This is the 2023-24 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Cam Fowler
Anaheim Ducks Defense
Thirteen seasons and 893 games in one uniform, 24:10 a night on the worst club in hockey, and a minus-23.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-11 | ANA | 76 | 10 | 30 | 40 | -25 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 123 | 8.1 | 22:08 |
| 2011-12 | ANA | 82 | 5 | 24 | 29 | -28 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 123 | 4.1 | 23:16 |
| 2012-13 | ANA | 37 | 1 | 10 | 11 | -4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 2.0 | 20:26 |
| 2013-14 | ANA | 70 | 6 | 30 | 36 | +15 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 100 | 6.0 | 23:52 |
| 2014-15 | ANA | 80 | 7 | 27 | 34 | +4 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 87 | 8.1 | 21:09 |
| 2015-16 | ANA | 69 | 5 | 23 | 28 | -8 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 113 | 4.4 | 22:47 |
| 2016-17 | ANA | 80 | 11 | 28 | 39 | +7 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 186 | 5.9 | 24:51 |
| 2017-18 | ANA | 67 | 8 | 24 | 32 | +3 | 28 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 122 | 6.6 | 24:51 |
| 2018-19 | ANA | 59 | 5 | 18 | 23 | -14 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 88 | 5.7 | 23:22 |
| 2019-20 | ANA | 59 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 0 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 117 | 7.7 | 21:59 |
| 2020-21 | ANA | 56 | 5 | 18 | 23 | -4 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 75 | 6.7 | 21:46 |
| 2021-22 | ANA | 76 | 9 | 33 | 42 | -9 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 124 | 7.3 | 24:25 |
| 2022-23 | ANA | 82 | 10 | 38 | 48 | -23 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 130 | 7.7 | 24:10 |
| 2023-24 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 893 | 91 | 323 | 414 | -86 | 231 | 36 | 4 | 18 | 1438 | 6.3 | 23:09 |
This Season So Far
The 2023-24 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
10 goals and 38 assists in 82 games — 48 points at 24:10 a night, minus-23, with 4 power-play goals on 130 shots and 14 penalty minutes.
42.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,541 minutes, the 8th percentile. That is the number to hold onto for this whole roster: it is not a grade of the man so much as a description of the club around him. His ice went 55-73 against an expectation of 58.9-81.16 — four goals of scoring missing, and eight fewer conceded than the chances predicted, which is the goaltending.
He covered 3.45 miles a game, the 97th percentile in the league. Nobody asked more of one defenceman.
The Finesse Game
130 attempts at a median of 49 feet, 69 per cent of them from beyond 40 and 8 per cent from inside 20, converting at 7.69 per cent. It is a point shot, it is heavy enough at 95.8 mph, and a penalty kill does not fear it.
323 career assists is the real skill. He runs a power play from the blue line, he holds until a forechecker commits, and the first pass out is early and flat. On a club with nobody to relieve him the outlet is also the only structure Anaheim has.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 213, and he has never been the man who clears his own crease — 231 penalty minutes in thirteen years is the record of somebody who defends with position and stick rather than contact.
At 31 the skating is still the asset. Twenty-four minutes a night against the other side’s best is a workload for a top-pair defenceman, and this is a top-pair defenceman being asked to be two of them.
The Intangibles
Twelfth overall in 2010, and 893 games without ever playing for another club. He has been through three rebuilds here and is the last man standing from the first of them.
He turns 32 in December, with 414 career points and a contract that runs to 2026. The question for Anaheim is not whether he is good — he is — but whether a defenceman of his age should be absorbing 24 minutes on a club that will not be good for another two years.
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.
- hard-shot· beats a goaltender from range
6 of 122 attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 4.9%, 96th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.21) · 16% keep it
- disciplined· stays out of the box
0.17 penalty minutes a game over 82, 3rd percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.75) · 35% keep it
- durable· was available
82 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
- workhorse· carries the load at even strength
18:48 a game at five-on-five, 97th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.78) · 58% keep it
“He runs a power play from the blue line, he holds until a forechecker commits, and the first pass out is early and flat.”
“he has never been the man who clears his own crease”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2022-23 · 1,541 minutes
- Expected goals
- 42.1%
- 9th pct
- Shot attempts
- 43.8%
- 11th 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, 73 against. Expected: 58.9 and 81.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 32 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 58 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 60 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
2022-23 · 1541 minutes at five-on-five
- Dmitry Kulikovnow FLA36%
- Scott Harringtonoff the roster16%
- John Klingbergnow TOR14%
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, 2022-23
- The club
- ANA took 39.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 42.1% — 2.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,541 minutes at five-on-five — 98th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dmitry Kulikov | 40.3% | 43.1% | 37.2% |
| Trevor Zegras | 46.8% | 39.6% | 40.5% |
| Ryan Strome | 43.3% | 41.5% | 35.0% |
40.3% together, 43.1% for him apart and 37.2% for Kulikov apart. Kulikov was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Kulikov 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
176 unblocked shots in 2022-23, 10 of them goals. His median goal came from 47 feet. 8% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 69% from beyond forty.