Can Wilson live up to his deal?

The Capitals’ Tom Wilson isa unique product, a 6-foot-4-inch, 220pound winger who hits with ferocity and hits to hurt, a rare intimidation factor in today’s NHL that led Washington over the weekend to add seven more years to his deal for a total $45.5 million. The deal begins in the fall of ’24, at which time he will be 30.

It’s an OK deal if Wilson can play to his profile well into his 30s. But that feels like a huge ask for a guy who missed most of 2022-23 after undergoing surgery (torn ACL) on his left knee. He’ll also have to find willing sparring partners, which could present even more of a challenge.

Milan Lucic once filled the Wilson “beast” role for the Bruins, and did so with both power and panache, but Looch’s effectiveness was on the wane for a year or two before new GM Don Sweeney wheeled him to LA in the summer of 2015. Lucic had turned 27 and the winger had not cracked the 100 PIM mark since 2011-12.

Simple fact was, Lucic fought and played best when he fired up a rage, and with age came less rage, concurrent with the league each year being stocked with fewer willing, able combatants. What is the sound of one hand punching when there’s nothing, or no one, to punch?

Wilson logged over 100 PIMs in each of his first six NHL seasons with the Caps. He has not reached that threshold since 2018-19.

Lucic, like Wilson, cashed in for his biggest pay day with his rep well established. In the summer of ’16, as an unrestricted free agent, he received 7 years/$42 million from the Oilers, with ex-Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli certain Looch’s intimidation factor would boost a young roster. It never happened.

Be it irony or coincidence, Wilson and Lucic will enter the season each with 1,299 career penalty minutes. Lucic hitched back on with the Bruins in July. The Caps visit the Garden for a preseason matchup Oct. 3. Things don’t get real between the clubs until Wilson & Co. return to town Feb. 10.

Loose pucks

Dubas also wheeled ex-UNH goalie Casey DeSmith to the Habs, who appear ready to enter 2023-24 with Jake Allen as their No. 1. Dubas foreshadowed DeSmith’s departure with his July 1 free-agent hire of Alex Nedeljkovic,

27, who has built legit creds with Detroit and Carolina. DeSmith became a Pens lifer since departing the Durham campus in the spring of 2014. He went 5-2 this spring for Team USA in the World Championship . . . The last defenseman to be dealt immediately after winning the Norris? Doug Harvey.

Then age 36, Harvey won it for a fifth time in ’61 with the Habs and was dealt that offseason to the Rangers for Lou Fontinato (career PIMs: 1,248). Harvey then won his sixth and final Norris in his first year with the Blueshirts. The legendary D’man took his final twirls with Scotty Bowman’s 1968-69 St. Louis Blues . . . Upon reporting to the Bruins, Gilbert credited Gump Worsley for shaping him into a bona fide NHL goaltender. “I call him my dad,” Gilbert told the Globe. The Gumper, reported Gilles, preached the virtues of the stand-up style, remaining upright in the crease and moving out as needed to take away a shooter’s look at the net. All of that today, of course, is the stuff of leather boots and wooden sticks . . . Washington wonder Alex Ovechkin enters 2023-24 with 822 goals and 1,485 points. He needs 73 more strikes to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894 goals . . . Cheevers, who will turn 83 Dec. 7, will undergo knee replacement surgery this week. “Should have done it 10 years ago,” he said, noting the pain has forced him in recent months to stay off the golf course, where he often partners with Brad

Park. “But this’ll be good. I’ve told the guys at the club, ‘You’re not going to want to play me when I’m back.’ ”