At the end of last season, I said I was going to do a write up of Brink and Foester -- I never got around to Brink, so I figured I would do it now. I also want to add that I'm a big Brink supporter, I think he could be a 60-70 point player under the right conditions.
Thru the first quarter of the season, Brink was on pace for ~50ish points, and was putting up very decent underlying numbers. He played very well with Farabee and Cates in most of those games. However, he started to bounce around the lineup, loosing Tort's trust in the process. For the first 30 games he was averaging around 14-15min per game, but then dropped to around 12 for the next 15ish, then subsequently sent to the AHL (put up 13points in 13 games played). But even through the first half of the season, Brink was still pacing for ~40 points, and putting up very good tracking numbers.
When he made his way back up to the big club, he was a noticeably different player than the beginning of the year. His overall underlying metrics took a nose dive, as did his production numbers. Ultimately he finished up with a projected 33 points over 82 games. There are some valid excuses to his degradation in play including returning from injury, 'tough love' from the coach, and first time playing this long of a season.... But even if I want to attribute some his late-season poor performances to the issues listed above, I still believe that Brink is responsible for his on-ice performances. He needs to be better when his number is called.
However, the one thing that stands out with Brink is his offensive ability with puck on stick. Below are his tracking numbers from the 23-24 season. The darker the blue, the higher percentile you are in that particular category. As you can see, he was very good in chance creation across the board.