Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

46

Jared Spurgeon

Minnesota Wild Defense

5-9 and 166 pounds at 35, a 53 per cent chance share, and 14 penalty minutes.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2010-11MIN534812-122013810.515:04
2011-12MIN7032023-46201923.321:36
2012-13MIN3951015+14402677.521:33
2013-14MIN6752126+1516201915.522:38
2014-15MIN6691625+363021287.022:37
2015-16MIN77111829+11145021229.022:41
2016-17MIN76102838+33201021446.924:02
2017-18MIN6192837-683021108.224:33
2018-19MIN82142943-1204001529.224:09
2019-20MIN62122032-11830211210.722:34
2020-21MIN5471825-26300947.422:05
2021-22MIN65103040+32100021168.621:09
2022-23MIN79112334+32141031497.421:49
2023-24MIN16055+52000210.023:20
2024-25MIN6672532+8141031076.520:27
2025-26 so far
Career933117299416+1251603402315437.622:06

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 25 assists in 66 games for 32 points, plus-8, on 20:27 a night — the most points by a defenceman on the club.

53 per cent at five-on-five, the 79th percentile — the best figure on the blue line by six points — with on-ice goals of 32-38 against an expected 41.4-36.8.

The Finesse Game

The reading and the passing are the tools and they are very good. He sees the outlet before the forecheck arrives, he does not stall a breakout, and 25 assists in 66 games at 35 is a genuine first-pair rate.

107 shots and 7 goals; the release is ordinary and the offence comes from distribution rather than from shooting.

The Physical Game

5-9 and 166 — the lightest defenceman in the league — and he defends entirely by position and anticipation. He cannot clear a crease and he is very rarely in a battle he did not choose.

14 penalty minutes over 66 games is exceptional and it is the whole method: never late, never reaching. The body has cost him — he has cleared 70 games twice in five seasons.

The Intangibles

Undrafted, sixteen seasons in one organisation, and a captaincy that has outlasted three rebuilds.

At 36 the projection is 60 games and 20 minutes. He is the best defenceman on this roster by chance share and the club has been planning for his absence for three years without finding a replacement.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,117 minutes

Expected goals
53%
79th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
51%
64th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 32 for, 38 against. Expected: 41.4 and 36.8.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
58th
Numbers
79th

The numbers rank him 21 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 357 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 · 1117 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
MIN took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.0% — 3.9 above the club he did it on.
The role
Second pair, 1,117 minutes at five-on-five — 77th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Declan Chisholm52.5%53.4%54.1%
Marco Rossi54.9%52.1%50.6%
Jonas Brodin56.0%51.7%47.1%

52.5% together, 53.4% for him apart and 54.1% for Chisholm 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

153 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 31 feet. 10% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 68% from beyond forty.