Drew Helleson
Anaheim Ducks Defense
6-3, a second-round pedigree, and the worst underlying season of any regular here.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ANA | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 25.0 | 13:39 |
| 2024-25 | ANA | 56 | 4 | 9 | 13 | +6 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 63 | 6.3 | 16:21 |
| 2025-26 | ANA | 60 | 2 | 13 | 15 | -4 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 5.1 | 16:58 |
| 2026-27 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 119 | 7 | 22 | 29 | +2 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 106 | 6.6 | 16:36 |
This Season So Far
The 2026-27 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 13 assists in 60 games, minus-4, at 16:58 a night. 119 career games and this was the 1st in which he was a full-time NHL defenceman.
The Finesse Game
Thin. 39 shots in 60 games and 2 goals, from a median distance of 54 feet — 74 per cent of his attempts came from beyond 40. He is standing at the point and putting it toward the net, which is all that is being asked, and it is also all he offers.
The 13 assists are mostly secondary. He is not a puck-mover and the club does not use him as one.
The Physical Game
The best part of his game. 6-3, 208, long stick, and he defends the front of his net properly. 20 penalty minutes in 60 games.
The Intangibles
The report and the numbers do not agree about him, and the numbers are harsher. He was on for 46.0 per cent of the expected goals — 19th percentile in the league, the lowest figure of any Anaheim regular — and the shot attempts were near even at 49.3 per cent, which means the chances he gave up were worse than the ones he helped create.
Some context is owed: this club finished 30th in the NHL in even-strength expected goals against, so no defenceman here looks good, and he drew hard minutes without a partner who could carry him. But 19th percentile is 19th percentile. At 25, with 3 seasons of games behind him, this is the year he has to move that number or accept what he is.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2025-26 · 911 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46%
- 22nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 49%
- 47th 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: 40 for, 47 against. Expected: 36.6 and 43.0.
The eye and the numbers
SightedThe two rank him within 18 points of one another. It was written with these numbers on screen, so the agreement is not corroboration — the arithmetic is on both sides of it.
Both bars are percentiles among the 656 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 61 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, 2025-26 · 60 games
- Top speed
- 21.2 mph
- 32nd pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.28 a game
- Distance
- 2.39 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 91.9 mph
- 59th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.6
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 88.9
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.
Recent form
Last 20 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first
6
points in his last 10 games — 0 goals, 6 assists, 11 shots
Each bar is one game by points. Filled bars are games he scored in.
Usual linemates
2025-26 · 911 minutes at five-on-five
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, 2025-26
- The club
- ANA took 50.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.0% — 4.6 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 911 minutes at five-on-five — 50th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pavel Mintyukov | 44.3% | 47.0% | 50.7% |
| Jackson LaCombe | 46.6% | 45.6% | 53.4% |
| Beckett Sennecke | 44.5% | 46.8% | 53.5% |
44.3% together, 47.0% for him apart and 50.7% for Mintyukov apart. Mintyukov was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for 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
65 unblocked shots in 2025-26, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 61 feet. 8% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 74% from beyond forty.