Armchair Hockey Scout

Ask the book

2026-27 edition Ask a direct question about this edition of the book — who, how many, how common, which group more — and it is answered with a table computed on this page from the edition’s index: the season line, height and age, the on-ice percentiles, the grades and the traits read out of every report. Ask for a view on named players — what a comparison comes down to, what makes a man — and you get the book’s reading of their own pages, and only those. The model turns your question into a query and phrases the result, or reads the pages it is handed; it never originates a figure, and an answer carrying a figure that is on neither the table nor the pages is withheld. It does not forecast, and it says so when a question is outside what the book holds.

Tables are computed on this page from the 2026-27 edition’s index; readings rest on the players’ own pages; the model never counts. Twenty questions an hour.
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23

Justin Kirkland

Minnesota Wild Center

A 29-year-old with 50 career games, hanging onto the edge of a lineup.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2022-23ANA7000-3000050.07:13
2023-24ARI20000000010.07:14
2024-25CGY21268+611000922.29:42
2025-26CGY20112+12001119.19:49
2026-27 so far—————————————
Career—503710+4130012611.59:18

This Season So Far

The 2026-27 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 1 assist in 20 games on under 10 minutes a night. 50 career games, 10 career points.

The Finesse Game

There is very little NHL evidence, and what exists is a player producing nothing. 11 shots in 20 games describes someone playing a containing role and not looking for the puck.

He has scored in the American league, which is what earns a player these looks and is not the same as scoring here.

The Physical Game

6-3 and 183, which is tall and light. He forechecks willingly and is not going to overpower NHL defencemen.

The Intangibles

A third-round pick a decade ago, a long minor-league career, and a handful of NHL games spread across several seasons. That is a hard road and he is still on it.

The honest read is that he is organisational depth who covers injuries. There is no projection here beyond that, and the sample does not support one.

The numbers underneath

Tracked

NHL Edge, 2025-26 · 20 games

Top speed
21.4 mph
19th pct

fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.2

Bursts over 20 mph
0.55 a game

how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes

Distance
1.63 miles a game

skated, all strengths

Hardest shot
87.0 mph
63rd pct

one shot; the league's average best is 83.6

A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.

Recent form

Last 11 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first

2

points in his last 10 games — 1 goals, 1 assists, 11 shots

Each bar is one game by points. Filled bars are games he scored in.

Usual linemates

2025-26 with CGY · 168 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.

Where he shoots from

goal on goal missed

21 unblocked shots in 2025-26, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 17 feet. 57% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 14% from beyond forty.