This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Dawson Mercer
New Jersey Devils Center
Eighty-two games at twenty, forty-two points, the 27th-most takeaways of 393 forwards and a minus-25.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | NJD | 82 | 17 | 25 | 42 | -25 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 154 | 11.0 | 16:32 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 82 | 17 | 25 | 42 | -25 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 154 | 11.0 | 16:32 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 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
17 goals and 25 assists in all eighty-two games at 16:32 a night, minus-25, twenty-eight penalty minutes. Eighteenth overall in 2020, and this was his entire NHL career, at 20.
Forty-two points in a rookie season while playing every game is the whole case for him.
The Finesse Game
1.78 even-strength points per 60 is the 50th percentile and twelve per cent of his points came on the power play. 6.81 shots per 60 is the 42nd at 11.0 per cent.
62 per cent of his shots came from the slot at a 19-foot median — the 85th and 13th percentiles — from a twenty-year-old who is 180 pounds. A rookie winger already taking his shots from that ice is the most encouraging line in his file.
2.48 takeaways per 60 is the 27th-most of 393 forwards against 2.34 giveaways at the 88th percentile.
49.9 per cent of the expected goals is the 52nd percentile — even, which for a rookie on a club that finished 28th is respectable. His ice went 59-76 against an expectation of 50.43-50.57: twenty-five goals against above the model, which produced the minus-25 and belongs to the crease.
Beside Jesper Bratt across 606 attempts he took 53.6 per cent and 48.4 without.
The Physical Game
1.15 hits per 60 is the 7th percentile and 1.55 blocks the 43rd at 180 pounds. There is nothing here yet.
0.75 penalties drawn per 60 against 0.58 taken is a modest positive net, and twenty-eight minutes in eighty-two games.
The Intangibles
22.2 mph is the 38th percentile and 7.8 bursts over 20 mph per 60 the 75th, at 9.68 miles per 60, the 53rd. He sprints often and is not fast.
He is twenty, played all eighty-two, scored forty-two, and finished minus-25 — and every part of that minus is traceable to a goaltending number the club rated 32nd in the league. The shot locations, the takeaways and the durability are the parts to keep.
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.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- ordinaryraised, and called ordinary
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.
- durable· was available
82 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
“62 per cent of his shots came from the slot at a 19-foot median — the 85th and 13th percentiles — from a twenty-year-old who is 180 pounds.”
“2.48 takeaways per 60 is the 27th-most of 393 forwards against 2.34 giveaways at the 88th percentile.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,166 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.9%
- 55th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.8%
- 53rd 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: 59 for, 76 against. Expected: 50.4 and 50.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 12 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 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 59 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, 2021-22 · 82 games
- Top speed
- 22.2 mph
- 55th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 2.16 a game
- Distance
- 2.67 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 89.3 mph
- 62nd pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.0
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.1
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
2021-22 · 1166 minutes at five-on-five
- Tomas Tatar25%
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, 2021-22
- The club
- NJD took 51.4% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.9% — 1.5 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,166 minutes at five-on-five — 82nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreas Johnsson | 52.6% | 47.7% | 48.5% |
| P.K. Subban | 53.2% | 48.5% | 51.4% |
| Dougie Hamilton | 49.4% | 50.2% | 51.5% |
52.6% together, 47.7% for him apart and 48.5% for Johnsson apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
194 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 17 of them goals. His median goal came from 13 feet. 53% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 12% from beyond forty.