Tommy Novak

Last Season

Sixteen goals and 26 assists in all 82 games — 42 points, plus-one, at 14:17 a night with five power-play goals.

The Finesse Game

A skilled middle-six centre who took a long time to arrive. Two hundred and one unblocked attempts, sixteen goals, median 22 feet with 45 per cent from inside twenty — good ice, fair conversion.

Twenty-six assists in fourteen minutes a night is a strong rate. A hundred and fifty-nine points in 285 career games.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 190, and he does not seek contact. Twenty-four penalty minutes in a full season.

He wins his share of faceoffs and plays a positional game rather than a physical one.

The Intangibles

Fifty-six per cent of the expected goals, 91st percentile — the best forward mark on the club — with the chances 53.7 to 42.1 in his favour and the goals 53-39 across 1,045 minutes.

That is a genuinely excellent season hidden inside forty-two points and fourteen minutes a night.

Five points in his last ten. He is 29, an eighty-fifth overall pick who did not become a regular until 26, and on a club whose top six is Crosby, Malkin, Rust and Rakell he is the third-line centre nobody outside the city can name.