This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Charlie McAvoy
Boston Bruins Defense
Twenty-four fifty-one a night, thirty-five assists and eighty-six penalty minutes — a number one doing every job at once.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | BOS | 63 | 7 | 25 | 32 | +20 | 53 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 77 | 9.1 | 22:09 |
| 2018-19 | BOS | 54 | 7 | 21 | 28 | +14 | 45 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 79 | 8.9 | 22:10 |
| 2019-20 | BOS | 67 | 5 | 27 | 32 | +24 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 101 | 5.0 | 23:10 |
| 2020-21 | BOS | 51 | 5 | 25 | 30 | +22 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 5.4 | 24:00 |
| 2021-22 | BOS | 78 | 10 | 46 | 56 | +31 | 66 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 166 | 6.0 | 24:38 |
| 2022-23 | BOS | 67 | 7 | 45 | 52 | +29 | 54 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 105 | 6.7 | 22:18 |
| 2023-24 | BOS | 74 | 12 | 35 | 47 | +4 | 86 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 133 | 9.0 | 24:51 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 454 | 53 | 224 | 277 | +144 | 383 | 12 | 1 | 16 | 753 | 7.0 | 23:24 |
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
12 goals and 35 assists in 74 games — 47 points at 24:51 a night, plus-4, with 3 game-winners on 133 shots at 9.02 per cent and 86 penalty minutes.
52.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,370 minutes, the 68th percentile — the most ice of any player on the club. His ice went 60-45 against an expectation of 60.27-55.59: exactly the scoring the chances predicted, and ten fewer goals conceded than they did.
The Finesse Game
133 attempts at a median of 44 feet, with 56 per cent from beyond 40 and 15 per cent from inside 20, converting at 9.02 per cent — a high rate from that distance and the reason he scored twelve.
He carries the puck out of his own zone rather than passing it out, and the skating is what makes twenty-five minutes a night possible against the other side’s best line. He gains the offensive line under control and he will join the rush as a fourth man.
35 assists and 224 in 454 career games. He walks the line, holds the puck until a forechecker commits, and the outlet is early.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 211 and he plays much heavier than that. He finishes checks, he clears the front of his own net, and he will answer a cross-check — 383 penalty minutes in 454 games is a rate that says the edge is deliberate.
Some of the 86 minutes are the cost of playing twenty-five a night against the best forwards in the league. Not all of them are.
The Intangibles
Fourteenth overall in 2016, out of Boston University, and 454 games and 277 points, all of them here, with a career plus-144.
He is 26 and has been the club’s number one defenceman since he was 21. In the first season after Bergeron and Krejčí, he played more than anyone on the roster and took the hardest assignment every night — a club that finishes sixth having lost two Hall of Fame centres has somebody doing that, and it is him.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,370 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52%
- 69th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.7%
- 42nd 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: 60 for, 45 against. Expected: 60.3 and 55.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 27 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 41 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 80 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 · 1370 minutes at five-on-five
- Matt Grzelcyknow PIT45%
- Mason Lohrei15%
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
- BOS took 49.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.0% — 2.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,370 minutes at five-on-five — 93rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Grzelcyk | 50.3% | 53.8% | 38.6% |
| David Pastrnak | 55.1% | 49.7% | 48.7% |
| Pavel Zacha | 54.4% | 50.6% | 45.1% |
50.3% together, 53.8% for him apart and 38.6% for Grzelcyk apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Grzelcyk behind.
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
197 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 25 feet. 15% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 56% from beyond forty.