Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

15

Alex Newhook

Montreal Canadiens Center

26 points and a minus-21, and a 50.8 per cent chance share that says the rating is not his.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2020-21COL6033+5200080.013:41
2021-22COL71132033+111230511311.513:34
2022-23COL8214163002210311612.113:57
2023-24MTL55151934-11182028517.616:56
2024-25MTL82151126-212410311812.715:08
2025-26 so far
Career2965769126-1678701344013.014:44

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

15 goals and 11 assists in 82 games for 26 points, minus-21, on 15:08 a night.

50.8 per cent at five-on-five, the 61st percentile — the second-best figure among the club’s forwards — with on-ice goals of 43-31 against an expected 45.8-44.3. The five-on-five play was fine; the minus-21 came shorthanded and on the empty net.

The Finesse Game

The skating is genuinely good and it is the only elite tool. He enters the zone with speed and can beat a defenceman wide.

118 shots and 15 goals at 12.7 per cent is a fair rate, and 11 assists in 82 games is very thin — he does not create for other people and never has. The hands do not keep up with the feet when the play slows.

The Physical Game

5-11 and 200, and he plays honestly without winning much. He forechecks at speed and is separated from possession by defencemen who get a body on him.

24 penalty minutes over 82 games. The durability has been good since arriving here.

The Intangibles

A first-round pick, a Cup in Colorado in a small role, and a trade that cost Montreal two high picks.

At 24 the projection is a third-line winger who scores 15. The minus-21 should not be held against him and the 11 assists should.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,034 minutes

Expected goals
50.8%
62nd pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
46.7%
22nd pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 43 for, 31 against. Expected: 45.8 and 44.3.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
41st
Numbers
62nd

The numbers rank him 21 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.

Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 71 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.

Usual linemates

2024-25 · 1034 minutes at five-on-five

Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.

Why the numbers land there

Five-on-five, 2024-25

The club
MTL took 48.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.8% — 2.2 above the club he did it on.
The role
Fourth line, 1,034 minutes at five-on-five — 66th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Kirby Dach51.1%50.6%44.9%
Lane Hutson50.7%50.9%52.7%
Patrik Laine49.1%51.8%38.3%

51.1% together, 50.6% for him apart and 44.9% for Dach apart. Dach was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Dach than for him.

Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.

Where he shoots from

goal on goal missed

198 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 15 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 40% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 13% from beyond forty.