10 Interesting (To Me) Stats For This Week - November 4
We are four weeks into the NHL regular season and while the sample sizes aren’t quite big enough to make determinations, we are at the point where we can look for trends we need to keep an eye on. Today, we’re going to start evaluating trends by looking at the tracking data gathered by All Three Zones. All tracking data presented is at 5-on-5, and the samples here are even smaller so we’re going to ignore some of the teams with only a game or two that have been tracked.
This article will focus on defencemen and their offensive contributions. All data is current as of the morning of November 3rd, 2025.
1 – Happy Feet
League-wide, defence groups from individual teams are averaging about 31.7% of their zone entries being carried in. There are four teams at 50% or higher, but three of those teams still have very small samples. The fifth team by carried entries from defencemen? One of the biggest surprises of the season in the Pittsburgh Penguins:
This high percentage of carried entries has yet to translate into a lot of offensive success for Pittsburgh at 5-on-5 as they sit 16th in the league by goals-for per 60 minutes. However, they are 8th in the league by expected goals-for per 60 minutes, so there could be a bit of unlucky shooting percentages that will correct themselves over the balance of their schedule if their defencemen stay as involved in the transition through the neutral zone as they have.
2 – There’s a Surprise
One of my contentions has long been that Toronto can struggle to create offence at 5-on-5 because their defencemen are consistently the least involved in generating offence for the team. That has indeed been the case again in 2025-26 as they have the third-lowest percentage of entries carried in by defencemen, and the two teams below them have tiny ice-time samples so that will change quickly:
The offence has been there for Toronto, scoring 3.1 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, but they sit 25th by expected goals rate. They are the inverse of Pittsburgh in that they might be getting some good offensive luck right now and the rest of their schedule will tell us the real story of this team’s offensive prowess.
3 – The Outlier
While Toronto’s defence group has largely struggled to be a meaningful part of the team’s transition offence, that has not been the case for Morgan Rielly. He has four carried entries in about 70.5 minutes of tracked ice time, where the rest of Toronto’s blue line has half that number of carried entries in over 310 combined minutes of 5-on-5 ice time:
As it stands, Rielly leads Toronto defencemen by 5-on-5 shot attempt and expected goal share, is clearly helping the offence get moving up the ice, and he is on pace for over 50 points. It has been a very good start to the season for the 31-year-old blue liner, but let’s see how the next five months go before getting too excited. He can’t keep doing this all himself and the rest of his defensive teammates need to start picking up some of the slack.
4 – Holy Canuck
If I said that three of the four defencemen with at least 50 tracked minutes at 5-on-5 have a carried zone entry percentage were Quinn Hughes, Erik Karlsson, and Evan Bouchard, no one would bat an eye, right? What if I said the fourth player on that list was… Tyler Myers?:
We have to get some more games in the sample before we can really start to believe Myers will be anything close to this, but given all the injuries the Canucks have had, it’s not a huge surprise that someone on the blue line decided to take matters into their own hands.
5 – Capital Punishment
At 5-on-5, the Washington Capitals are in the top-6 of the league by shot attempts, shots on goal, and expected goals per 60 minutes. Last year, they were excellent offensively and though the goal rate is way down this year, a big part of that is due to the team shooting a paltry 8.2%, and it should get better. Like last year, this Washington defence group has been heavily involved in the offence as they rank fifth by contributions off the rush (shots and assists) per 60 minutes, and every team ahead of them has a very small ice-time sample:
The good news is their defencemen jumping in the rush so much hasn’t hurt them defensively as they sit in the middle of the league by expected goals against and have the lowest goals against rate. Once the shooting percentage starts to correct itself, the offensive numbers will get a lot better across-the-board.
6 – New Coach, New Team
One of my offseason contentions was that Philadelphia would see much better defensive numbers with new coach Rick Tocchet behind the bench because he doesn’t get his players to jump into the rush nearly as much as former coach John Tortorella did. For the Flyers defencemen, this has indeed been the case as they have the fourth-lowest rate of contributions off the rush in the league, and the three teams lower than them also have very small tracking samples:
So far this season, the Flyers are 13th by goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and have been even better when excluding Samuel Ersson’s starts as he’s been quite poor in his four appearances. Regardless, the Flyers were a bottom-10 team in the league by 5-on-5 goals against each of the previous two seasons and a new coaching approach seems to have turned that ship around.
7 – New Norm or Good Luck?
The Ottawa Senators currently sit 9th by goals-for per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 but are 24th by expected goals per 60 minutes. They might be getting a bit of luck in their shooting percentage, and also when considering that their defencemen have yet to register a scoring chance assist in the tracking data (SCA/60), or a helper on a teammate’s scoring chance:
Now, that sample is just a few games for Ottawa, so we don’t need to draw any firm conclusions yet, but this is a team whose defencemen rarely got involved in the transition offence or playmaking in the offensive zone last year. In a small sample to start this year, that is the case again, so let’s see where things stand a month from now to see if they can make some improvements.
8 – Get Kraken
Looking at scoring chance contributions (SCC/60, or individual chance and assists on teammate chances) as well as just scoring chance assists, there are two teams to be inside the top-5 by both measures: one is Washington, which isn’t a big surprise, but the other is a big surprise:
The Seattle Kraken currently sit 30th in goals-for per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and they have had trouble sustaining offence once they get into the zone. This is a team that is devoid of high-end offensive talent, so they may need their defencemen to stay as involved as they are if they hope to improve their scoring rate.
9 – Top Guys
Staying with Seattle for a minute, it should be no surprise that the two defencemen leading the charge for the Kraken in terms of scoring chance contributions are Vince Dunn and Brandon Montour:
For some context, the league average in this regard is about 2.79 chance contributions/60, so Dunn and Montour are about 2-2.5 chance contributions/60 higher than that average. There is a good reason why those two have combined for 15 points in 18 games to start the season.
10 – He’s Doing It Again
Among defencemen with at least 50 minutes tracked, Morgan Rielly leads the way in chance contributions, John Carlson is second, and neither is a surprise given what we’ve seen already in this article. In third place is last year’s rookie of the year:
With what we know about Hutson, this isn’t a huge surprise, either, but it’s still nice to confirm that what we’ve seen from him isn’t some sort of mirage. He has been involved in two-thirds of the 5-on-5 goals scored with him on the ice, and when we see how high his chance contribution rate is, that makes a lot of sense.
Until next week.
