is not the man who solves that.