This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brock Faber
Minnesota Wild Defense
Twenty-four fifty-eight a night at 21, in his first season, and 47 points out of it.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | MIN | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 20:04 |
| 2023-24 | MIN | 82 | 8 | 39 | 47 | -1 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 136 | 5.9 | 24:58 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 84 | 8 | 39 | 47 | +1 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 137 | 5.8 | 24:51 |
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
All 82 games, 8 goals and 39 assists for 47 points, 3 on the power play, 26 penalty minutes, 24:58 a night and minus-1. He took 50.5 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,523 minutes, the 57th percentile, and his ice went 66-65 against an expectation of 59.04-57.83.
Seven goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and seven more conceded than they called for. Only five defencemen in this edition who played forty games took more ice than 24:58, and all five of them are older.
The Finesse Game
185 attempts at a median of 54 feet with 71 per cent from beyond 40, converted at 5.9 per cent.
39 assists in 82 games. There is no shot and there does not need to be one — the whole of the offence is the first pass and the ability to walk the line without being closed down. He retrieves under pressure and comes out of his own end with the puck rather than off the glass.
The Physical Game
He is 6-1 and 200 and defends with feet and stick rather than with weight.
26 penalty minutes in 82 games at nearly twenty-five a night is a remarkable rate for a rookie on the hardest assignment his club has. He closes gaps early, blocks shots, and kills penalties.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2020 by Los Angeles, out of Maple Grove, Minnesota, three years at Minnesota, and 84 career games. Minnesota acquired him in the deal that sent Kevin Fiala to Los Angeles.
He is 22 and has already played a full season at number-one minutes. A local kid, a second-round pick acquired for a scoring winger, playing twenty-five minutes a night at 21 — this is the best thing this organisation has done in a decade.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,523 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50.5%
- 57th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48%
- 35th 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: 66 for, 65 against. Expected: 59.0 and 57.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 34 points above where the numbers do. 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 415 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 76 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 · 1523 minutes at five-on-five
- Jonas Brodin38%
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
- MIN took 51.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.5% — 0.8 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,523 minutes at five-on-five — 97th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Middleton | 47.1% | 54.4% | 50.0% |
| Jonas Brodin | 52.0% | 49.6% | 53.9% |
| Kirill Kaprizov | 55.4% | 47.5% | 55.8% |
47.1% together, 54.4% for him apart and 50.0% for Middleton apart. He was better away from Middleton, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Middleton.
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
185 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 8 of them goals. His median goal came from 55 feet. 11% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 71% from beyond forty.