Stefan Noesen

Last Season

Three goals and four assists in 38 games — seven points, minus-12, at 11:45 a night with 33 penalty minutes. Forty-four games missed.

The Finesse Game

The shot chart is the reason to read this page. Sixty-three per cent of his unblocked attempts came from inside twenty feet, with a median of thirteen — the sixth-closest of any forward in the league with fifty or more attempts, level with Mark Stone, Matthew Tkachuk and Tyler Bertuzzi.

He goes to the one place on the ice where a 33-year-old fourth-liner can still hurt you, and he stays there.

Three goals from seventy tries is a poor return from excellent ice, and eighty-three goals in 482 career games is the honest rate. The location is real; the hands are ordinary.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 205, and thick through the base. Thirty-three penalty minutes in 38 games is a high rate and it is the job — he screens, he cross-checks back, and he absorbs what comes for standing there.

The skating is the ceiling and always has been.

The Intangibles

Forty-seven per cent of the expected goals, 26th percentile, and the same in shot attempts, across 394 minutes. Those are weak numbers in a small sample.

Three points in his last ten, two of them goals.

He is 33, a twenty-first overall pick who took eight seasons to find what he was for, and what he is for is the front of the net on a power play. On a club that finished last in the league at converting its chances, somebody standing thirteen feet from the goaltender is not the worst idea available.