This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Damon Severson
Columbus Blue Jackets Defense
Two hundred and twenty-four career assists from the blue line, and a career minus-130.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | NJD | 51 | 5 | 12 | 17 | -13 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 5.4 | 21:58 |
| 2015-16 | NJD | 72 | 1 | 20 | 21 | -8 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 94 | 1.1 | 18:10 |
| 2016-17 | NJD | 80 | 3 | 28 | 31 | -31 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 125 | 2.4 | 20:21 |
| 2017-18 | NJD | 76 | 9 | 15 | 24 | -8 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 121 | 7.4 | 19:41 |
| 2018-19 | NJD | 82 | 11 | 28 | 39 | -27 | 58 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 146 | 7.5 | 22:03 |
| 2019-20 | NJD | 69 | 8 | 23 | 31 | -20 | 52 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 114 | 7.0 | 22:58 |
| 2020-21 | NJD | 56 | 3 | 18 | 21 | -8 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91 | 3.3 | 22:29 |
| 2021-22 | NJD | 80 | 11 | 35 | 46 | -14 | 57 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 158 | 7.0 | 23:36 |
| 2022-23 | NJD | 81 | 7 | 26 | 33 | +9 | 38 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 102 | 6.9 | 19:57 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 67 | 9 | 19 | 28 | -10 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 10.2 | 21:09 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 714 | 67 | 224 | 291 | -130 | 439 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 1132 | 5.9 | 21:11 |
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
9 goals and 19 assists in 67 games — 28 points at 21:09 a night, minus-10, with 1 game-winner on 88 shots, converting at 10.23 per cent, and 51 penalty minutes.
48.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,222 minutes, the 38th percentile — the best mark of any defenceman on this roster. His ice went 53-47 against an expectation of 51.14-55.38 — eight fewer goals conceded than the chances predicted.
The Finesse Game
88 attempts at a median of 43 feet, with 53 per cent from beyond 40 and 11 per cent from inside 20, converting at 10.23 per cent — an unusually high rate for a defenceman and the reason for nine goals.
He carries the puck out of his own zone rather than passing it out, and 224 career assists in 714 games is a genuine offensive record. He will attempt the pass through the middle that a safer defenceman does not.
The turnovers are the cost and they are a real one.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 204. He does not clear his crease by force and he loses battles below the goal line, and the defending is done with position and stick.
51 penalty minutes in 67 games and 439 in 714 for his career is a moderate rate, and a share of it is the stick foul that follows losing a step.
The Intangibles
Sixtieth overall in 2012 by New Jersey, and 714 games and 291 points at 30 with a career minus-130 — one of the worst figures in this edition, accumulated almost entirely on clubs that finished near the bottom.
He signed an eight-year contract here in 2023. A puck-moving defenceman with 224 assists and a minus-130 is the same player described twice, and on a club that was 31st at suppressing chances the second description matters more.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,222 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48%
- 38th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.9%
- 63rd 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: 53 for, 47 against. Expected: 51.1 and 55.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 17 points of one another. 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.
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 — 65 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 · 1222 minutes at five-on-five
- Adam Boqvistnow FLA10%
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
- CBJ took 45.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.0% — 2.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,222 minutes at five-on-five — 85th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zach Werenski | 47.9% | 48.1% | 47.1% |
| Ivan Provorov | 49.3% | 47.1% | 44.2% |
| Johnny Gaudreau | 53.1% | 45.4% | 47.6% |
47.9% together, 48.1% for him apart and 47.1% for Werenski 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
128 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 10 of them goals. His median goal came from 38 feet. 11% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 53% from beyond forty.