The 25-year-old rookie winger has an all-around game that adheres well to the rigors of playoff hockey. Coach Peter Laviolette trusts Read enough that he handed him key penalty-killing time this season as well as some minutes on the second power-play unit. That won't change for the postseason. The four-year grad from Bemidji State University is as mature as rookies get. The playoffs shouldn't faze him.

"I've never been in the NHL playoffs, so you just listen to the guys who have been there and you try to take in as much as you can," Read told ESPN the Magazine. "They just say ... you're not going to remember the regular-season stuff. Embrace it all. Be prepared every game because every game is going to be war."