This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Jake McCabe
Toronto Maple Leafs Defense
Plus-23 and the 76th percentile of chances, from the defenceman this club uses against everybody's best line.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | BUF | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 15:13 |
| 2014-15 | BUF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 11:08 |
| 2015-16 | BUF | 77 | 4 | 10 | 14 | +6 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 6.5 | 19:07 |
| 2016-17 | BUF | 76 | 3 | 17 | 20 | -7 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 3.8 | 20:42 |
| 2017-18 | BUF | 53 | 3 | 9 | 12 | -11 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 5.7 | 19:30 |
| 2018-19 | BUF | 59 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -4 | 35 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 64 | 6.3 | 18:57 |
| 2019-20 | BUF | 66 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -11 | 41 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 75 | 4.0 | 18:32 |
| 2020-21 | BUF | 13 | 1 | 2 | 3 | +2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 6.7 | 19:11 |
| 2021-22 | CHI | 75 | 4 | 18 | 22 | -27 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 5.0 | 20:18 |
| 2022-23 | CHI/TOR | 76 | 3 | 22 | 25 | +19 | 56 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 96 | 3.1 | 19:29 |
| 2023-24 | TOR | 73 | 8 | 20 | 28 | +20 | 56 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 73 | 11.0 | 20:39 |
| 2024-25 | TOR | 66 | 2 | 21 | 23 | +23 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 2.7 | 21:31 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 643 | 35 | 140 | 175 | +7 | 388 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 674 | 5.2 | 19:48 |
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
2 goals and 21 assists in 66 games — 23 points at 21:31 a night, plus-23, with 40 penalty minutes.
52.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 76th percentile. His ice went 55-40 against an expectation of 47.84-43.06 — seven goals better than expected for and three fewer against, against the hardest matchups the club faced.
The Finesse Game
74 attempts in 66 games at a median of 52 feet with 66 per cent from beyond 40, and 2 goals. There is no shot.
21 assists is a career-typical number and it comes from the first pass, which is quick and simple. He does not carry the puck and the club does not want him to.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 210 and among the hardest-hitting defencemen in the league. He finishes every check, he clears the front of his own net by force, and he blocks shots.
40 penalty minutes in 66 games is a moderate rate for a player who plays this way. He plays with a genuine edge and he does not back out of anything.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2012 and 643 games and 175 points across three organisations, most of it in Buffalo on hockey teams that lost a great deal.
He is 32 and was acquired in 2023 in a trade that also brought Sam Lafferty. He signed a five-year extension in 2025 and he is the first defenceman over the boards against a first line.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,180 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52.6%
- 76th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.9%
- 41st 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: 55 for, 40 against. Expected: 47.8 and 43.1.
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 637 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 · 1180 minutes at five-on-five
- Chris Tanev53%
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
- TOR took 50.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.6% — 2.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,180 minutes at five-on-five — 83rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Tanev | 54.2% | 51.0% | 53.2% |
| Mitchell Marner | 53.7% | 52.0% | 54.1% |
| Matthew Knies | 54.8% | 51.6% | 51.8% |
54.2% together, 51.0% for him apart and 53.2% for Tanev apart. He was worse away from Tanev, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Tanev did.
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, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 61 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 66% from beyond forty.