This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Devon Toews
Colorado Avalanche Defense
The fastest top speed of the 192 defencemen the tracking covers, at 25:22 a night for a plus-52.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | NYI | 48 | 5 | 13 | 18 | +7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 81 | 6.2 | 17:54 |
| 2019-20 | NYI | 68 | 6 | 22 | 28 | +1 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 122 | 4.9 | 20:31 |
| 2020-21 | COL | 53 | 9 | 22 | 31 | +29 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 121 | 7.4 | 24:46 |
| 2021-22 | COL | 66 | 13 | 44 | 57 | +52 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 158 | 8.2 | 25:22 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 235 | 33 | 101 | 134 | +89 | 56 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 482 | 6.9 | 22:18 |
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
13 goals and 44 assists in 66 games — 57 points at 25:22 a night, the 96th percentile among defencemen — with a plus-52 and 20 penalty minutes.
55.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,358 minutes, the 91st percentile among defencemen, and 56.6 per cent of the shot attempts, the 96th. His ice went 80-43 against an expectation of 61.77-48.89 — eighteen more goals for than the chances promised and six fewer against.
1.96 even-strength points per 60 is the 3rd-highest of the 202 qualified defencemen.
The Finesse Game
8.2 per cent shooting from a defenceman is the 90th percentile and 5.66 shots per 60 is the 77th. Thirteen goals on 158 attempts.
1.61 takeaways per 60 is the 90th percentile among defencemen against 1.22 giveaways at the 15th — a rare pairing, and the clearest measurement of a defenceman who ends possessions cleanly.
1:43 a night on the power play is the 73rd percentile and only 21 per cent of his points came there. Fifty-seven points, almost all of it at even strength.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 191. 1.94 hits per 60 is the 14th percentile among defencemen and 3.05 blocks is the 13th. He defends without contact, entirely, and the plus-52 is the answer to whether that works.
24.0 mph is the fastest top speed of the 192 defencemen the tracking covers. Colorado’s top pair is the two fastest defencemen in the league, and this is the faster of the two.
8.33 miles per 60 is the 35th percentile — like his partner, he covers ordinary ground very quickly.
0.36 penalties taken per 60 is the 15th percentile — 20 penalty minutes in 66 games at twenty-five a night.
The Intangibles
One hundred and eighth overall in 2014 by the Islanders, fourth round, and 235 NHL games at 28 with a career plus-89.
He and Cale Makar played 1,642 attempts together at 56.0 per cent, and each was better apart than together — Toews 55.6 without Makar, Makar 57.4 without Toews. That is a very unusual reading for a top pair and the honest interpretation is that both were good enough to carry other people, so splitting them cost nothing.
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
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.
- drives-play· the shot clock turns his way while he is out there
55.8% of the expected goals at five-on-five with him on, 49.9% for his club in the minutes he sat: +5.9, 97th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats moderately (0.39) · 29% keep it
- workhorse· carries the load at even strength
20:35 a game at five-on-five, 99th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.78) · 58% keep it
“24.0 mph is the fastest top speed of the 192 defencemen the tracking covers.”
“a rare pairing, and the clearest measurement of a defenceman who ends possessions cleanly”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,358 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55.8%
- 89th pct
- Shot attempts
- 56.6%
- 94th 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: 80 for, 43 against. Expected: 61.8 and 48.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 8 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 — 76 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 · 66 games
- Top speed
- 24.0 mph
- 100th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 1.32 a game
- Distance
- 3.52 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 96.1 mph
- 77th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.4
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 · 1358 minutes at five-on-five
- Cale Makar65%
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
- COL took 51.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.8% — 3.9 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,358 minutes at five-on-five — 92nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cale Makar | 56.0% | 55.6% | 57.4% |
| Mikko Rantanen | 57.5% | 54.4% | 57.4% |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 50.7% | 59.9% | 54.3% |
56.0% together, 55.6% for him apart and 57.4% for Makar 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
197 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 33 feet. 12% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 66% from beyond forty.