This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brett Kulak
Edmonton Oilers Defense
A 54.5 per cent chance share on a third pair, and 25 points from a defenceman nobody discusses.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | CGY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 19:31 |
| 2015-16 | CGY | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.0 | 12:21 |
| 2016-17 | CGY | 21 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0.0 | 14:15 |
| 2017-18 | CGY | 71 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -3 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 2.7 | 12:59 |
| 2018-19 | MTL | 57 | 6 | 11 | 17 | +12 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 102 | 5.9 | 17:51 |
| 2019-20 | MTL | 56 | 0 | 7 | 7 | -1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 101 | 0.0 | 17:08 |
| 2020-21 | MTL | 46 | 2 | 6 | 8 | +3 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 3.5 | 16:06 |
| 2021-22 | MTL/EDM | 74 | 5 | 16 | 21 | -4 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 5.4 | 17:45 |
| 2022-23 | EDM | 82 | 3 | 17 | 20 | +11 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 114 | 2.6 | 17:31 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 82 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 94 | 3.2 | 15:23 |
| 2024-25 | EDM | 82 | 7 | 18 | 25 | -7 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 135 | 5.2 | 20:32 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 580 | 28 | 97 | 125 | +6 | 238 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 796 | 3.5 | 16:49 |
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
7 goals and 18 assists in 82 games for 25 points, minus-7, on 20:32 a night — 82 games and the third-most five-on-five minutes on the club.
54.5 per cent at five-on-five, the 88th percentile, with on-ice goals of 51-56 against an expected 61-51. That is 10 goals of finishing missing and 5 of goaltending against, which is this club’s season in a third-pair defenceman.
The Finesse Game
Quietly good. He escapes pressure cleanly, moves the puck early and accurately, and does not stall a breakout — which on a team whose whole offence starts with a first pass is worth more than the point total suggests.
135 shots and 7 goals with 81 per cent from beyond 40 feet. There is no rush game and none is required.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 192, and he defends with feet and stick rather than weight. He does not clear a crease and he is rarely beaten badly enough to need to.
18 penalty minutes over 82 games is exceptional discipline for a defenceman playing 20 minutes.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, three organisations, and a decade of being the third-pair defenceman every contender wishes it had.
At 31 the projection is unchanged and the value is in the price. He plays 20 minutes on a Cup finalist for a fraction of what the men above him cost.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,411 minutes
- Expected goals
- 54.5%
- 88th pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.5%
- 86th 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: 51 for, 56 against. Expected: 60.9 and 50.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 41 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 — 72 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 · 1411 minutes at five-on-five
- Ty Emberson39%
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
- EDM took 54.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.5% — 0.2 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,411 minutes at five-on-five — 96th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ty Emberson | 51.1% | 56.6% | 48.0% |
| Vasily Podkolzin | 61.2% | 51.6% | 56.3% |
| Leon Draisaitl | 57.1% | 53.1% | 59.3% |
51.1% together, 56.6% for him apart and 48.0% for Emberson apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Emberson 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
188 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 57 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 81% from beyond forty.