He is a shutdown centre who has great on-ice awareness and play well at both ends of the rink. He can take good care of the puck and win battles, while also serving as an asset at even-strength and on the penalty kills. A utility player, Gauthier can bring a lot to the lineup and knows where he fits in at every level. -Sammi Silber

Finally, Kadri’s discipline was abnormally bad for a player who was well documented as an elite penalty drawer. This is a weakness of his, but it’s also not his fault. It’s quite documented that Kadri seemed to have a lot of calls go against him, whether it be him getting weak calls, or having some drawn penalties missed by the refs. He even had a drawn penalty called back. The refs weren’t giving him anything this year, partly because of his reputation with drawing penalties. While I wouldn’t put Kadri’s lack of discipline on him, it’s certainly something that should improve next year. – Scott Maxwell

You know what I mean, those moments that make you scream at your TV “What the @#%$ Jake?”, not even so much because you think he sucks, but more because you know that he’s better than that. Like most defensemen who rely on a strong first pass to transition to the offensive zone, Gardiner occasionally makes BAD passes. However, as he’s grown, it’s starting to leave his game, especially in the playoffs where it was almost non-existent. – Scott Maxwell

Zaitsev started a higher percentage of his shifts in the defensive zone than the rest of his teammates, and most matchup driven metrics have him spending the bulk of his time facing the toughest opponents available for much of the time that he’s on the ice. Names like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, John Tavares, Brad Marchand, Claude Giroux, Jaromir Jagr, Henrik Zetterberg, and Mark Stone litter his most frequent matchups list; combine that with penalty kill time, and you realize that this is a player that’s been playing hockey at full tilt all season. – Jeff Veillette

It’s crazy to think about how amazing Nylander was this year, and then remember that this was his first full season in the NHL. While he has an extra year of development over Matthews and Marner, there were times where Nylander could dominate the game, especially down the stretch when the games mattered. – Scott Maxwell