Kevin Labanc
Columbus Blue Jackets Right Wing
Thirty-nine point four per cent of the expected goals — the second percentile, and the worst mark on this roster.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | SJS | 55 | 8 | 12 | 20 | +9 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 70 | 11.4 | 13:41 |
| 2017-18 | SJS | 77 | 11 | 29 | 40 | -6 | 32 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 156 | 7.0 | 14:21 |
| 2018-19 | SJS | 82 | 17 | 39 | 56 | -1 | 36 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 130 | 13.1 | 14:01 |
| 2019-20 | SJS | 70 | 14 | 19 | 33 | -33 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 176 | 8.0 | 16:04 |
| 2020-21 | SJS | 55 | 12 | 16 | 28 | -9 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 128 | 9.4 | 16:25 |
| 2021-22 | SJS | 21 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 36 | 8.3 | 13:17 |
| 2022-23 | SJS | 72 | 15 | 18 | 33 | -17 | 36 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 11.6 | 14:20 |
| 2023-24 | SJS | 46 | 2 | 7 | 9 | -27 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 3.3 | 11:37 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 478 | 82 | 143 | 225 | -88 | 217 | 13 | 0 | 15 | 885 | 9.3 | 14:24 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 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
2 goals and 7 assists in 46 games for San Jose — 9 points at 11:37 a night, minus-27, on 60 shots at 3.33 per cent, and 16 penalty minutes.
39.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 496 minutes, the 2nd percentile — the worst mark on this roster by a distance. His ice went 12-35 against an expectation of 16.31-25.11 — four goals of scoring missing and ten conceded above expectation, in under five hundred minutes.
It was the worst season of a career that once produced 56 points.
The Finesse Game
60 attempts at a median of 35 feet, with 38 per cent from beyond 40 and 26 per cent from inside 20, converting at 3.33 per cent against a career 9.27.
143 career assists against 82 goals in 478 games — the passing has always been the better half, and he holds the puck and looks for the seam rather than shooting.
Two goals in forty-six games is not a shooting slump so much as a player no longer being given the ice where goals happen.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 185. He does not forecheck with force, he does not win pucks on the wall, and he avoids contact.
16 penalty minutes in 46 games and 217 in 478 for his career. He does not agitate and he does not retaliate.
The Intangibles
A hundred and seventy-first overall in 2014 — a sixth-round pick — out of Barrie, and 478 games and 225 points at 28 with a career minus-88, all of it in San Jose.
He was signed here in the summer. A sixth-round pick who plays 478 NHL games and scores 225 points has already beaten his draft position by a distance, and the second percentile of expected goals on the thirty-second-place club is where that career has arrived.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 496 minutes
- Expected goals
- 39.4%
- 2nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.3%
- 29th 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: 12 for, 35 against. Expected: 16.3 and 25.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 9 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 54 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
2023-24 with SJS · 496 minutes at five-on-five
- Ryan Carpenteroff the roster28%
- Nico Sturm28%
- Filip Zadinaoff 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, 2023-24
- The club
- SJS took 40.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 39.4% — 1.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 496 minutes at five-on-five — 17th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Ferraro | 40.5% | 38.8% | 43.9% |
| Kyle Burroughs | 35.9% | 41.2% | 44.6% |
| Filip Zadina | 47.1% | 37.1% | 38.8% |
40.5% together, 38.8% for him apart and 43.9% for Ferraro apart. Ferraro 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
84 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 26% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 38% from beyond forty.