This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2025-26 report →
Brendan Smith
New Jersey Devils Defense
Sheltered starts, the best attempt share among defencemen in this batch, and the 98th-percentile penalties drawn against the 95th taken.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | DET | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 | +3 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7.7 | 15:38 |
| 2012-13 | DET | 34 | 0 | 8 | 8 | +1 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 0.0 | 18:24 |
| 2013-14 | DET | 71 | 5 | 14 | 19 | -2 | 68 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 5.6 | 18:23 |
| 2014-15 | DET | 76 | 4 | 9 | 13 | -2 | 68 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 4.5 | 17:53 |
| 2015-16 | DET | 63 | 3 | 12 | 15 | +1 | 62 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 3.7 | 17:36 |
| 2016-17 | DET/NYR | 51 | 3 | 6 | 9 | +1 | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 62 | 4.8 | 19:14 |
| 2017-18 | NYR | 44 | 1 | 7 | 8 | +2 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 1.5 | 17:10 |
| 2018-19 | NYR | 63 | 4 | 9 | 13 | -7 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 6.1 | 15:18 |
| 2019-20 | NYR | 62 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -12 | 71 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 6.7 | 11:06 |
| 2020-21 | NYR | 48 | 5 | 5 | 10 | +3 | 73 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 8.6 | 16:26 |
| 2021-22 | CAR | 45 | 4 | 4 | 8 | +6 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 63 | 6.3 | 13:55 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 571 | 33 | 85 | 118 | -6 | 630 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 666 | 5.0 | 16:30 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 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 4 assists in forty-five games for Carolina at 13:55 a night — the 4th percentile for ice time among defencemen — plus-6, thirty-six penalty minutes. Twenty-seventh overall in 2007, fourteen seasons, 571 games, 630 career penalty minutes.
The Finesse Game
57.1 per cent of the attempts is the 97th percentile among defencemen and 54.8 per cent of the expected goals the 85th. Those are excellent figures and they need the qualifier immediately: 56.2 per cent of his end-zone starts came in the attacking end, comfortably on the sheltered side of the league.
Carolina finished second in the league in attempt share. A third-pair defenceman starting in the attacking end on that club is going to post numbers like these, and they say very little about him.
6.04 shots per 60 is the 83rd percentile at a 54-foot median with five per cent from the slot — a pure point shot, on 94.5 mph.
0.83 even-strength points per 60 is the 34th percentile and no power-play points at all.
The Physical Game
6.99 hits per 60 is the 85th percentile at 6-2 and 200 pounds, in his fourteenth season. 3.83 blocks per 60 is the 41st.
1.05 penalties drawn per 60 is the 98th percentile among defencemen and 1.44 taken is the 95th, from a man with 630 career penalty minutes. He is in almost everything, and the net comes out at the 32nd percentile.
The Intangibles
21.6 mph is the 31st percentile, 1.4 bursts per 60 the 48th, 8.68 miles per 60 the 74th. Slow, ordinary sprinting, above-average ground covered.
He is 33 and joins a defence corps that has lost P.K. Subban and Ty Smith. What he brings is fourteen minutes, contact, and a willingness to be in everything — and the possession numbers that look best in his file are Carolina’s, not his.
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
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
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.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
85.4% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 95th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
- hard-shot· beats a goaltender from range
4 of 70 attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 5.7%, 99th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.21) · 16% keep it
“1.05 penalties drawn per 60 is the 98th percentile among defencemen and 1.44 taken is the 95th, from a man with 630 career penalty minutes.”
“6.99 hits per 60 is the 85th percentile at 6-2 and 200 pounds, in his fourteenth season.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 579 minutes
- Expected goals
- 54.8%
- 85th pct
- Shot attempts
- 57.1%
- 95th 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: 23 for, 19 against. Expected: 27.3 and 22.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 52 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 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 57 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, 2021-22 · 45 games
- Top speed
- 21.6 mph
- 51st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.33 a game
- Distance
- 2.01 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 94.5 mph
- 65th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.4
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.
Usual linemates
2021-22 with CAR · 579 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, 2021-22
- The club
- CAR took 55.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.8% — 0.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 579 minutes at five-on-five — 24th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Cole | 59.7% | 50.0% | 56.0% |
| Martin Necas | 52.1% | 55.8% | 50.1% |
| Vincent Trocheck | 57.8% | 53.6% | 53.6% |
59.7% together, 50.0% for him apart and 56.0% for Cole apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
82 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 57 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 85% from beyond forty.