Why Boston’s bonafide stud, coming off a career-best season, is the best endorsement of the old „keep your feet moving“ adage.
Charlie McAvoy, now an established NHL veteran, has moved from his signature “step up and separate the man from the puck” game toward a more puck-oriented positioning-and-transition game, and all while covering elite ground and logging heavy minutes. The reward: a career-high 61 point season for the Bruins two-way D. So what’s the on-ice habit we can identify that would explain his offensive mojo? Let’s dig in.
What it means on the ice.
The Stat: Career-high in points, career-low in hits.
McAvoy recorded 61 points (11G, 50A) and 79 hits across 69 games in 2025-26. That’s not only marginal highs and lows for his NHL career, but a sharp drop-off YOY, even adjusted for games played (he only played 50 games the previous season):
- Points/GP: 0.46 → 0.88
- Hits/GP: 1.78 → 1.14
Would we expect McAvoy to switch on offensively just because new head coach Marco Sturm took over? Three reasons why that is unlikely:
- Ice Time: McAvoy’s average TOI went from 23:42 → 24:23, an increase of just one shift per game or 2.9% total (in that same span, per game: points +91%, hits -36%).
- Usage: Highly unlikely to favor offense. McAvoy’s power play TOI/GP actually decreased from 3:19 → 3:04; he was equally relied on on the PK (2:40 TOI/PG at 4-on-5); and his OZ start rate is barely above NHL average (36% OZ starts vs. 35% in the DZ).
- System: Marco Sturm is all but „run-and-gun“. Making up for a sub-par roster, the Bruins regularly have four players above the puck in the 1-2-2 forecheck to prevent vulnerability in transition.
So, without obvious structural pointers, what is it about McAvoy’s game?
The Insight: An elite mobility profile.
In 2025/26, correlating with his career-high in points, he led the NHL in only one statistical category for the first time since NHL Edge began tracking: miles skated among D-men, adjusted for GP and TOI.
- In 2025/26, McAvoy averaged 9.11 miles per 60 minutes TOI, up from 8.87 miles the previous season.
- His numbers are elite in all situations, ranking in the 94th percentile for power play skating distance (32.27 miles) and the 92nd percentile on the PK (23.03 miles).
To many coaches’ delight, McAvoy in fact „keeps his feet moving“. This matters, because an equally benign coaching wisdom proclaims that if you want to impact the game more, you „gotta have the puck more“. This also shows in how McAvoy is involved in transitions:
- At even strength, his zone time is split evenly between the OZ and DZ (40.8% vs. 40.1% of total TOI). Both ranks in the bottom half (!) among defensemen.
- His 19.1% TOI spent in the NZ, however, ranks in the 92nd percentile. Why would he spend more time in the NZ than almost any other NHL D? Because he joins plays up and down the ice at a rate no one else does.
The hypothesis, therefore: McAvoy’s elite mobility enables him to make plays (and outright „be in plays“) in all three zones. The tradeoff: a career-high in miles skated pulls him out of retrievals or blue line stand-ups just often enough to negatively impact his hits per game (stay-at-home stuff).
The Play: “Chasing” the puck.
From McAvoy’s 28 hours TOI last season, it’s hard to pull out the one exemplary play to illustrate all that. However, just a pointer as to the real-life implications on the ice below.
In the first image pair, vintage McAvoy. In textbook defensive shape, and facing the play coming towards him, he anticipates the forward Slafkovsky to try and beat his D-partner to the strong-side. McAvoy shuffles across and stands him up at the line (+1 hit). Ironically, the seemingly more aggressive defensive play releases „his“ man into space and gives Montreal a partial breakaway.
In the second image pair, a recent zone entry with McAvoy trailing the play from an offensive pinch just moments before. With the tradeoff becoming apparent, he’s in no position to get physically involved in the play, and adds another end-to-end back check until arriving at the RD circle (+0 hits, +200 feet skated).
Disclaimer: data-supported eye-test only. Statistical analysis of how often these two exact situations played out across both seasons is warranted, particularly with other markers also present (McAvoy’s 129 blocks this season were well below the 157 3-year average and just barely above water adjusted for GP).