Keaton Middleton
Colorado Avalanche Defense
6-6 and 240 pounds, 41 games, 2 points, and no pretence about which of those three matters.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | COL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 9:18 |
| 2024-25 | COL | 41 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0.0 | 11:29 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 44 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 0.0 | 11:20 |
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
0 goals and 2 assists in 41 games, even, on 11:29 a night — the smallest defenceman workload on the club.
51.4 per cent at five-on-five, the 66th percentile, over 397 minutes, and on-ice goals of 17-8. In sheltered third-pair minutes behind a very good team, none of that should be read as evidence of anything.
The Finesse Game
There is essentially none. 44 shots and no goals, 85 per cent of his attempts from beyond 40 feet, and a first pass that is safe and slow. He gets the puck to the nearest available forward and that is the entire offensive contribution.
What he does well is defend without the puck: he closes a lane with reach rather than with feet, and he does not chase.
The Physical Game
6-6 and 240, one of the largest men in the league, and it is the whole job. He clears the crease, he ends board battles by arriving, and forwards do not go to the net front against him twice.
28 penalty minutes in 41 games. He plays right at the line and occasionally over it.
The Intangibles
An eighth-round sort of career — years of the American League, a first real NHL season at 26 — and no illusions attached to it. He knows exactly what he is for.
On a blue line with Makar, Toews, Girard and Malinski, all of whom are small or unwilling in the paint, there is a genuine role for one man who is neither. The question is whether a club that wants to play at this pace can carry a defenceman who cannot skate with it.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 397 minutes
- Expected goals
- 51.4%
- 66th pct
- Shot attempts
- 52.8%
- 81st 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: 17 for, 8 against. Expected: 13.7 and 13.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 64 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 237 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 61 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 · 397 minutes at five-on-five
- Sam Malinski32%
- Calvin de Haanoff the roster28%
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 51.4% — 1.8 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 397 minutes at five-on-five — 11th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Malinski | 39.5% | 56.9% | 51.2% |
| Logan O'Connor | 47.6% | 52.8% | 54.2% |
| Ross Colton | 49.7% | 52.0% | 55.5% |
39.5% together, 56.9% for him apart and 51.2% for Malinski 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
68 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 0 of them goals. 3% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 85% from beyond forty.