Sam Malinski

Last Season

Eight goals and 32 assists in all 82 games for 40 points, plus-43 — the best mark on the team and in this edition — on seventeen and a half minutes a night, with no power-play time worth mentioning.

The Finesse Game

He moves the puck quickly and confidently and shoots more than most third-pairing defencemen — 164 shots is a striking volume for someone playing seventeen minutes without a man-advantage role, and eight goals came from it.

The passing is the better half. Thirty-two assists at even strength means he is starting plays rather than finishing them, and he does it without the puck-management errors that usually come with a defenceman this willing.

The skating is good enough to defend the rush and to activate without being caught.

The Physical Game

Five-eleven and 190, and he is not physical. He defends with stick and position, and heavy forwards can establish themselves in front of him.

The Intangibles

Undrafted out of Cornell, a full season at twenty-seven, and the best plus-minus in the league among defencemen. The caveat is real — plus-minus flatters a defenceman on a team that controlled play this thoroughly, and he played sheltered minutes.

But forty points and forty-three is not a fluke of deployment alone. This is the season that turns him from a depth piece into a player somebody pays.