It was supposed to be a game that highlighted the NHL’s next generation of superstars, the first meeting between Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. Instead, it was a coming out party for Nazem Kadri, the shutdown centre.

Tasked with shadowing McDavid that night, one of the toughest jobs in hockey, he did not disappoint. McDavid was held pointless – and boy, is that hard to do – and Kadri scored two, the first of which set the tone in under 90 seconds, while the second was an incredible effort to steal the puck from McDavid himself and then shake him off to win it in overtime just 12 seconds in. Kadri was also plus-3 in shot attempts, against one of the best players in the world, on a night where most Leafs were deep in the negatives. It was his best game of the season.

Kadri came into the league as a dynamic offensive player, but with the influx of young talent coming into the locker room this season, his role has changed. It’s clear right now that Mike Babcock is using his lines for specific reasons: scoring, shutdown, possession, and slowdown, and in order for it all to work, someone has to do the dirty work. That means taking the defensive zone assignments and facing the opposition’s best.

Both Kadri’s quality of competition and defensive zone starts are among the highest in the league this season, but his shot rates still hover around break even. It can’t be forgotten that he’s received the short end of the stick in terms of wingers to play with either. He’s been put in a position to fail so others can succeed, but he’s holding his own anyway.

There’s been a lot of research done on how usage affects a player’s stats, most of it pointing towards a smaller effect than most would suspect. The distribution of competition quality in current metrics is very tight (everyone plays a similar quality of player on average) while lopsided zone starts don’t hurt as much either because most shifts start on-the-fly. While that’s what most current studies suggest, I’m more of the belief that it’s a part of hockey analysis that hasn’t been fully cracked yet, and there’s outliers worth exploring further.

In Kadri’s case, his shot rates have dropped over the past two seasons as his defensive usage has increased each season. Per Corsica, the Leafs had a 4.5 percent better share of the shot attempts with Kadri on the ice in 2014-15 compared to when he was on the bench. That dropped to 1.4 last season and -0.4 this season. Whether it matters to the majority of players or not, it’s likely something that’s affected Kadri’s numbers.

Being just slightly below break even may not seem very impressive, but it means he’s keeping the opposition’s best, when they’re in the most dangerous position on the ice, mostly in check. And if it helps Matthews and Bozak put up better numbers than they normally would, it’s a worthy sacrifice. This season, Kadri has shown he can handle the added responsibility.

What’s perhaps more interesting is that Kadri actually has more responsibility at 5-on-5 this season than most of the league’s best defensive centres. Among all seasons played by NHL forwards in the last five years, Kadri’s season to date is in the 91st percentile for difficulty of competition faced (measured by ice-time) and 95th for defensive zone start ratio. Very few forwards have it that tough in both categories simultaneously. At an average of 93 percent between the two, Kadri has the toughest defensive usage of any forward this season.

Here’s what his (and 12 other centres with a strong defensive reputation) defensive usage looks like compared to his relative shot attempts percentage. The transparent blue spots underneath is every forward over the last three seasons compared in the same way.

Most of the players have stronger results than Kadri, suggesting he has some way to go, but only three other players carry a similar defensive burden: Mikael Backlund, Ryan Kesler and Mikko Koivu. Most of these players face the same tough competition, but it’s just those three that also have to deal with tougher zone starts. Backlund and Kesler are handling things a bit better, but the fact Kadri is right there with Koivu, quietly one of the better defensive centres in the league, is a decent measuring stick for his ability. Interestingly enough, there’s not many other players in the same area from past seasons. Very few players see such extreme defensive usage and most of the best Corsi rates come from players with a more offensive usage, too.

All 12 of these guys are pretty reputable defensive centres, and Kadri doesn’t really look too out of place next to them. Kesler finished third in Selke voting last year in a spot somewhere between Backlund and Kadri this season. Kadri may not have the best numbers here, but he’s doing well considering he’s had the toughest deployment.

A couple weeks ago, TSN’s Scott Cullen made the argument for Kadri’s defensive game when he posted his quarter season awards putting Kadri in third behind Patrice Bergeron and Jordan Staal for the Selke. He cited the immense degree of difficulty that he’s dealt with as the main reason for his inclusion, but while there’s a case for Kadri statistically speaking, it’s hard to see voters going in that direction for two reasons.

The first is that he is terrible at faceoffs. To most that may seem silly considering how overhyped they are relative to their actual importance, but they are a very real consideration for Selke voters. Of the 45 centres that finished top 10 in Selke voting since 2011, none had a faceoff percentage as low as Kadri’s meagre 45 percent, and only nine were below 50 percent.

The second is that he doesn’t kill penalties. It’s hard to be considered a defensive forward when you’re not used in the situation with the most defensive leverage, but at the same time it’s not something Kadri can control. Still, just six of the 60 players in the top 10 for voting killed less than 20 percent of their team’s penalties, and three of those were Pavel Datsyuk, who has a far more sparkling defensive resume and reputation than Kadri.

Reputation means a lot to a vote for anything concerning defensive acumen. Datsyuk will get votes regardless of whether he kills penalties, because he has a reputation for being among the league’s best defensive centres. The same thing goes for the current trifecta of elite two-way centres: Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews. Each are terrific defensive players, and even in a down year, they’ll get votes anyways because of their reputation.

Kadri doesn’t have that kind of respect, but it’s getting there, especially if he continues playing the way he has this season. Kadri’s brand of defence isn’t traditional. It’s more about pushing play forward and keeping the puck away from the defensive zone than anything he specifically does there. But if it works in executing Babcock’s game-plan, that’s all that really matters.

If the Leafs do better than expected this season, and Kadri keeps getting the league’s toughest assignments, people will recognize how vital he is to Toronto’s success. They’ll remember all the times he shut down the other team’s best and how often the Leafs controlled play with him on the ice. But mostly, they’ll remember that one shift against McDavid, the shift that started the conversation. The one that shifted the narrative and highlighted just how good his 200-foot game is.

Kadri won’t win the Selke this year, and he may not get many votes either, but he’s emerged as one of the better two-way centres in the league. His metrics put him among the top 10 defensive forwards in the league, and as such, he deserves to at least be in the conversation.