This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Cole Sillinger
Columbus Blue Jackets Center
33 points, a minus-11, and a 44.6 per cent chance share in his fourth NHL season at 22.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | CBJ | 79 | 16 | 15 | 31 | -22 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 148 | 10.8 | 13:42 |
| 2022-23 | CBJ | 64 | 3 | 8 | 11 | -23 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 3.2 | 13:19 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 77 | 13 | 19 | 32 | -4 | 46 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 157 | 8.3 | 16:07 |
| 2024-25 | CBJ | 66 | 11 | 22 | 33 | -11 | 35 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 129 | 8.5 | 16:55 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 286 | 43 | 64 | 107 | -60 | 140 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 527 | 8.2 | 15:00 |
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
11 goals and 22 assists in 66 games for 33 points, minus-11, on 16:55 a night.
42.9 per cent at five-on-five, the 9th percentile. His on-ice goals were 29-44 against an expected 27-36, which is two goals of finishing luck against eight conceded above expectation, and the season was as bad as it looked.
The Finesse Game
Solid without being dangerous. 129 shots and 11 goals at 8.5 per cent, and the release is ordinary; 22 assists is the more useful half and he moves the puck sensibly.
He was in the NHL at 18, which distorted the development, and the offensive game has not grown much since. There is no obvious skill here that will produce a 50-point season.
The Physical Game
6 feet and 202, and he plays a heavy, honest game. He forechecks with weight, wins pucks below the goal line, and is difficult to move off a puck.
35 penalty minutes over 66 games. The durability has been reasonable and the body suits the role he is heading toward.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick who arrived at 18 out of necessity on a club that had nobody else, and has spent four seasons being asked to be more than he is.
At 22 the ceiling looks like a third-line centre who kills penalties and takes hard draws, which is useful. The 12th-percentile chance share needs to move before he can be given more.
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.
- 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.
“He forechecks with weight, wins pucks below the goal line, and is difficult to move off a puck.”
“He forechecks with weight, wins pucks below the goal line, and is difficult to move off a puck.”
“He forechecks with weight, wins pucks below the goal line, and is difficult to move off a puck.”
“At 22 the ceiling looks like a third-line centre who kills penalties and takes hard draws, which is useful.”
“At 22 the ceiling looks like a third-line centre who kills penalties and takes hard draws, which is useful.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 835 minutes
- Expected goals
- 42.9%
- 9th pct
- Shot attempts
- 44.8%
- 12th 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: 29 for, 44 against. Expected: 27.1 and 36.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 46 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 73 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, 2024-25 · 66 games
- Top speed
- 22.2 mph
- 46th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 1.11 a game
- Distance
- 2.68 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 86.5 mph
- 55th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.2
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 83.9
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
2024-25 · 835 minutes at five-on-five
- Kent Johnson35%
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
- CBJ took 48.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 42.9% — 5.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 835 minutes at five-on-five — 39th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zach Werenski | 45.3% | 41.1% | 55.3% |
| Mathieu Olivier | 46.2% | 40.8% | 46.8% |
| Ivan Provorov | 44.7% | 41.8% | 47.2% |
45.3% together, 41.1% for him apart and 55.3% for Werenski apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Werenski 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
174 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 10 of them goals. His median goal came from 25 feet. 36% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 28% from beyond forty.