This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Emil Lilleberg
Tampa Bay Lightning Defense
105 penalty minutes in 76 games from a third-pairing defenceman with one career goal.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | TBL | 37 | 0 | 5 | 5 | -15 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0.0 | 16:12 |
| 2024-25 | TBL | 76 | 1 | 18 | 19 | -1 | 105 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 2.2 | 15:17 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 113 | 1 | 23 | 24 | -16 | 121 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 77 | 1.3 | 15:35 |
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
1 goal and 18 assists in 76 games — 19 points at 15:17 a night, minus-1, with 105 penalty minutes — the most of any defenceman in this edition.
48.5 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 36th percentile, across 1,054 minutes. His ice went 50-36 against an expectation of 38.54-40.92 — eleven goals better than expected for and five fewer against, on a third pairing.
The Finesse Game
46 attempts in 76 games at a median of 57 feet with 78 per cent from beyond 40, and 1 goal. 1 goal in 113 career NHL games.
18 assists is a respectable number and it comes entirely from the first pass, which is simple and quick. He does not carry the puck and he does not attempt anything ambitious with it.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 215 and this is the entire player. He hits extremely hard, he clears the front of his own net, and he fights.
105 penalty minutes in 76 games, and 121 in 113 career games, which is among the highest rates in the league. He crosses the line deliberately, he answers everything, and the club dresses him for it.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick of Arizona in 2021 out of Norway — one of very few Norwegians ever to hold an NHL job — and he did not come to North America until he was 22.
113 games in two seasons. He is 24, and a third-pairing defenceman who fights and takes a hundred penalty minutes is a role most clubs have given up on filling.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,054 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.5%
- 36th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.7%
- 49th 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: 50 for, 36 against. Expected: 38.5 and 40.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 6 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 69 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 · 1054 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
- TBL took 50.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.5% — 2.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,054 minutes at five-on-five — 68th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Perbix | 48.8% | 48.0% | 50.8% |
| Jake Guentzel | 49.3% | 48.2% | 51.9% |
| Luke Glendening | 40.6% | 50.9% | 48.9% |
48.8% together, 48.0% for him apart and 50.8% for Perbix 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
95 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 61 feet. 7% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 78% from beyond forty.