This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Jason Zucker
Buffalo Sabres Left Wing
53 points at 33 and 11 power-play goals on a unit that finished 24th.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | MIN | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.0 | 11:02 |
| 2012-13 | MIN | 20 | 4 | 1 | 5 | +4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 11.8 | 11:16 |
| 2013-14 | MIN | 21 | 4 | 1 | 5 | +2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 10.0 | 12:59 |
| 2014-15 | MIN | 51 | 21 | 5 | 26 | -9 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 124 | 16.9 | 15:04 |
| 2015-16 | MIN | 71 | 13 | 10 | 23 | -4 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 158 | 8.2 | 15:35 |
| 2016-17 | MIN | 79 | 22 | 25 | 47 | +34 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 172 | 12.8 | 15:17 |
| 2017-18 | MIN | 82 | 33 | 31 | 64 | +8 | 44 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 222 | 14.9 | 16:58 |
| 2018-19 | MIN | 81 | 21 | 21 | 42 | -9 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 214 | 9.8 | 17:05 |
| 2019-20 | MIN/PIT | 60 | 20 | 21 | 41 | -4 | 21 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 111 | 18.0 | 16:20 |
| 2020-21 | PIT | 38 | 9 | 9 | 18 | -8 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 67 | 13.4 | 15:41 |
| 2021-22 | PIT | 41 | 8 | 9 | 17 | -2 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 102 | 7.8 | 14:49 |
| 2022-23 | PIT | 78 | 27 | 21 | 48 | -4 | 47 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 197 | 13.7 | 15:39 |
| 2023-24 | ARI/NSH | 69 | 14 | 18 | 32 | -9 | 81 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 150 | 9.3 | 13:49 |
| 2024-25 | BUF | 73 | 21 | 32 | 53 | +4 | 57 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 143 | 14.7 | 16:00 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 770 | 217 | 206 | 423 | +1 | 394 | 45 | 3 | 34 | 1744 | 12.4 | 15:31 |
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
21 goals and 32 assists in 73 games for 53 points, plus-4, on 16:00 a night, with 11 of the goals on the power play — more than a third of the club’s total.
48.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 34th percentile. 14.7 per cent shooting from a median of 22 feet with 47 per cent of attempts inside 20, which is a sustainable profile and one of the few on this roster.
The Finesse Game
A net-front and inside-lane scorer who has never needed to carry the puck to be useful. The release is quick in traffic and he is very good at finding the open ice at the top of the crease on a power play — 11 goals there is not an accident of usage.
The playmaking is functional rather than creative. What he provides is a veteran who goes to the right places and does not need the play designed around him.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 198, and he plays hard for the size. He forechecks with real intent, goes into the corners, and stands in front of a goaltender on the power play.
57 penalty minutes at 33 is a high total and reflects a player who plays right at the edge. The body has cost him time repeatedly across his career, including two seasons largely lost.
The Intangibles
Thirteen seasons, five organisations, and a career of arriving somewhere as a stopgap and outplaying the expectation. He has been genuinely good in three of the last four years.
At 33 on a club that keeps not making the playoffs, he is the most obviously tradeable veteran on the roster. That the club kept him is a statement about how it sees this season.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 858 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.3%
- 34th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.4%
- 36th 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: 48 for, 40 against. Expected: 35.8 and 38.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 46 points above where the numbers do. 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 — 78 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 · 858 minutes at five-on-five
- Alex Tuch38%
- Ryan McLeod36%
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
- BUF took 47.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.3% — 0.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 858 minutes at five-on-five — 41st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Tuch | 41.8% | 52.4% | 51.2% |
| Bowen Byram | 50.5% | 46.8% | 47.8% |
| Ryan McLeod | 47.4% | 48.8% | 45.9% |
41.8% together, 52.4% for him apart and 51.2% for Tuch apart. Both were better apart than together — the pairing was doing neither of them any favours.
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
223 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 21 of them goals. His median goal came from 9 feet. 47% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 22% from beyond forty.