Let’s start here with two players who are incredibly polarizing to their respective fan bases.

Player A finished this past season with 15 fewer points than the previous season, and 39 of the points he did get this season came on secondary assists. He’s often cast as a defensive liability, but plays a heavy minutes workload — more than 23 minutes per game — and his contract expires at the end of this season. Evolving Hockey projects his next contract at eight years with a $10.6 million average annual value. Evolving Hockey clocked his expected goals percentage this season at 57.9 — sixth on his team but below its other stars, and well above his actual goals-for percentage of 52.07. He was left off Team Canada’s roster at the 4 Nations.

Player B finished this past season with 31 points fewer than the previous season, and 13 of his 39 points this season came on secondary assists. He’s also cast as a defensive liability, but plays more than 23 minutes per game. His contract expires at the end of the season. Evolving Hockey projects his next contract at eight years with a $10.1 million average annual value. His expected goals percentage at five-on-five this year was 54.3 — the best on his team of anyone with more than 800 minutes — with his goals-for percentage at 51.53. He also was left off Team Canada’s roster at the 4 Nations.

Player A is Evan Bouchard.