This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Joel Hanley
Calgary Flames Defense
34 years old, 5-11, 53 games at 18:35 a night, and a plus-12 nobody expected.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | MTL | 10 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.0 | 16:00 |
| 2016-17 | MTL | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.0 | 10:09 |
| 2017-18 | ARI | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 11:08 |
| 2018-19 | DAL | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.0 | 13:42 |
| 2019-20 | DAL | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 11:21 |
| 2020-21 | DAL | 35 | 0 | 8 | 8 | +6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 0.0 | 13:01 |
| 2021-22 | DAL | 44 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 11.1 | 11:56 |
| 2022-23 | DAL | 26 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +5 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.0 | 11:38 |
| 2023-24 | DAL/CGY | 42 | 1 | 4 | 5 | +3 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 5.3 | 13:54 |
| 2024-25 | CGY | 53 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +12 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 42 | 4.8 | 18:35 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 246 | 5 | 33 | 38 | +10 | 84 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 150 | 3.3 | 14:01 |
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
2 goals and 7 assists in 53 games for 9 points, plus-12, on 18:35 a night.
50.2 per cent at five-on-five, the 54th percentile, over 839 minutes — a better share than either of the club’s top-pair defencemen. 86 per cent of his shots came from beyond 40 feet.
The Finesse Game
None, and it is not required. 42 shots in 53 games and 2 goals, and a first pass that is quick and safe.
He does not stall a breakout and he does not attempt anything that could go wrong. On a third pair that is the entire job description and he does it as well as anybody in the league at the price.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 186, and small. He defends with position and stick rather than weight, boxes out rather than clearing, and does not get overpowered as often as the size suggests because he is rarely in a battle he did not choose.
21 penalty minutes over 53 games. Disciplined.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, five organisations, hundreds of American League games, and a genuine NHL role at 34 that he earned twice over.
The projection is 50 games of competent third-pair hockey for almost no money, which is the most efficient thing on this roster. There is no reason to expect it to continue past 35 and no reason to stop now.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 839 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50.2%
- 55th pct
- Shot attempts
- 52.5%
- 78th 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: 31 for, 33 against. Expected: 30.5 and 30.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 44 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 — 66 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 · 839 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
- CGY took 48.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.2% — 1.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 839 minutes at five-on-five — 39th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacKenzie Weegar | 52.2% | 45.6% | 49.1% |
| Nazem Kadri | 50.6% | 49.9% | 49.0% |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | 53.2% | 48.4% | 50.0% |
52.2% together, 45.6% for him apart and 49.1% for Weegar 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
77 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 37 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 86% from beyond forty.