This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Alex Vlasic
Chicago Blackhawks Defense
82 games at 23:16 a night, a 41.9 per cent chance share, and on-ice goals of 56-82.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | CHI | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8.3 | 14:19 |
| 2022-23 | CHI | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 19:38 |
| 2023-24 | CHI | 76 | 2 | 14 | 16 | -4 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 71 | 2.8 | 21:29 |
| 2024-25 | CHI | 82 | 4 | 26 | 30 | -23 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 3.9 | 23:16 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 179 | 7 | 42 | 49 | -30 | 59 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 190 | 3.7 | 21:38 |
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
4 goals and 26 assists in 82 games for 30 points, minus-23, on 23:16 a night — the heaviest workload on the club.
41.9 per cent at five-on-five, the 4th percentile, over 1,460 minutes. His on-ice goals were 56-82 against an expected 47-65 — 17 goals of goaltending on top of a chance share that was already near the bottom of the league.
The Finesse Game
Modest. 103 shots with 75 per cent from beyond 40 feet and 4 goals, and a first pass that is safe rather than quick.
26 assists at 23 minutes a night is a fair return for a defensive defenceman on a club that scored 218 goals. There is no power-play case and no rush game.
The Physical Game
6-6 and 217, and he uses the reach exceptionally well. He closes a rush at the blue line, defends his net front, and is genuinely difficult to get around — the tools for a shutdown defenceman are all here.
12 penalty minutes over 82 games is remarkable for a man of this size playing these minutes, and it is the strongest evidence that the reads are good.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick, four years at Boston University, and a top-pair job at 23 on the worst possession team in the league.
A 4th-percentile chance share is alarming and the context is extreme: he plays the hardest minutes on a club that finished 32nd in creating chances and 29th at preventing them. The 12 penalty minutes are the reason to believe there is a good defenceman here. He needs a competent team around him before anyone can say.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,460 minutes
- Expected goals
- 41.9%
- 5th pct
- Shot attempts
- 42.1%
- 3rd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 56 for, 82 against. Expected: 46.6 and 64.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 48 points above where the numbers do. 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 — 73 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 · 1460 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
- CHI took 43.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 41.9% — 1.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,460 minutes at five-on-five — 98th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connor Bedard | 39.7% | 43.1% | 41.9% |
| Connor Murphy | 43.4% | 41.1% | 46.6% |
| Ryan Donato | 41.1% | 42.2% | 45.4% |
39.7% together, 43.1% for him apart and 41.9% for Bedard apart. He was better away from Bedard, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Bedard.
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
146 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 52 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 75% from beyond forty.