The figure surprised Josh Archibald.

Not necessarily the total.

But its existence.

When the fourth-line winger was informed Wednesday that he leads the Pittsburgh Penguins in penalties drawn, Archibald was perplexed a bit that the NHL maintained such a statistic.

“I honestly didn’t even know that,” Archibald said. “Didn’t really know they kept track of that.”

They do, and they complement Archibald quite a bit.

Despite having the least amount of ice time per game among those currently on the NHL roster (10 minutes, 30 seconds), Archibald leads the team with 12 penalties drawn.

Forwards Evgeni Malkin, Brock McGinn and Jason Zucker are tied for second on the team with eight each.

Through Saturday’s game, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting and Tampa Bay Lightning Nikita Kucherov, each of whom command minutes on their teams’ top two lines, lead the NHL with 19 penalties drawn.

“He plays a hard game, and people get (mad) about it and they retaliate,” Zucker said. “And he’s a fast player, so they have to pull him down or hook him to do something. He’s a very effective player for us. So it’s not surprising.”

Arguably, the two hallmarks of Archibald’s style of play are his speed and his bellicose nature.

In other words, he’s a jerk on the ice (and has been called presumably much worse on the ice).

“He was always just kind of like a pest,” said Penguins forward Teddy Blueger, a teammate of Archibald dating to their days in the American Hockey League with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. “He would always be in the middle of scrums and mixing it up and all that.

“I think guys get frustrated with that. He hits hard. There’s a couple of retaliations or cross checks that he drew.”

Not all of those penalties come from vexing the opposition. Often, they’re generated through Archibald’s skating ability.

In the season opener, a 6-2 home win against the Arizona Coyotes, Archibald, while short-handed, drew a slashing minor from Coyotes defenseman Shayne Gostibehere that wiped out the remainder of a power-play opportunity for Arizona.

“His speed, I think, puts pressure on opponents,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “His personality, he tends to irritate people out there. It’s the nature of his personality. That’s the strength of his game. He’s been a really important player for us. … He brings a ton of energy, and his energy is contagious. A byproduct of that is he draws a lot of penalties as a result.”

What’s the line between simply being effective at drawing penalties versus being someone who dives or embellishes in hopes of getting a referee to raise his hand?

“You don’t want to be diving,” Archibald said. “Just playing hard, playing honest, playing true. Obviously, there’s times where you get (a stick) in the face and you might throw your head back just to let the refs know ‘Hey, I got hit in the face.’ But I try not to dive or embellish or anything like that.”

Zucker professed a similar philosophy.

“You’ve just got to play an honest game,” he said. “You’re not really ‘good’ at it or not. It’s just your game makes people have to haul you down and do things like that. … It’s not whether you’re ‘good’ at it. It’s just whether your game allows for it. His definitely does.”

Archibald might not be aware of how prolific he is at drawing penalties, but he knows it makes him an asset for the Penguins.

“I guess that’s just the way I’ve played my whole life, how I was brought up to play,” Archibald said. “That’s a huge part of it. It takes a toll on the other team. They’re not too happy about it sometimes. So they take retaliation penalties. You’ve just got to keep calm on this side. If you can draw a penalty, draw a penalty and don’t retaliate.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off Sunday.

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