This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Esa Lindell
Dallas Stars Defense
Plus-34 on a pairing that took the hardest minutes, and a 49.5 per cent chance share that says how hard they were.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | DAL | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 14:03 |
| 2016-17 | DAL | 73 | 6 | 12 | 18 | +8 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 99 | 6.1 | 21:52 |
| 2017-18 | DAL | 80 | 7 | 20 | 27 | +19 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 137 | 5.1 | 22:05 |
| 2018-19 | DAL | 82 | 11 | 21 | 32 | +14 | 33 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 132 | 8.3 | 24:20 |
| 2019-20 | DAL | 69 | 3 | 20 | 23 | +5 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 98 | 3.1 | 23:25 |
| 2020-21 | DAL | 56 | 5 | 11 | 16 | +11 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 5.0 | 23:11 |
| 2021-22 | DAL | 76 | 4 | 21 | 25 | +4 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 136 | 2.9 | 22:03 |
| 2022-23 | DAL | 82 | 8 | 16 | 24 | +29 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 116 | 6.9 | 19:55 |
| 2023-24 | DAL | 82 | 5 | 21 | 26 | +17 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 114 | 4.4 | 20:28 |
| 2024-25 | DAL | 80 | 5 | 21 | 26 | +34 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 99 | 5.1 | 22:11 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 684 | 54 | 163 | 217 | +138 | 158 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 1033 | 5.2 | 22:04 |
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
5 goals and 21 assists in 80 games for 26 points, plus-34 — the highest figure on the club — on 22:11 a night.
49.5 per cent at five-on-five, the 46th percentile, over 1,395 minutes, which is the honest reading of his job: he takes the defensive-zone starts and the other club’s best line, and he comes out of it roughly even. His on-ice goals were 65-55 against an expected 58-60.
The Finesse Game
There is very little and there is not meant to be. 99 shots from a median of 51 feet and 5 goals; the first pass is safe rather than quick, and he will eat a puck against the boards rather than force a play up the middle.
What he does have is a genuinely good read on when a rush is about to happen. He kills plays before they start more often than he defends them after, which is the reason a defenceman with these offensive numbers has held a top-pair job for eight years.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 217, and he defends the front of his net properly — boxing out, tying up sticks, and clearing men when he has to. He is not a big hitter and does not chase contact.
14 penalty minutes across 80 games is remarkable for a defenceman who plays this many defensive-zone minutes. He is almost never beaten badly enough to need his stick.
The Intangibles
Ten seasons, one organisation, and the most thankless job on the roster. He is the reason Heiskanen and Harley get to play the way they do.
At 31 the skating is the thing to watch. He was never fast, and a defenceman whose value is arriving on time has a short runway once that goes. The contract runs into his mid-thirties.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,395 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.5%
- 46th pct
- Shot attempts
- 45.9%
- 16th 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: 65 for, 55 against. Expected: 58.4 and 59.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 10 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 337 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 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 · 1395 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
- DAL took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.5% — 1.2 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,395 minutes at five-on-five — 95th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Robertson | 51.8% | 48.3% | 54.9% |
| Wyatt Johnston | 50.7% | 49.0% | 51.5% |
| Matt Duchene | 49.2% | 49.6% | 52.2% |
51.8% together, 48.3% for him apart and 54.9% for Robertson apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Robertson and did not follow 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
145 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 72% from beyond forty.