Alexander Nikishin
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
33 points and plus-18 as a rookie, at 24, after 5 years of waiting.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | CAR | 81 | 11 | 22 | 33 | +18 | 33 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 122 | 9.0 | 18:11 |
| 2026-27 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 81 | 11 | 22 | 33 | +18 | 33 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 122 | 9.0 | 18:11 |
This Season So Far
The 2026-27 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
11 goals and 22 assists in 81 games — 33 points, plus-18, at 18:11 a night. His first NHL season, having spent 5 years in Russia after being drafted 69th overall in 2020.
The Finesse Game
More offence than expected. 193 unblocked attempts from a median of 50 feet with 6 per cent inside 20, and 11 goals — a point shooter who gets it through traffic, which is a real and underrated skill.
22 assists says the first pass is quick and accurate. He is not a carrier; he is a distributor who happens to have a heavy shot.
The Physical Game
6-3, 218, and he plays the hard game the rest of this blue line mostly does not. 33 penalty minutes. He clears the crease, closes gaps with contact, and does not mind the corners.
The Intangibles
54.6 per cent of the expected goals, 85th percentile, and 58.4 per cent of the shot attempts, 97th, across 1,248 minutes — with the goals 56-43 in his favour, the best margin of any Carolina defenceman.
He is 24 and this was a first NHL season that most first NHL seasons do not resemble. The years in Russia mean he arrived finished rather than raw, which is the whole reason the club waited.
5 points in his last 10. On a blue line with Slavin hurt and Miller carrying the load, he was the one who did not look like he was being carried by the system.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2025-26 · 1,248 minutes
- Expected goals
- 54.6%
- 86th pct
- Shot attempts
- 58.4%
- 97th 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, 43 against. Expected: 61.4 and 51.1.
The eye and the numbers
SightedThe two rank him within 8 points of one another. It was written with these numbers on screen, so the agreement is not corroboration — the arithmetic is on both sides of it.
Both bars are percentiles among the 656 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 77 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2025-26 · 81 games
- Top speed
- 22.4 mph
- 78th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.80 a game
- Distance
- 2.67 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 99.4 mph
- 95th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.6
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 88.9
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Recent form
Last 20 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first
5
points in his last 10 games — 1 goals, 4 assists, 12 shots
Each bar is one game by points. Filled bars are games he scored in.
Usual linemates
2025-26 · 1248 minutes at five-on-five
- Sean Walker23%
- Joel Nystrom18%
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, 2025-26
- The club
- CAR took 55.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.6% — 1.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,248 minutes at five-on-five — 85th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logan Stankoven | 59.4% | 51.9% | 58.4% |
| Jackson Blake | 56.7% | 53.4% | 58.6% |
| Taylor Hall | 53.8% | 55.0% | 58.1% |
59.4% together, 51.9% for him apart and 58.4% for Stankoven apart. He was worse away from Stankoven, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Stankoven did.
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
193 unblocked shots in 2025-26, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 45 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 76% from beyond forty.