This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Cole Smith
Nashville Predators Right Wing
Undrafted out of North Dakota, 46 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet, and a penalty-killing winger on the 2nd-best unit in the league.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | NSH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 5:57 |
| 2021-22 | NSH | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 | 8:50 |
| 2022-23 | NSH | 69 | 4 | 13 | 17 | -3 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 6.3 | 12:45 |
| 2023-24 | NSH | 80 | 9 | 14 | 23 | +5 | 63 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 112 | 8.0 | 13:41 |
| 2024-25 | NSH | 71 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -15 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 5.8 | 13:36 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 229 | 17 | 35 | 52 | -16 | 192 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 249 | 6.8 | 13:10 |
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
71 games, 4 goals and 8 assists for 12 points at 13:36 a night, on 69 shots at 5.8 per cent. 69 penalty minutes. Minus-15, on five-on-five goals of 34-39.
A 48.4 per cent chance share in a checking role, and the on-ice figures against expectation — 34-39 against 27.4-29.25 — are generous at both ends. He is a fourth-line winger who killed penalties on a unit that finished 2nd in the league at 6.34 expected goals against per 60, and that is the season entire.
The Finesse Game
46 per cent of his shots came from inside 20 feet at a median of 21, which is the only kind of shot available to him, and 5.8 per cent on 69 attempts is what it returns.
There is no offensive game here to describe and there has never been a pretence of one. What he does have is a functional first pass and enough speed to force a defenceman into a decision on the forecheck, which is the whole of the job.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 195 and he finishes checks with real force. 69 penalty minutes at thirteen minutes a night is a heavy rate, and most of it is roughing after the whistle rather than anything that gives up a chance.
He will fight and he does not go looking for one.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, four years at North Dakota, an American League contract at 24, and a genuine NHL career from 26 onward — a Minnesotan who took the longest available route to four NHL seasons.
That path is the reason nobody on this roster questions the compete level, and it is why a club replacing half its bottom six kept him.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 756 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.4%
- 35th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.6%
- 48th 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: 34 for, 39 against. Expected: 27.4 and 29.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 30 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 357 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
2024-25 · 756 minutes at five-on-five
- Colton Sissonsnow VGK39%
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
- NSH took 49.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.4% — 0.8 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 756 minutes at five-on-five — 33rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael McCarron | 47.7% | 49.5% | 47.8% |
| Colton Sissons | 46.4% | 49.7% | 49.3% |
| Brady Skjei | 43.6% | 51.1% | 47.6% |
47.7% together, 49.5% for him apart and 47.8% for McCarron apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
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
96 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 28 feet. 46% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 13% from beyond forty.