Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

3

Brayden McNabb

Vegas Golden Knights Defense

Five hundred and nine penalty minutes, and one power-play goal in 740 games.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2011-12BUF25178-115100234.317:50
2013-14BUF12000+16000100.017:14
2014-15LAK7122224+1152001742.715:54
2015-16LAK8121214+1192001912.218:49
2016-17LAK49224+154000474.315:04
2017-18VGK7651015+2652001885.720:09
2018-19VGK8141216+1152001844.819:29
2019-20VGK71279+140010732.720:01
2020-21VGK41268+1016000395.119:18
2021-22VGK6931518+1042000853.519:42
2022-23VGK8211617+1751000891.119:51
2023-24VGK8242226+1837000864.719:21
2024-25 so far
Career74028131159+1165091147893.518:50

This Season So Far

The 2024-25 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

82 games, 4 goals and 22 assists for 26 points, 37 penalty minutes, 19:21 a night and plus-18. He took 52.3 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,372 minutes, the 70th percentile, and his ice went 60-50 against an expectation of 58.14-53.09.

Two goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and three goals of goaltending above them. Twenty-six points is a career high at 33 and he played all 82 games to get it.

The Finesse Game

122 attempts at a median of 54 feet with 70 per cent of them from beyond forty and 7 per cent from inside twenty, 85 of those on goal, converted at 4.7 per cent against a career 3.55 across 789 shots.

One career power-play goal in 740 games. There is no offensive part of this game and there has not been one for twelve seasons; the puck goes at the net from the point to be tipped or it goes to the far wall.

The Physical Game

He is 6-4 and 215 and took 37 penalty minutes.

509 career penalty minutes in 740 games. He is heavy and defends entirely through contact, clearing the crease and finishing every check on the wall; twelve seasons of it is where five hundred penalty minutes come from.

The Intangibles

Sixty-sixth overall in 2009 by Buffalo, twelve seasons, and Vegas is his third organisation.

A career plus-116 in 740 games, tied for the second-largest figure on this roster. He is 33, he has played for this club in every one of its seven seasons, and he has finished on the right side of the ledger in all seven.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,372 minutes

Expected goals
52.3%
70th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
49.7%
53rd pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 60 for, 50 against. Expected: 58.1 and 53.1.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
76th
Numbers
70th

The two rank him within 6 points of one another. 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.

Both bars are percentiles among the 652 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

2023-24 · 1372 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, 2023-24

The club
VGK took 51.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.3% — 1.1 above the club he did it on.
The role
First pair, 1,372 minutes at five-on-five — 93rd percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Shea Theodore51.7%53.0%59.6%
Jonathan Marchessault48.9%53.9%51.3%
Ivan Barbashev51.3%52.7%49.0%

51.7% together, 53.0% for him apart and 59.6% for Theodore apart. Theodore was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more 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

122 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 7% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 70% from beyond forty.