This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Erik Gudbranson
Columbus Blue Jackets Defense
Fifty-three point eight per cent of the chances in Calgary, and 44.1 per cent without Nikita Zadorov beside him.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | FLA | 72 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -19 | 78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 76 | 2.6 | 14:12 |
| 2012-13 | FLA | 32 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -22 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 0.0 | 18:45 |
| 2013-14 | FLA | 65 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -7 | 114 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 3.3 | 17:59 |
| 2014-15 | FLA | 76 | 4 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 110 | 3.6 | 18:37 |
| 2015-16 | FLA | 64 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +3 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 2.7 | 20:07 |
| 2016-17 | VAN | 30 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -14 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 2.5 | 20:20 |
| 2017-18 | VAN | 52 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -7 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 3.8 | 18:25 |
| 2018-19 | VAN/PIT | 76 | 2 | 8 | 10 | -20 | 87 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 94 | 2.1 | 18:14 |
| 2019-20 | PIT/ANA | 51 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 95 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 5.1 | 19:22 |
| 2020-21 | OTT/NSH | 45 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -12 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 58 | 1.7 | 17:54 |
| 2021-22 | CGY | 78 | 6 | 11 | 17 | +15 | 68 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 4.7 | 18:08 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 641 | 27 | 67 | 94 | -87 | 708 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 852 | 3.2 | 18:11 |
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
6 goals and 11 assists in 78 games for Calgary — 17 points at 18:08 a night, plus-15, with 68 penalty minutes. He signed here in July.
53.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,204 minutes, the 81st percentile among defencemen, and 57.3 per cent of the shot attempts, the 97th. His ice went 50-39 against an expectation of 53.76-46.16.
Calgary took 55.2 per cent of the chances at five-on-five, 3rd in the league. Every figure above is a Calgary figure and has to be read as one.
The Finesse Game
0.86 even-strength points per 60 is the 39th percentile among defencemen and 27 goals in 641 career games. There is no offence here and there never has been.
98.8 mph is the 85th percentile among defencemen and 6 per cent of his shots came from the slot, the 10th. He shoots from the blue line, hard, and 5.47 shots per 60 is the 75th percentile — the volume is real even if nothing comes of it.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 222, 6.15 hits per 60 is the 76th percentile among defencemen and 708 penalty minutes across 641 career games. This is the whole of what he is bought for.
2:55 a night shorthanded is the 94th percentile among defencemen, and 1.02 penalties taken per 60 is the 83rd, which counts against him — the drawn-minus-taken of minus-0.42 is the 24th percentile.
The Intangibles
Third overall in 2010 by Florida, and eleven seasons across six clubs with a career minus-87.
Paired with Nikita Zadorov for 1,708 attempts the two took 56.5 per cent; without Zadorov, Gudbranson was at 44.1 across 481 attempts. That is a small sample apart and a very large one together, and it is the caution the signing deserves: the plus-15 was the best plus-minus of an eleven-year career by twelve, and Columbus has bought the man who was standing next to it.
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.
- durable· was available
78 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
- sheltered· is started in the attacking end
62% of his end-zone starts in the attacking end, 98th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 47% keep it
“6.15 hits per 60 is the 76th percentile among defencemen and 708 penalty minutes across 641 career games.”
“2:55 a night shorthanded is the 94th percentile among defencemen”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,204 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53.8%
- 81st pct
- Shot attempts
- 57.3%
- 96th 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, 39 against. Expected: 53.8 and 46.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 59 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 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 54 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 · 78 games
- Top speed
- 22.4 mph
- 83rd pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.65 a game
- Distance
- 2.51 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 98.8 mph
- 89th 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 with CGY · 1204 minutes at five-on-five
- Juuso Välimäkinow ARI9%
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
- CGY took 55.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.8% — 1.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,204 minutes at five-on-five — 85th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikita Zadorov | 56.5% | 44.1% | 52.7% |
| Andrew Mangiapane | 57.5% | 52.4% | 60.2% |
| Blake Coleman | 53.9% | 53.8% | 57.4% |
56.5% together, 44.1% for him apart and 52.7% for Zadorov apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
173 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 56 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 82% from beyond forty.