Curtis Lazar
Edmonton Oilers Center
5 points in 48 games, and a fourth-line centre signed for the room and the kill.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | OTT | 67 | 6 | 9 | 15 | +1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 6.5 | 12:54 |
| 2015-16 | OTT | 76 | 6 | 14 | 20 | -1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 78 | 7.7 | 13:52 |
| 2016-17 | OTT/CGY | 37 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 3.9 | 9:08 |
| 2017-18 | CGY | 65 | 2 | 10 | 12 | -8 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65 | 3.1 | 9:51 |
| 2018-19 | CGY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 4:48 |
| 2019-20 | BUF | 38 | 5 | 5 | 10 | -3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 15.2 | 11:50 |
| 2020-21 | BUF/BOS | 50 | 7 | 6 | 13 | -6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 55 | 12.7 | 13:20 |
| 2021-22 | BOS | 70 | 8 | 8 | 16 | -2 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 95 | 8.4 | 12:00 |
| 2022-23 | VAN/NJD | 49 | 3 | 2 | 5 | -6 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 5.5 | 11:56 |
| 2023-24 | NJD | 71 | 7 | 18 | 25 | +10 | 44 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 74 | 9.5 | 12:23 |
| 2024-25 | NJD | 48 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -6 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 7.4 | 10:34 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 572 | 47 | 78 | 125 | -30 | 169 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 600 | 7.8 | 11:56 |
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
2 goals and 3 assists in 48 games for 5 points, minus-6, on 10:34 a night with New Jersey.
27 shots in 48 games. The smallest role available on an NHL roster and the numbers say so.
The Finesse Game
None. 5 points in 48 games is his rate over the last four seasons and there has never been a season above 20 points in eleven of them.
He wins a draw and gets the puck deep. That is the whole offensive contribution.
The Physical Game
6 feet and 203, and he plays a hard, willing forechecking game. He blocks shots, finishes checks, and is trusted shorthanded.
14 penalty minutes over 48 games is disciplined for the style.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick who became a fourth-line centre, six organisations, and a reputation as one of the better teammates in the league.
At 30 the projection is a thirteenth forward who kills penalties. Edmonton had the best kill in the league and has bought another man who can do it, which is cheap and sensible.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 449 minutes
- Expected goals
- 38.6%
- 1st pct
- Shot attempts
- 42.2%
- 3rd 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: 10 for, 19 against. Expected: 11.0 and 17.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 23 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 337 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 68 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 with NJD · 449 minutes at five-on-five
- Tomas Tataroff the roster43%
- Paul Cotter26%
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
- NJD took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 38.6% — 12.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 449 minutes at five-on-five — 13th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Bastian | 40.6% | 32.3% | 51.1% |
| Tomas Tatar | 40.4% | 37.5% | 53.5% |
| Brenden Dillon | 34.0% | 41.1% | 51.5% |
40.6% together, 32.3% for him apart and 51.1% for Bastian apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Bastian 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
38 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 29 feet. 39% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 18% from beyond forty.