Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

17

Cam Fowler

St. Louis Blues Defense

Acquired from Anaheim in December, and his ice conceded thirteen fewer goals than the chances predicted.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2010-11ANA76103040-25206031238.122:08
2011-12ANA8252429-28182001234.123:16
2012-13ANA3711011-44100502.020:26
2013-14ANA7063036+15144121006.023:52
2014-15ANA8072734+414112878.121:09
2015-16ANA6952328-8273001134.422:47
2016-17ANA80112839+7205131865.924:51
2017-18ANA6782432+3281111226.624:51
2018-19ANA5951823-1420102885.723:22
2019-20ANA59920290202021177.721:59
2020-21ANA5651823-418001756.721:46
2021-22ANA7693342-9146011247.324:25
2022-23ANA82103848-23144011307.724:10
2023-24ANA8153439-36242001094.624:25
2024-25ANA/STL6893140+12142018810.221:33
2025-26 so far
Career1042105388493-1102694041916356.423:08

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

9 goals and 31 assists in 68 games across Anaheim and St. Louis — 40 points at 21:33 a night, plus-12, with only 14 penalty minutes.

52.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 71st percentile. His ice went 51-31 against an expectation of 47.48-43.73 — thirteen fewer goals conceded than the chances predicted, which is the largest defensive surplus on the blue line.

The Finesse Game

88 attempts at a median of 50 feet with 66 per cent from beyond 40 and 12 per cent from inside 20, converting at 10.2 per cent for 9 goals — a good return from a low volume.

31 assists in 68 games is the most of any defenceman on the club. He escapes the first forechecker by turning away from it, he moves the puck early and accurately, and he has been doing that at a high level for fifteen years.

The Physical Game

6-2 and 213 and he defends with his feet. He is not the man who clears his own crease and he does not finish checks.

14 penalty minutes in 68 games at twenty-one and a half minutes a night is a very low rate. He is rarely beaten badly enough to reach and there is no edge to the game at all.

The Intangibles

Twelfth overall in 2010 and 1,042 games and 493 points, fourteen and a half seasons of them in Anaheim — a career minus-110 that is a fact about that club.

He was traded to St. Louis in December for a prospect and picks, at 33, and it was the trade that turned the season. He is 34.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,187 minutes

Expected goals
52.1%
72nd pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
50.6%
60th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 51 for, 31 against. Expected: 47.5 and 43.7.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
66th
Numbers
72nd

The two rank him within 6 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 75 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 · 888 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, 2024-25

The club
STL took 51.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.1% — 1.0 above the club he did it on.
The role
Third pair, 1,187 minutes at five-on-five — 84th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Colton Parayko59.0%48.1%44.8%
Robert Thomas55.9%50.5%56.2%
Pavel Buchnevich57.0%50.4%50.9%

59.0% together, 48.1% for him apart and 44.8% for Parayko 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

111 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 9 of them goals. His median goal came from 53 feet. 12% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 66% from beyond forty.