This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Erik Gudbranson
Columbus Blue Jackets Defense
Eight hundred and thirty-nine penalty minutes in 789 games, and the fourteenth percentile of chances.
| 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 | CBJ | 70 | 1 | 12 | 13 | -24 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 102 | 1.0 | 21:18 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 78 | 6 | 20 | 26 | -14 | 74 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 91 | 6.6 | 19:40 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 789 | 34 | 99 | 133 | -125 | 839 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1045 | 3.3 | 18:36 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 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 20 assists in 78 games — 26 points at 19:40 a night, minus-14, with 1 game-winner on 91 shots at 6.59 per cent, and 74 penalty minutes.
44.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,290 minutes, the 14th percentile. His ice went 52-61 against an expectation of 47.40-60.43 — five goals scored above expectation and exactly what the chances said at the other end, on a club conceding 300.
The Finesse Game
91 attempts at a median of 54 feet, with 84 per cent from beyond 40 and 2 per cent from inside 20, converting at 6.59 per cent. Thirty-four goals in 789 NHL games.
20 assists — a career high, and 99 in 789 games is the whole record. He does not carry the puck out and the first pass goes off the glass as often as to a man, and none of it is why he has a thirteen-year career.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 222, and he is the reason opponents look up on this blue line. He clears the front of his own net by moving grown men out of it and he finishes every check.
839 penalty minutes in 789 games and he will fight anybody. He takes liberties and he answers for them, and 74 penalty minutes in 78 games is the second-highest total on the roster.
The Intangibles
Third overall in 2010 by Florida, and 789 games and 133 points at 32 across six clubs with a career minus-125.
A third-overall pick whose career is 34 goals and 839 penalty minutes is one of the clearest illustrations in this edition of what a top-ten pick can turn into, and he has been a useful third-pairing defenceman for a decade doing it.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,290 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44%
- 14th pct
- Shot attempts
- 44.5%
- 14th 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: 52 for, 61 against. Expected: 47.4 and 60.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 16 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 59 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
2023-24 · 1290 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, 2023-24
- The club
- CBJ took 45.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.0% — 1.9 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,290 minutes at five-on-five — 89th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bean | 44.5% | 43.5% | 41.5% |
| Alexandre Texier | 41.1% | 45.1% | 44.8% |
| Cole Sillinger | 40.3% | 45.2% | 44.1% |
44.5% together, 43.5% for him apart and 41.5% for Bean apart. Bean was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Bean 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 2023-24, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 52 feet. 2% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 84% from beyond forty.