This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Jalen Chatfield
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
A 54.5 per cent chance share and a plus-22, from an undrafted defenceman playing 19 minutes a night.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | VAN | 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -11 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.0 | 13:26 |
| 2021-22 | CAR | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | +1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0.0 | 14:47 |
| 2022-23 | CAR | 78 | 6 | 8 | 14 | +23 | 35 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 93 | 6.5 | 14:07 |
| 2023-24 | CAR | 72 | 8 | 14 | 22 | +15 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 90 | 8.9 | 15:12 |
| 2024-25 | CAR | 79 | 7 | 11 | 18 | +22 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 114 | 6.1 | 18:53 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 263 | 21 | 37 | 58 | +50 | 133 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 336 | 6.3 | 15:50 |
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
7 goals and 11 assists in 79 games for 18 points, plus-22 — the highest rating on the club — on 18:53 a night.
54.5 per cent at five-on-five, the 88th percentile, over 1,259 minutes. On-ice goals of 47-45 against an expected 57-47, so even a plus-22 understates how well the pairing played.
The Finesse Game
Minimal and honest. 114 shots with 76 per cent of them from beyond 40 feet and only 2 per cent from inside 20 — he keeps pucks alive at the line and does nothing else offensively.
The first pass is quick and safe. He is not asked to make a play and he does not attempt one, which on a pairing with an offensive partner is exactly right.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 209, and he plays considerably heavier than that. He finishes checks, defends his net front properly, and is one of the more willing shot-blockers in the league.
54 penalty minutes over 79 games is a high rate for a defenceman of this role, and it is the one place the aggression costs something.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, five American League seasons, and an NHL regular at 26 who has been the club’s most reliable defensive partner for three years.
At 29 the projection is unchanged: a genuinely good second-pair right shot on a modest contract, which is precisely the sort of player this organisation finds and other clubs do not.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,259 minutes
- Expected goals
- 54.5%
- 88th pct
- Shot attempts
- 58.9%
- 98th 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, 45 against. Expected: 56.8 and 47.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 46 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 72 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 · 1259 minutes at five-on-five
- Dmitry Orlovnow SJS82%
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
- CAR took 55.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.5% — 1.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,259 minutes at five-on-five — 89th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dmitry Orlov | 56.0% | 47.6% | 50.5% |
| Sebastian Aho | 55.2% | 54.1% | 60.5% |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 54.3% | 54.6% | 53.7% |
56.0% together, 47.6% for him apart and 50.5% for Orlov 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
188 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 33 feet. 2% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 76% from beyond forty.