This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brock Nelson
New York Islanders Center
Two hundred and seventy-five goals in 840 games, thirty-four of them at 32, at 6-4.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | NYI | 72 | 14 | 12 | 26 | -10 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 132 | 10.6 | 14:16 |
| 2014-15 | NYI | 82 | 20 | 22 | 42 | +6 | 24 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 190 | 10.5 | 15:53 |
| 2015-16 | NYI | 81 | 26 | 14 | 40 | -3 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 165 | 15.8 | 15:48 |
| 2016-17 | NYI | 81 | 20 | 25 | 45 | -6 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 173 | 11.6 | 15:39 |
| 2017-18 | NYI | 82 | 19 | 16 | 35 | -4 | 43 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 138 | 13.8 | 14:44 |
| 2018-19 | NYI | 82 | 25 | 28 | 53 | +20 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 181 | 13.8 | 17:58 |
| 2019-20 | NYI | 68 | 26 | 28 | 54 | +6 | 32 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 175 | 14.9 | 18:52 |
| 2020-21 | NYI | 56 | 18 | 15 | 33 | -5 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 121 | 14.9 | 17:50 |
| 2021-22 | NYI | 72 | 37 | 22 | 59 | -5 | 33 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 171 | 21.6 | 17:41 |
| 2022-23 | NYI | 82 | 36 | 39 | 75 | +13 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 222 | 16.2 | 18:26 |
| 2023-24 | NYI | 82 | 34 | 35 | 69 | -5 | 28 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 250 | 13.6 | 18:05 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 840 | 275 | 256 | 531 | +7 | 304 | 60 | 2 | 41 | 1918 | 14.3 | 16:48 |
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, 34 goals and 35 assists for 69 points, 9 on the power play, 1 shorthanded, 28 penalty minutes, 18:05 a night and minus-5. He took 49.5 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,159 minutes, the 49th percentile, and his ice went 55-49 against an expectation of 49.58-50.67.
Five goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and two fewer conceded than they called for. Thirty-four goals is the best total on the club and it came from an even chance share.
The Finesse Game
330 attempts at a median of 23 feet with 41 per cent from inside 20 and 10 per cent from beyond 40, 250 of them on goal, converted at 13.6 per cent against a career 14.34.
256 career assists in 840 games. He is 6-4 and scores from inside the dots almost entirely, which at that size is exactly right. Thirty or more goals in three of the last four seasons.
The Physical Game
He is 6-4 and 205 and uses the size to hold position rather than to hit anybody.
304 career penalty minutes in 840 games is a low rate. He takes the draw and is hard to move from in front of a net, and he does not forecheck by force. It is more often an attacking-zone draw than the job description implies: 56.0 per cent of his five-on-five shifts started in the attacking zone, the 76th percentile.
The Intangibles
Thirtieth overall in 2010 out of Warroad, Minnesota, eleven seasons, 840 games and 531 points, all of it for one organisation.
He is 33 and has just scored thirty-four. A 6-4 centre who scores from the paint tends to age well, and this club has almost nothing behind him.
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
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
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.
- durable· was available
82 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
“He is 6-4 and scores from inside the dots almost entirely, which at that size is exactly right.”
“He takes the draw and is hard to move from in front of a net, and he does not forecheck by force.”
“He takes the draw and is hard to move from in front of a net, and he does not forecheck by force.”
“He takes the draw and is hard to move from in front of a net, and he does not forecheck by force.”
“He is 6-4 and 205 and uses the size to hold position rather than to hit anybody.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,159 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.5%
- 49th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.7%
- 43rd 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: 55 for, 49 against. Expected: 49.6 and 50.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 13 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 — 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2023-24 · 82 games
- Top speed
- 22.4 mph
- 62nd pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 1.79 a game
- Distance
- 3.13 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 87.2 mph
- 53rd pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.1
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.5
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
2023-24 · 1159 minutes at five-on-five
- Bo Horvat19%
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
- NYI took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.5% — 0.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,159 minutes at five-on-five — 79th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Palmieri | 50.3% | 46.6% | 54.0% |
| Pierre Engvall | 52.7% | 45.1% | 54.2% |
| Noah Dobson | 53.3% | 47.0% | 48.1% |
50.3% together, 46.6% for him apart and 54.0% for Palmieri apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Palmieri and did not follow 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
330 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 34 of them goals. His median goal came from 20 feet. 41% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 10% from beyond forty.