Gabriel Vilardi has been one of my favourite players to watch this season.

In a year where everyone is putting up video game numbers that will have your head spinning, his own counting stats won't necessarily blow anyone away at first glance. He's now up to 15 goals and 13 assists on the year, the former of which is essentially becoming a tidy month's work for someone like Auston Matthews.

But his impact in Winnipeg, and the way the Jets function as a team when he's been on the ice, has been immense. Just as interesting for our purposes here is the specific way he's done it, with a refined playing style that's helped illustrate a few key concepts that drive results in the modern NHL.

At the time of the big Pierre-Luc Dubois trade this past summer, I noted how tantalizing Vilardi's statistical