Armchair Hockey Scout Beta
20

Brandon Saad

Vegas Golden Knights Left Wing

Two Stanley Cups, 935 games, and 30 points across two clubs at 32.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2011-12CHI20000000030.014:01
2012-13CHI46101727+17120129810.216:28
2013-14CHI78192847+202030215911.916:17
2014-15CHI82232952+71220620311.317:15
2015-16CBJ78312253+11460723313.317:13
2016-17CBJ82242953+23810421011.417:02
2017-18CHI82181735-10141082377.617:30
2018-19CHI80232447-91253319511.817:41
2019-20CHI58211233+21612514015.016:45
2020-21COL4415924+1122016822.114:06
2021-22STL78242549+111081115815.216:16
2022-23STL71191837-81222112715.016:39
2023-24STL82261642-42050714418.115:30
2024-25STL/VGK72131730-8600112710.214:49
2025-26 so far
Career935266263529+4316836948210212.716:31

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

13 goals and 17 assists in 72 games across St. Louis and Vegas — 30 points at 14:49 a night, minus-8, on 127 shots and 6 penalty minutes.

54.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 87th percentile. His ice went 34-30 against an expectation of 38.09-32.20 — four goals of scoring missing and two fewer conceded.

The Finesse Game

127 attempts at a median of 21 feet with 48 per cent from inside 20, converting at 10.2 per cent. He goes to the paint and the finishing has fallen away — he scored 26 goals in 2021-22 and has scored 13 in each of the last two seasons.

17 assists in 72 games. He was never a creator; the value has always been the straight-line speed and the willingness to use it into the hard areas.

The Physical Game

6-1 and 207 and he plays honestly. He forechecks properly and he wins some pucks below the goal line, and he does not initiate much contact.

6 penalty minutes in 72 games is among the lowest totals of any regular in this edition. He does not foul and he does not retaliate.

The Intangibles

A second-round pick in 2011 and 935 games and 529 points across five organisations, with two Stanley Cups in Chicago before he was 23.

He is 33. He was bought out in St. Louis and claimed by Vegas in November, which for a player with this record is an unusual way to arrive.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 914 minutes

Expected goals
54.2%
87th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
51.5%
69th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 34 for, 30 against. Expected: 38.1 and 32.2.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
60th
Numbers
87th

The numbers rank him 27 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 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 with STL · 554 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
VGK took 53.5% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.2% — 0.7 above the club he did it on.
The role
914 minutes at five-on-five — 48th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Colton Parayko50.2%55.5%50.1%
Ryan Suter49.2%55.9%47.9%
Pavel Dorofeyev60.0%52.2%56.1%

50.2% together, 55.5% for him apart and 50.1% for Parayko apart. He was better away from Parayko, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Parayko.

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

172 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 48% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 16% from beyond forty.