This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brandt Clarke
Los Angeles Kings Defense
33 points at 22 and on-ice goals of 50-21, and the most promising defenceman this organisation has had in a decade.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | LAK | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0.0 | 13:39 |
| 2023-24 | LAK | 16 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -6 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 6.5 | 13:39 |
| 2024-25 | LAK | 78 | 5 | 28 | 33 | +13 | 46 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 131 | 3.8 | 16:17 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 103 | 7 | 34 | 41 | +6 | 62 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 173 | 4.0 | 15:39 |
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
5 goals and 28 assists in 78 games for 33 points, plus-13, on 16:17 a night.
56 per cent at five-on-five, the 94th percentile, with on-ice goals of 50-21 against an expected 47.3-37.1 — 16 goals of goaltending in his favour, which is a good deal of why the plus-13 looks as it does.
The Finesse Game
The puck game is genuinely special. He walks the line, sees the seam pass, and delivers it through traffic rather than around it — 28 assists at 22 in third-pair minutes is an unusual total, and the ceiling is higher than what he was given.
131 shots and 5 goals; the release is ordinary and 64 per cent of his attempts come from beyond 40 feet. He is a distributor rather than a shooter and the power-play instincts are the best on the roster.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 200, and he does not defend by force. He is beaten in board battles by stronger forwards and does not clear a net front, and the defensive reads are still a year or two behind the offensive ones.
46 penalty minutes over 78 games is a high rate for a young defenceman in sixteen minutes a night and it is the tell.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, a long apprenticeship, and a season in which the club used him carefully and he outproduced the usage.
At 22 he is the most important defenceman in the organisation. On a team whose identity is defending, the question is whether a coach who values structure above everything will give him the minutes his offence deserves.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,061 minutes
- Expected goals
- 56%
- 94th pct
- Shot attempts
- 54.2%
- 89th 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: 50 for, 21 against. Expected: 47.3 and 37.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 30 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 — 75 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 · 1061 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
- LAK took 54.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 56.0% — 2.0 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,061 minutes at five-on-five — 70th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joel Edmundson | 54.1% | 60.1% | 45.9% |
| Kevin Fiala | 56.3% | 55.8% | 58.6% |
| Alex Laferriere | 54.2% | 56.8% | 56.5% |
54.1% together, 60.1% for him apart and 45.9% for Edmundson apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Edmundson behind.
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
170 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 52 feet. 9% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 64% from beyond forty.