This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Jake Middleton
Minnesota Wild Defense
21 points, 6-3 and 219 pounds, and a 47.1 per cent chance share beside the club's most-used defenceman.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | SJS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 9:56 |
| 2019-20 | SJS | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.0 | 10:46 |
| 2020-21 | SJS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 8:44 |
| 2021-22 | SJS/MIN | 66 | 4 | 10 | 14 | +10 | 82 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 5.5 | 18:41 |
| 2022-23 | MIN | 79 | 3 | 12 | 15 | +15 | 72 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 3.8 | 19:02 |
| 2023-24 | MIN | 80 | 7 | 18 | 25 | -15 | 77 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 8.2 | 19:49 |
| 2024-25 | MIN | 67 | 8 | 13 | 21 | +11 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 97 | 8.3 | 21:52 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 306 | 22 | 56 | 78 | +16 | 284 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 344 | 6.4 | 19:23 |
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
8 goals and 13 assists in 67 games for 21 points, plus-11, on 21:52 a night.
47.1 per cent at five-on-five, the 24th percentile, over 1,293 minutes, largely beside Brock Faber. His on-ice goals were 47-39 against an expected 45.4-50.9, which is 12 goals of goaltending in the pairing’s favour.
The Finesse Game
Modest. 97 shots and 8 goals is a decent return for a defensive defenceman and 13 assists at 22 minutes a night is a low one.
The first pass is safe rather than quick. He does not create anything and does not attempt to.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 219, and this is the case. He clears his crease, hits, and is one of two men on this blue line who defend the paint by force.
40 penalty minutes over 67 games is a moderate rate for the style.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick, two organisations, and a career that took until 26 to become an NHL regular.
At 30 the projection is a second-pair defenceman who plays 20 minutes. The 24th-percentile share is the pairing’s number as much as his, and the pairing is the club’s top one.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,293 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47.1%
- 24th pct
- Shot attempts
- 45.4%
- 13th 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: 47 for, 39 against. Expected: 45.4 and 50.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 17 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 71 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 · 1293 minutes at five-on-five
- Brock Faber74%
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
- MIN took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.1% — 2.0 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,293 minutes at five-on-five — 91st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brock Faber | 46.9% | 47.6% | 46.7% |
| Matt Boldy | 49.6% | 45.5% | 56.3% |
| Marco Rossi | 50.2% | 45.4% | 52.7% |
46.9% together, 47.6% for him apart and 46.7% for Faber 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
135 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 8 of them goals. His median goal came from 33 feet. 13% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 61% from beyond forty.