Craig Smith
Chicago Blackhawks Center
Fifty-eight per cent of the chances in Dallas — the 97th percentile, and the best share on this roster by a distance.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | NSH | 72 | 14 | 22 | 36 | -9 | 30 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 172 | 8.1 | 14:11 |
| 2012-13 | NSH | 44 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -11 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 83 | 4.8 | 13:51 |
| 2013-14 | NSH | 79 | 24 | 28 | 52 | +16 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 215 | 11.2 | 16:24 |
| 2014-15 | NSH | 82 | 23 | 21 | 44 | +11 | 44 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 252 | 9.1 | 15:44 |
| 2015-16 | NSH | 82 | 21 | 16 | 37 | +4 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 199 | 10.5 | 15:11 |
| 2016-17 | NSH | 78 | 12 | 17 | 29 | +7 | 30 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 155 | 7.7 | 13:49 |
| 2017-18 | NSH | 79 | 25 | 26 | 51 | +20 | 24 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 229 | 10.9 | 15:23 |
| 2018-19 | NSH | 76 | 21 | 17 | 38 | +11 | 20 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 205 | 10.2 | 15:08 |
| 2019-20 | NSH | 69 | 18 | 13 | 31 | +18 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 184 | 9.8 | 13:25 |
| 2020-21 | BOS | 54 | 13 | 19 | 32 | +21 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 132 | 9.8 | 14:53 |
| 2021-22 | BOS | 74 | 16 | 20 | 36 | +2 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 187 | 8.6 | 14:25 |
| 2022-23 | BOS/WSH | 64 | 9 | 7 | 16 | +5 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 104 | 8.6 | 11:00 |
| 2023-24 | DAL | 75 | 11 | 9 | 20 | +2 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 112 | 9.8 | 10:13 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 928 | 211 | 223 | 434 | +97 | 361 | 46 | 0 | 31 | 2229 | 9.5 | 14:12 |
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
Seventy-five games in Dallas, 11 goals and 9 assists, 10:13 a night and plus-2. He took 55.9 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 753 minutes, the 91st percentile, and his ice went 28-27 against an expectation of 30.79-24.32.
That is the best chance share on the Chicago roster and the best result, and both were produced on the fourth line of a club that reached the conference final. He converted 9.82 per cent of 112 shots against a career 9.47 across 2,229.
The Finesse Game
One hundred and twelve shots in ten minutes a night is a very high rate and it has been his whole career — 2,229 shots in 928 games from a man who has averaged 14:12. He shoots from a median of 28 feet with 35 per cent from inside 20.
Two hundred and eleven goals and 223 assists across thirteen seasons, including five twenty-goal years in Nashville. The shot is a quick wrister off the rush and the playmaking is secondary.
The Physical Game
He forechecks aggressively and arrives on the first defenceman rather than the second, which is most of why his chance share looks the way it does. Thirty-three penalty minutes in 75 games is an ordinary rate for a man who initiates that much.
At 6-1 and 203 he is strong enough on the wall to hold a puck and he does not avoid the corners at 35.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick in 2009 out of Wisconsin who has played 928 games and been a useful forward on every club that has had him. A career plus-97 is not an accident.
He is 35 and playing the ninth or tenth forward’s minutes on a bad club. What he brings is a demonstration of what a forechecking shift looks like when it is done correctly, and this roster needs the lesson more than it needs the goals.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 753 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55.9%
- 91st pct
- Shot attempts
- 56%
- 92nd 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: 28 for, 27 against. Expected: 30.8 and 24.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 65 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 58 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 with DAL · 753 minutes at five-on-five
- Radek Faksanow STL74%
- Sam Steel64%
- Ty Dellandreanow SJS20%
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
- DAL took 54.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.9% — 1.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 753 minutes at five-on-five — 35th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radek Faksa | 53.0% | 62.8% | 43.1% |
| Sam Steel | 54.7% | 57.6% | 45.4% |
| Esa Lindell | 54.4% | 56.6% | 55.7% |
53.0% together, 62.8% for him apart and 43.1% for Faksa apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Faksa 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
164 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 14 feet. 36% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 27% from beyond forty.