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The underrated stat Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk has ridden to Hart Trophy contention

MATIAS J. OCNER/mocner@miamiherald.com

It’s not hard to paint the case for Matthew Tkachuk as a legitimate contender for the Hart Trophy this year. The All-Star right wing entered the weekend with the fourth most points in the NHL, fifth most assists, sixth most offensive point shares and seventh most goals created, and has helped the Florida Panthers fight back into postseason contention after an abysmal end to 2022.

What Tkachuk does when he has the puck is only a piece of what makes him great, though. What he does when the puck is loose around opponents’ nets separates him. No one in the league is better at winning those battles around the goal in the offensive zone.

“He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen in front of the net,” center Sam Bennett said Friday.

Tracking data for hustle statistics like puck retrievals and missed shot recoveries aren’t widely available, but some small peaks at what is available paint a clear picture: No one in the NHL is better that Tkachuk at winning battles around the goal in the offensive zone.

As recently as a week ago, Tkachuk was averaging 2.14 offensive zone shot recoveries per game and no one else in the league was averaging even 1.80, according to Stathletes founder Meghan Chayka.

In the week since Chayka tweeted out the stat, Tkachuk has been even better, too. In Tkachuk’s last two games before the Panthers hosted the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Tkachuk had three goals and four assists, with two of the goals coming off rebounds and one of the assists coming after he recovered a loose puck behind the net.

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The 25-year-old winger also leads the league in expected goals on rebound shots, according to MoneyPuck.com, and passes from behind the net per game, per Chayka.

He also leads the NHL in rebounds created and sits near the top of the NHL’s scoring leaderboard despite ranking outside the top 50 in rush attempts. It all makes for an unusual superstar profile.

“He’s a smart hockey player. His hockey IQ is very high,” defenseman Radko Gudas said Friday. “He knows where the puck’s going to be. He knows where the guys are going to go before the guys are going to go there.”

Tkachuk’s last three games going into the weekend marked his best three-game stretch of the year, with 10 points vault him up to 91 for the season. He’s already in the top five for the franchise’s all-time single-season points list and has a chance to take down star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau’s franchise record of 115, set last year right before Florida traded him to the Flames for Tkachuk.

Barring a major dip in production in the final dozen games of the year, Tkachuk will wind up with only the second 100-point season in club history and set a new single-season career best for scoring.

“A complete lack of fear and hand skills would be the two things,” coach Paul Maurice said Friday when asked what makes Tkachuk so good at playing his old-school style. “He does a really strong job of rolling his hips into people and then separating them that way, and I’m still amazed with his hands and I see him every single day. ... He also will bring it to traffic, he won’t try to bring it to open ice all the way.”

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Perhaps the best example of all he can do came March 10 in an overtime win against the Blackhawks, which kicked off Tkachuk’s three-game scoring binge. Tkachuk won a battle on the boards behind Chicago’s net and carried the puck up to the goal line, where two defenders were waiting. Confidently, the star forward slipped a pass from the right doorstep to the left and Bennett scored with ease.

This year, more than 90 percent of Tkachuk’s goals have come from inside and beneath the two face-off dots, and more than 50 percent from either along the crease or inside it.

“He’s a big, strong guy,” said Bennett, who also played with Tkachuk in Calgary and know centers his line. “He works hard, he goes to the dirty areas, he’s not afraid to take some cross checks and hits, and he works on it.”