This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Josh Manson
Colorado Avalanche Defense
The only man on this blue line who can clear a crease, and he played 48 games.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | ANA | 28 | 0 | 3 | 3 | +1 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 0.0 | 18:26 |
| 2015-16 | ANA | 71 | 5 | 10 | 15 | +11 | 74 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 5.7 | 18:47 |
| 2016-17 | ANA | 82 | 5 | 12 | 17 | +14 | 82 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 88 | 5.7 | 18:38 |
| 2017-18 | ANA | 80 | 7 | 30 | 37 | +34 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 117 | 6.0 | 20:21 |
| 2018-19 | ANA | 74 | 3 | 13 | 16 | -8 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 96 | 3.1 | 22:18 |
| 2019-20 | ANA | 50 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -10 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 1.6 | 20:38 |
| 2020-21 | ANA | 23 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -3 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 5.3 | 17:59 |
| 2021-22 | ANA/COL | 67 | 6 | 10 | 16 | -11 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 6.5 | 18:59 |
| 2022-23 | COL | 27 | 2 | 8 | 10 | +13 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 41 | 4.9 | 17:41 |
| 2023-24 | COL | 76 | 8 | 17 | 25 | +11 | 87 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 123 | 6.5 | 17:47 |
| 2024-25 | COL | 48 | 1 | 14 | 15 | -6 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 1.5 | 18:02 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 626 | 39 | 131 | 170 | +46 | 600 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 819 | 4.8 | 19:17 |
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
1 goal and 14 assists in 48 games for 15 points, minus-6, on 18:02 a night.
48 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 31st percentile, which is the lowest figure among the club’s regular defencemen and needs the context: he takes the defensive-zone starts and plays against the other club’s best line, and he does it beside whichever partner is available rather than a fixed one.
The Finesse Game
There is not much here and there is not meant to be. 65 shots from a median of 53 feet, 1 goal, and a first pass that is adequate rather than a weapon — he is a defenceman who gets the puck to a forward and lets the forward do the rest.
What he does have is a read on when to step up. He kills a rush at the line more often than he retreats from it, and the gap control is genuinely good for a man who does not skate especially well.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 218, and one of the more feared defencemen in the league to meet in a corner. He hits hard and often, he clears the front of his net by force, and he is the only member of this blue line who can do either.
28 penalty minutes in 48 games is the rate of a man who plays right at the line. It is also part of why the penalty kill is busy, and part of why it works.
The Intangibles
The body is the whole projection. 48 games last season, and he has cleared 70 twice in nine years — the way he plays is the reason he is valuable and the reason he is never available.
At 34 that will not improve. Colorado has now spent three postseasons finding out what its defence looks like when the one heavy man in it is in a suit, and it has not signed a replacement for that specific thing.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 780 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48%
- 31st pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.1%
- 83rd 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: 33 for, 35 against. Expected: 27.6 and 30.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 19 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 237 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 73 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 · 780 minutes at five-on-five
- Calvin de Haanoff the roster9%
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
- COL took 53.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.0% — 5.2 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 780 minutes at five-on-five — 35th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Girard | 48.3% | 47.6% | 56.0% |
| Casey Mittelstadt | 44.0% | 49.8% | 46.6% |
| Logan O'Connor | 45.1% | 49.1% | 56.3% |
48.3% together, 47.6% for him apart and 56.0% for Girard apart. Girard was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
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
91 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 42 feet. 7% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 77% from beyond forty.