When Sean Monahan flung his gloves to the ice and smothered Ryan Nugent-Hopkins last Wednesday night in Edmonton, Twitter went berserk. Spectators were shocked to see the famously tame centreman who never loses his cool conversely spill it all over the ice in front of the Oilers’ bench.

Logging the first fight of his professional career displayed some unexpected edge and ferocity from Monahan that subverts the cautiousness of an perennial Lady Byng Trophy candidate. Was Monahan’s decision to toss the gloves entirely unpredictable though? Obviously nobody anticipated it against Edmonton specifically, but trading jabs in a tilt was the logical next step for someone playing the hardiest hockey of his life.

According to both stats and eyewitness testimony, this season has been unprecedented for Monahan’s physicality, and the addition of some gravel to his game is a trend that cannot be ignored when assessing his newfound role on this volatile Flames team.

First of all, Monahan is throwing his body around like never before. He currently boasts 56 hits, averaging more than one per game, whereas his previous peak in a season was merely 42. Hurtling towards a respectable 85 this year, Monahan has already surpassed and is projected to crush his previous totals of thuds. Such a substantial uptick in thuds, however, was not an emerging trend over years but somehow conjured this season alone; a glance to the past portrays Monahan as a physically harmless player, routinely exposed for his lack of physical contributions on the ice.

For a player previously starved for hits, incorporating more grit into his style has marked some quantifiable progress in Monahan’s pursuit of a more well-rounded game.

Monahan’s bolder physical play has also soared him up the ranks of Flames thumpers. Those 56 hits have earned him the 7th highest total on the entire team; last year, he sat at 13th. Engaging more, battling harder and using his shoulders beyond goal celebrations have therefore been clear priorities for Monahan this year based on his atypical but (for his standards) exceptional collision count alone.

Not by thuds alone, however, has Monahan’s hockey evolved this year to a point where fighting was conceivable. Even before Wednesday, Monahan had already spent as much time lounging in the penalty box so far this year as he had over all last season. His mere 12 minutes of penalties last year earned him a nod as a finalist for the Lady Byng, but before the fight, Monahan was already projected to finish this season past the 20 PIM threshold. Since the fight, however, his pace has jumped to push 30 PIM, and the prospect of repeat Lady Byng candidacy is stretching thinner and thinner.

So his tendency to take penalties has undeniably spiked over the course of this season, which is only really noteworthy because he’s notorious for taking so few. Taking penalties directly correlates to harassing the other team though, playing confrontational and involved and emotional hockey. Naturally then, for someone playing with more tangible abandon than previous seasons, is it not fitting that he should prove ready to finally fight for the first time?

The fight itself, however, also vaunts an untapped aggressive mentality from Monahan that has only started to seep its way into his game this year. After all, instead of responding to bells or being baited, Monahan initiates the whole conflict himself.

As the clip shows, Monahan shoved him first, grabbed his jersey first, pinned him against the boards, tore off his helmet and flailed three punches before Nugent-Hopkins could even escape the hug. Monahan was thus fierce, undaunted and clearly wanted to fight.

In the past, such physical intensity from Monahan would have been unimaginable. Yet in a season where he’s diving into corners, finishing his checks and using his body more than ever before, proceeding to punches was not a completely abrupt surprise. One could argue that a fight was a long time running, implied by trends that promised more contact, recklessness and assertion to develop from the centre. And by participating in his first scrum, he delivered. So, considering his overall physical progression this year, when Monahan threw his gloves aside to fight, it was basically like throwing one’s cap at graduation.

Yes, Sean Monahan’s production this year has faltered. Offensive expectations for him this season were leagues higher than the reality produced, but people have largely leapt to defend him by claiming that he’s focusing on other areas of the ice, rounding out his game. It’s a vague and abstract excuse, but regarding his newfound tenacity, it seems to bear some merit.

Where he’s fallen in the slot, he’s risen in the corners. While his nose used to sniff exclusively around the net, it now gets squished every so often along the boards. His numbers have slightly changed, yet so has his style of play and his usage on the ice. Monahan’s fight could therefore be emblematic of the new role that he’s adopted on this team; he’s not an enforcer in the slightest, yet also not necessarily the premier sniper. Instead, Monahan is establishing himself as an adept and effective top-six centreman whose game has gained nuance from bruises.