This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Declan Chisholm
Washington Capitals Defense
A fifth-round pick with 99 NHL games, seventeen minutes a night, and 10 penalty minutes in 66.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | WPG | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 12:57 |
| 2023-24 | WPG/MIN | 31 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -7 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 10.3 | 16:31 |
| 2024-25 | MIN | 66 | 2 | 10 | 12 | -5 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 69 | 2.9 | 17:00 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 99 | 5 | 16 | 21 | -11 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 102 | 4.9 | 16:46 |
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 10 assists in 66 games for Minnesota — 12 points at 17:00 a night, minus-5, with a power-play goal and a game-winner on 69 shots, and 10 penalty minutes.
Seventeen minutes a night on a playoff club from a third-pairing defenceman with 33 games of prior NHL experience is a real season, and the offensive return is not.
The Finesse Game
69 attempts in 66 games and 2 goals at 2.9 per cent. 21 points in 99 career games.
10 assists. The skating is the best thing about him and he will carry the puck out of his own zone under pressure rather than chip it, which is the specific skill that got him a job.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 205 and he is not a physical defenceman. He defends with his feet and his stick, he closes gaps early, and he does not clear his crease by force.
10 penalty minutes in 66 games at seventeen a night is an extremely low rate, and 28 in 99 career games says it is the player rather than the season.
The Intangibles
A fifth-round pick of Winnipeg in 2018 — 150th overall — and 99 games across three organisations.
He is 25. Washington signed him in the summer as a third-pairing left shot, which on a club whose blue line is 35, 34 and 30 on the right side is a sensible addition rather than a plan.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,005 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53.2%
- 81st pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.8%
- 62nd 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: 36 for, 34 against. Expected: 36.7 and 32.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 45 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 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 MIN · 1005 minutes at five-on-five
- Jon Merrilloff the roster11%
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
- MIN took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.2% — 4.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,005 minutes at five-on-five — 61st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Spurgeon | 52.5% | 54.1% | 53.4% |
| Ryan Hartman | 48.9% | 55.1% | 50.4% |
| Marco Rossi | 59.7% | 50.6% | 49.7% |
52.5% together, 54.1% for him apart and 53.4% for Spurgeon 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
94 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 59 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 81% from beyond forty.