This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Dylan DeMelo
Winnipeg Jets Defense
Plus-31 in 82 games, 86 per cent of his shot attempts from beyond 40 feet, and 3 goals.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | SJS | 45 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 4.8 | 13:37 |
| 2016-17 | SJS | 25 | 1 | 7 | 8 | +2 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 3.1 | 15:54 |
| 2017-18 | SJS | 63 | 0 | 20 | 20 | -1 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 0.0 | 14:12 |
| 2018-19 | OTT | 77 | 4 | 18 | 22 | -1 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 3.7 | 19:17 |
| 2019-20 | OTT/WPG | 59 | 0 | 10 | 10 | +4 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 0.0 | 20:08 |
| 2020-21 | WPG | 52 | 0 | 9 | 9 | +10 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0.0 | 16:58 |
| 2021-22 | WPG | 76 | 1 | 12 | 13 | +10 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 78 | 1.3 | 18:30 |
| 2022-23 | WPG | 75 | 6 | 21 | 27 | +10 | 50 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 93 | 6.5 | 19:34 |
| 2023-24 | WPG | 82 | 3 | 28 | 31 | +46 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 83 | 3.6 | 21:44 |
| 2024-25 | WPG | 82 | 3 | 16 | 19 | +31 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 75 | 4.0 | 21:32 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 636 | 20 | 143 | 163 | +111 | 303 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 697 | 2.9 | 18:41 |
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
3 goals and 16 assists in 82 games — 19 points at 21:32 a night, plus-31, with 38 penalty minutes on 75 shots.
53.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 78th percentile, across 1,486 minutes. His ice went 66-48 against an expectation of 62.51-54.64 — six goals of scoring missing and nine fewer conceded.
The Finesse Game
75 attempts in 82 games at a median of 57 feet with 86 per cent from beyond 40 and 5 per cent from inside 20, and 3 goals. 20 goals in 636 career games. He does not shoot and does not pretend to.
16 assists. The first pass is the entire offensive contribution and it is very good — it is early, it is short, and it goes to the correct side of the ice, which is what allows the man beside him to leave the zone with the puck.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 194 and honest rather than punishing. He closes gaps early, he defends the rush with positioning, and he clears the front of his own net without hurting anybody.
38 penalty minutes in 82 games at twenty-one and a half a night is a low rate. He kills penalties, he blocks shots, and he does not retaliate.
The Intangibles
A sixth-round pick in 2011 — 179th overall — and 636 games and 163 points across three organisations.
He is 32. He has played beside Josh Morrissey for five seasons and has been plus-31, plus-46 and plus-10 in the last three, which for a defenceman who scores nineteen points is the whole argument.
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
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
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.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
86.0% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 96th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
- durable· was available
82 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
“**The first pass is the entire offensive contribution and it is very good** — it is early, it is short, and it goes to the correct side of the ice, which is what allows the man beside him to leave the zone with the puck.”
“He closes gaps early, he defends the rush with positioning, and he clears the front of his own net without hurting anybody.”
“He closes gaps early, he defends the rush with positioning, and he clears the front of his own net without hurting anybody.”
“He kills penalties, he blocks shots, and he does not retaliate.”
“He kills penalties, he blocks shots, and he does not retaliate.”
“He kills penalties, he blocks shots, and he does not retaliate.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,486 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53.4%
- 81st pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.1%
- 54th 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: 66 for, 48 against. Expected: 62.5 and 54.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 39 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 — 71 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, 2024-25 · 82 games
- Top speed
- 20.7 mph
- 18th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.12 a game
- Distance
- 2.81 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 88.5 mph
- 38th 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 89.7
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
2024-25 · 1486 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, 2024-25
- The club
- WPG took 51.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.4% — 1.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,486 minutes at five-on-five — 99th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Morrissey | 53.1% | 54.5% | 56.9% |
| Mark Scheifele | 52.9% | 53.6% | 49.3% |
| Kyle Connor | 52.6% | 53.8% | 50.1% |
53.1% together, 54.5% for him apart and 56.9% for Morrissey apart. Morrissey 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
129 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 44 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 86% from beyond forty.