Vinni Lettieri

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

With Anaheim. 5 goals and 5 assists in 31 games — 10 points at 12:31 a night, minus-8, with 2 power-play goals on 50 shots and 6 penalty minutes.

46.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 341 minutes, on a club that finished 23rd. His ice went 8-13 against an expectation of 13.52-15.4 — five and a half goals of scoring that the chances said should have arrived and did not.

Thirty-one games at twelve minutes is a recall rather than a season.

The Finesse Game

50 attempts in 31 games is a real rate, at a median of 30 feet with 35 per cent from inside 20, converting at 10 per cent. Five goals in 31 games is a better return than most thirteenth forwards manage, and 18 points in 82 career games is the whole NHL record.

The shot leaves at 94.8 mph, which is genuinely hard for a 5-10 winger, and 2 of the 5 goals came on the power play.

The Physical Game

5-10 and 184, 6 penalty minutes in 31 games. There is no physical dimension and there does not need to be at the edge of a roster.

The tracking gives a 22.4 mph top speed and 1.3 bursts above 20 mph a game. Quick enough; nothing exceptional.

The Intangibles

Undrafted out of Minnesota, and 82 NHL games across the Rangers, Anaheim and now Boston — the son and nephew of professional players, and a Hobey Baker finalist’s career that has never quite converted.

He is 27, signed as depth. On a club whose top six is settled and whose fourth line is under review, an undrafted winger who scores at a fourth-line rate when recalled is exactly the sort of insurance that never makes a headline and occasionally plays forty games.