This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Kailer Yamamoto
Edmonton Oilers Right Wing
The 16th-closest shot chart of the 393 qualified forwards, the 46th-fewest shots per 60, and 44.4 per cent of the chances away from Connor McDavid.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | EDM | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0.0 | 15:10 |
| 2018-19 | EDM | 17 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7.7 | 13:04 |
| 2019-20 | EDM | 27 | 11 | 15 | 26 | +17 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 25.0 | 17:23 |
| 2020-21 | EDM | 52 | 8 | 13 | 21 | +9 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 11.6 | 16:22 |
| 2021-22 | EDM | 81 | 20 | 21 | 41 | -1 | 40 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 114 | 17.5 | 16:52 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 186 | 40 | 53 | 93 | +17 | 82 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 263 | 15.2 | 16:22 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 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
20 goals and 21 assists in 81 games — 41 points, both career highs, with a minus-1 and 40 penalty minutes at 16:52 a night, the 64th percentile among forwards.
48.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,208 minutes, the 36th percentile. His ice went 52-56 against an expectation of 49.94-53.56.
Fourteen playoff games for two goals and five assists.
The Finesse Game
Twenty goals on 114 shots is 17.5 per cent, the 92nd percentile among forwards — and 5.01 shots per 60 is the 46th-fewest of the 393 qualified. That pair is the whole page: he almost never shoots and a remarkable share of what he does shoot goes in.
68 per cent of his attempts came from the slot, the 16th-highest of 393, at a median of 17 feet — the 16th-closest shot chart in the league. At 5-9 and 178 pounds he gets to the paint as reliably as anybody, and that is where the 17.5 per cent comes from.
It is also the number least likely to survive. Twenty goals on 114 shots is a season; the career rate over 263 shots is 15.2 per cent, which is still high and is not this.
1.64 even-strength points per 60 is the 40th percentile with 15 per cent of his points on the power play — 0:49 a night at the 31st percentile, on the league’s best unit. He is not on it.
The Physical Game
5-9 and 178, the smallest skater in this chapter. 5.01 hits per 60 is the 61st percentile among forwards, which at that size is a real number.
22.6 mph is the 57th percentile, 4.4 bursts over 20 mph per 60 the 42nd, and 9.13 miles per 60 the 49th-lowest of 365. An ordinary skating file, which for a 5-9 winger is the thing that limits him.
1.01 penalties drawn per 60 is the 74th percentile against 0.70 taken — plus-0.31 net at the 76th.
The Intangibles
Twenty-second overall in 2017, and 186 NHL games at 24 with 93 points.
With Connor McDavid he took 56.2 per cent of the chances over 730 attempts and 44.4 without him. With Leon Draisaitl he took 45.0 over 1,093 attempts and 51.5 without.
Read those two together and the shape is clear: he was very good on McDavid’s wing for a quarter of the season and under water on Draisaitl’s for the rest of it, and the second line’s problem shows up on both men’s pages.
Twenty goals, a career high, at 5-9. The finishing rate will fall and the shot chart will not, and the difference between those two sentences is what he is worth.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- slot-man· shoots from where goals are scored
67.9% of his attempts in the slot, 96th percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.69) · 44% keep it
- durable· was available
81 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
- workhorse· carries the load at even strength
14:55 a game at five-on-five, 91st percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.78) · 58% keep it
“At 5-9 and 178 pounds he gets to the paint as reliably as anybody”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,208 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.2%
- 40th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.9%
- 55th 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: 52 for, 56 against. Expected: 49.9 and 53.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 2 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 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 58 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 81 games
- Top speed
- 22.6 mph
- 71st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 1.25 a game
- Distance
- 2.57 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 89.1 mph
- 60th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.0
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.1
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.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 1208 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, 2021-22
- The club
- EDM took 51.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.2% — 3.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,208 minutes at five-on-five — 86th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leon Draisaitl | 45.0% | 51.5% | 54.1% |
| Cody Ceci | 47.6% | 48.6% | 53.1% |
| Darnell Nurse | 48.8% | 47.9% | 54.9% |
45.0% together, 51.5% for him apart and 54.1% for Draisaitl 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
156 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 20 of them goals. His median goal came from 13 feet. 59% of his shots came from inside twenty feet.