Armchair Hockey Scout Beta
21

James van Riemsdyk

Detroit Red Wings Left Wing

16 goals at 36 on an 18.8 per cent rate, and a net-front specialist signed for a power play that is already 7th.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2009-10PHI78152035-1304061738.712:58
2010-11PHI75211940+153530417312.114:32
2011-12PHI43111324-1242011219.115:10
2012-13TOR48181432-72650314012.919:12
2013-14TOR80303161-95092327910.821:03
2014-15TOR82272956-334391424810.919:05
2015-16TOR40141529+3650012910.817:46
2016-17TOR82293362-23760523812.215:53
2017-18TOR81361854+130110524814.514:54
2018-19PHI66272148-101880416716.216:36
2019-20PHI66192140+5840215112.614:54
2020-21PHI56172643+214100113212.916:33
2021-22PHI82241438-332590418612.916:07
2022-23PHI61121729-32820111910.115:21
2023-24BOS71112738+7206031427.813:30
2024-25CBJ71162036-4231028518.812:24
2025-26 so far
Career1082327338665-7041794348273112.015:56

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

16 goals and 20 assists in 71 games for 36 points, minus-4, on 12:24 a night with Columbus.

18.8 per cent shooting on 85 shots, which is a very high rate on a small volume and will not repeat. 36 points in twelve minutes a night at 36 is nonetheless a real return.

The Finesse Game

Everything happens within fifteen feet of the goaltender. He deflects, he collects rebounds, and he has hands in tight that are still among the better ones in the league for that specific job.

85 shots in 71 games is very low volume — the offence is entirely a matter of being in the right place when somebody else shoots. 20 assists is a fair total for a man who spends the shift with his back to the play.

The Physical Game

6-3 and 210, and he uses the size to hold a position rather than to win anything. He takes cross-checks in front of the net and stays, and does not forecheck or win pucks on the wall.

23 penalty minutes over 71 games. The skating went years ago and it is the reason he has been a bottom-six forward for five seasons.

The Intangibles

A 2nd overall pick, seventeen seasons, six organisations, and a late career built entirely on one skill that has not deserted him.

Detroit’s power play was 7th in the league and lacked a man in the paint. This is a precise and cheap answer to that, and at 36 nothing else should be expected.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 766 minutes

Expected goals
49.6%
48th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
49.5%
46th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 41 for, 27 against. Expected: 30.3 and 30.7.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
36th
Numbers
48th

The two rank him within 12 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 — 70 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 with CBJ · 766 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
CBJ took 48.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.6% — 1.3 above the club he did it on.
The role
Third line, 766 minutes at five-on-five — 34th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Kent Johnson46.9%52.0%48.6%
Zach Werenski53.0%47.6%52.0%
Ivan Provorov45.7%51.6%48.5%

46.9% together, 52.0% for him apart and 48.6% for Johnson apart. He was better away from Johnson, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Johnson.

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

122 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 16 of them goals. His median goal came from 9 feet. 61% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 12% from beyond forty.