William Carrier

Last Season

Seven goals and 11 assists in 70 games, plus-five, at 10:45 a night. Eighteen penalty minutes, which is low for him.

The Finesse Game

More than the role suggests. A hundred and twenty-nine unblocked attempts with 49 per cent from inside twenty feet, median 21, and seven goals.

He goes to the net and he takes what is there. Sixty-nine goals in 526 career games is a fourth-line rate and an honest one.

The Physical Game

Six foot two, 214, and this is the trade. He forechecks hard, hits everything, and has spent a decade being the man opposing defencemen do not want to retrieve a puck against.

The eighteen penalty minutes are a career low and probably a coaching instruction on a club that finished first on the penalty kill and had no interest in testing it.

The Intangibles

Fifty-six per cent of the expected goals, 91st percentile, and 59.5 per cent of the shot attempts, 98th, in 742 minutes.

He is 31, a decade in, and one of the few forwards on this roster who is genuinely heavy. Carolina’s top six is built out of small skilled players who shoot from close range; the fourth line is where the club keeps the men who make that possible.

In a tight series he plays more, not less.