Twenty games into the 2024-25 season, Stutzle has shaken an unflattering reputation of being too easy to knock off the puck. He’s fighting through checks instead of looking for a penalty call, he's commanding the play during the offensive-zone cycle and he’s fearlessly driving to the slot to create scoring opportunities.

Images don’t get more poetic than Tim Stutzle, right eye blackened on the outside and bloodied on the inside, stoically delivering a “Thank you” to a reporter who noted how fast he looked on the ice minutes earlier.