Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

7

Kevin Bahl

Calgary Flames Defense

6-6 and 230 pounds, 21:23 a night at 25, and the defenceman acquired for Jacob Markstrom.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2020-21NJD70220000050.016:55
2021-22NJD17134-610000166.315:45
2022-23NJD42268+435000277.414:01
2023-24NJD8211011+182001631.617:24
2024-25CGY7331720-635100823.721:23
2025-26 so far
Career22173845-71621011933.617:56

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

3 goals and 17 assists in 73 games for 20 points, minus-6, on 21:23 a night.

47.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 26th percentile, over 1,284 minutes. His on-ice goals were 43-41 against an expected 47-52, so the goaltending covered 11 goals of a season in which he was outchanced.

The Finesse Game

Modest and honest. 82 shots with 77 per cent from beyond 40 feet, and 3 goals; the first pass is safe and the puck leaves quickly.

17 assists at 21 minutes a night is a low return and there is no offensive projection here. He is on the ice to defend and to allow his partner to do the rest.

The Physical Game

6-6 and 230, and he uses every inch. He clears the crease, closes a rush with reach, and is genuinely difficult to get around at the blue line.

35 penalty minutes over 73 games is disciplined for a man this size, and it reflects a defenceman who ends plays with position rather than with his stick.

The Intangibles

A second-round pick, a Devils prospect for five years, and the principal return for a goaltender the club sold at the top of his value.

At 25 the projection is a genuine second-pair defensive defenceman, which on a blue line with Weegar and Andersson — both right shots who want the puck — is a sensible thing to be. The 26th-percentile share needs to move.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,284 minutes

Expected goals
47.3%
26th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
49.6%
48th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 43 for, 41 against. Expected: 46.9 and 52.1.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
30th
Numbers
26th

The two rank him within 4 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 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 · 1284 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 47.3% — 1.4 below the club he did it on.
The role
First pair, 1,284 minutes at five-on-five — 90th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Rasmus Andersson47.8%43.3%51.4%
Matt Coronato48.3%46.9%52.0%
Nazem Kadri47.9%47.0%50.0%

47.8% together, 43.3% for him apart and 51.4% for Andersson apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Andersson and did not follow 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

133 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 48 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 77% from beyond forty.