This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2024-25 report →
Chad Ruhwedel
Pittsburgh Penguins Defense
The 20th-best expected-goal share of 202 defencemen, undrafted, at fifteen minutes a night.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | BUF | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.0 | 14:12 |
| 2013-14 | BUF | 21 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 0.0 | 17:53 |
| 2014-15 | BUF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 12:28 |
| 2015-16 | BUF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 15:30 |
| 2016-17 | PIT | 34 | 2 | 8 | 10 | +9 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 4.4 | 17:20 |
| 2017-18 | PIT | 44 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -8 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 3.0 | 15:44 |
| 2018-19 | PIT | 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 4.5 | 16:17 |
| 2019-20 | PIT | 41 | 2 | 4 | 6 | +4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 4.5 | 14:46 |
| 2020-21 | PIT | 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +3 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0.0 | 14:42 |
| 2021-22 | PIT | 78 | 4 | 9 | 13 | +2 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 4.9 | 15:20 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 265 | 11 | 29 | 40 | +1 | 72 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 324 | 3.4 | 15:43 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 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
78 games, 4 goals and 9 assists at 15:20 a night, plus-2, fourteen penalty minutes, 82 shots. Undrafted, and 265 NHL games across ten seasons out of it.
The Finesse Game
55.7 per cent of the expected goals is the 20th-best of the 202 defencemen who played forty games and 53.3 per cent of the attempts the 81st percentile. The best share on this blue line, off the smallest workload on it.
0.74 even-strength points per 60 is the 27th percentile and none of his points came on the power play — he took none at all, the only regular defenceman here who did not.
Ninety-four per cent of his attempts came from outside the slot at a 54-foot median, the 94th percentile among defencemen, at 5-11.
1.05 giveaways per 60 is the 7th-lowest of the 202. A third of this blue line — Ruhwedel, Marcus Pettersson and the arriving Jan Rutta — finished in the seven most careful defencemen in the league.
Out of 51.5 per cent offensive-zone starts, the 292nd-highest of the 652 skaters who took two hundred end-zone starts — dead level. His ice went 47-45 against an expectation of 48.52-38.59, which is six goals worse than the model asked at the back.
The Physical Game
7.48 hits per 60 is the 87th percentile at 5-11 and 189 pounds — the heaviest hitting rate on this blue line, from one of its two shortest men.
0.35 penalties taken per 60 is the 14th percentile and the net at the 90th, with fourteen penalty minutes in seventy-eight games. That is the fewest of any Pittsburgh defenceman.
The Intangibles
21.13 mph is the 23rd-slowest of the 192 defencemen the tracking covers, second only to Brian Dumoulin on this blue line, against 8.65 miles per 60 at the 69th percentile.
He covers ground without ever being quick, which at fifteen minutes a night on a sheltered pairing is a workable arrangement and not obviously a portable one.
He is 32, undrafted, and has 265 games across ten seasons without ever playing a full one. The shares, the giveaway rate and the discipline are three genuine things at a third-pair workload. The scoring rate, the top speed and the fact that nobody has given him more than sixteen minutes are the other side.
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
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.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
83.5% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 92nd percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
- disciplined· stays out of the box
0.18 penalty minutes a game over 78, 8th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.75) · 35% keep it
- durable· was available
78 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
“Undrafted, and 265 NHL games across ten seasons out of it.”
“Ninety-four per cent of his attempts came from outside the slot at a 54-foot median, the 94th percentile among defencemen, at 5-11.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,087 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55.7%
- 88th pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.3%
- 80th 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: 47 for, 45 against. Expected: 48.5 and 38.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 45 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 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 59 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, 2021-22 · 78 games
- Top speed
- 21.1 mph
- 33rd pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.46 a game
- Distance
- 2.21 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 91.4 mph
- 45th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.4
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
2021-22 · 1087 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, 2021-22
- The club
- PIT took 53.5% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.7% — 2.2 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,087 minutes at five-on-five — 75th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Matheson | 54.3% | 57.8% | 53.6% |
| Jeff Carter | 52.5% | 56.8% | 48.3% |
| Kasperi Kapanen | 53.8% | 56.4% | 53.7% |
54.3% together, 57.8% for him apart and 53.6% for Matheson apart. He was better away from Matheson, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Matheson.
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
127 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 50 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 83% from beyond forty.