Ryan Strome

Last Season

Eight goals and 13 assists in 52 games — 21 points, minus-eight, at 13:18 a night. His 916th career game.

The Finesse Game

The hands are still fine in tight and the shot selection is good: 49 per cent of his unblocked attempts came from inside twenty feet, median 20, and eight went in on 57 shots.

That is a player who knows where to stand and no longer gets there often enough. Three hundred and twenty-seven career assists against 174 goals says he was always a distributor, and 13 assists in 52 games is a long way under that.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 192, and he takes the punishment in the slot without dishing much out. Thirty-five penalty minutes.

The skating is the reason the ice time has fallen to thirteen minutes. He was never quick and is now slow, and a centre who cannot get back is a centre who plays on the fourth line.

The Intangibles

The results were poor: 47.3 per cent of the expected goals, 29th percentile, and the goals 32-40 against in 616 minutes.

Seven points in his last ten with four goals, which is a genuine flourish and the kind of thing that gets a thirty-three-year-old another contract.

Fifth overall in 2011, 501 points, and now a third-line centre on a bad team. That is a real career and it is close to over.