Vincent Trocheck

Last Season

Sixteen goals and 37 assists in 67 games — 53 points, minus-16, at 20:33 a night with 64 penalty minutes. His five-on-five work was done in New York.

His 868th career game and his 631st point. Three hundred and ninety-two career assists.

The Finesse Game

Two hundred and six unblocked attempts, nineteen goals, median 21 feet with 46 per cent from inside twenty — very good ice for a 33-year-old centre.

Thirty-seven assists in 67 games is a strong rate and the playmaking has held up better than the legs.

The Physical Game

Five foot eleven and 187 pounds, and he plays far heavier than that — sixty-four penalty minutes, a full season of faceoff work, and a long record of being detested by opponents.

He wins draws at one of the best rates in the league and that alone has value in a series.

The Intangibles

Forty-six per cent of the expected goals, 18th percentile, against 50 per cent of the shot attempts, 57th, across 977 minutes in New York — with the chances 36.0 for and 42.3 against.

That four-point gap between attempts and chances is the wrong way round: he was on the ice for as many shots as the opposition and considerably worse ones.

He is 33, a third-round pick, and joins a club that needs a second-line centre while Cooley grows. Fifty-three points says he can still be one; the underlying work says not for much longer.