This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2023-24 report →
Kyle Okposo
Buffalo Sabres Right Wing
Twenty-one goals at thirty-four from a median of 32 feet, on the lowest chance share of any Buffalo forward who played a full season.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08 | NYI | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 | +3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 13.3 | 16:28 |
| 2008-09 | NYI | 65 | 18 | 21 | 39 | -6 | 36 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 165 | 10.9 | 18:01 |
| 2009-10 | NYI | 80 | 19 | 33 | 52 | -22 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 249 | 7.6 | 20:32 |
| 2010-11 | NYI | 38 | 5 | 15 | 20 | +3 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 72 | 6.9 | 16:35 |
| 2011-12 | NYI | 79 | 24 | 21 | 45 | -15 | 46 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 152 | 15.8 | 17:04 |
| 2012-13 | NYI | 48 | 4 | 20 | 24 | -2 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 101 | 4.0 | 16:57 |
| 2013-14 | NYI | 71 | 27 | 42 | 69 | -9 | 51 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 195 | 13.9 | 20:26 |
| 2014-15 | NYI | 60 | 18 | 33 | 51 | -8 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 195 | 9.2 | 19:33 |
| 2015-16 | NYI | 79 | 22 | 42 | 64 | -4 | 51 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 202 | 10.9 | 18:12 |
| 2016-17 | BUF | 65 | 19 | 26 | 45 | -7 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 156 | 12.2 | 18:58 |
| 2017-18 | BUF | 76 | 15 | 29 | 44 | -34 | 40 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 161 | 9.3 | 17:02 |
| 2018-19 | BUF | 78 | 14 | 15 | 29 | -9 | 41 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 147 | 9.5 | 13:47 |
| 2019-20 | BUF | 52 | 9 | 10 | 19 | -3 | 28 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 82 | 11.0 | 12:51 |
| 2020-21 | BUF | 35 | 2 | 11 | 13 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 4.4 | 13:53 |
| 2021-22 | BUF | 74 | 21 | 24 | 45 | -15 | 43 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 174 | 12.1 | 16:47 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 909 | 219 | 345 | 564 | -129 | 486 | 64 | 3 | 31 | 2111 | 10.4 | 17:24 |
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
21 goals and 24 assists in 74 games — 45 points at 16:47 a night, minus-15, with 8 power-play goals and 2 shorthanded on 174 shots and 43 penalty minutes.
Twenty-one goals at thirty-four, his most since 2016-17.
45.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,011 minutes, the 18th percentile — the lowest of any Buffalo forward who played a full season. His ice went 33-42 against an expectation of 33.67-41.1: both ends landed almost exactly where the chances said they would.
39.1 per cent of his even-strength time was spent in the offensive zone, the 13th percentile. He took the hard shifts on a bad club, which is what a thirty-four-year-old is for on a rebuild.
The Finesse Game
174 attempts at a median of 32 feet — the 95th percentile for distance — with 38 per cent from inside the slot, the 8th — off a 96.9 mph release, the 93rd percentile. He shoots hard from range and 12.1 per cent went in.
31 per cent of his points came on the power play, the 81st percentile, and 8 of the 21 goals. 564 points in 909 career games.
1.16 takeaways per 60 is the 18th percentile. The hands are ordinary now and the shot is not.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 216, and 2.85 hits per 60 at the 34th percentile with 0.92 blocks at the 12th. He is thickly built and does not play a contact game, which is a change from the version of him that arrived in Buffalo at twenty-eight.
Top speed 22.6 mph at the 57th percentile. Ordinary and holding.
The Intangibles
Seventh overall in 2006 by the Islanders, 909 games, 564 points, and a minus-129 across a career spent almost entirely on clubs that missed the playoffs.
He is the senior man in a very young dressing room and has been since Jack Eichel left. He is 34, in the last year of his contract, and named captain this summer. A player of his age scoring 21 goals on a club that finished 24th is either a useful deadline asset or the man the twenty-one-year-olds learn from, and Buffalo cannot have both.
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.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
31.6% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 95th percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
“He is the senior man in a very young dressing room and has been since Jack Eichel left”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,011 minutes
- Expected goals
- 45%
- 18th pct
- Shot attempts
- 46.8%
- 27th 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: 33 for, 42 against. Expected: 33.7 and 41.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 35 points above where the numbers do. 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 649 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 74 games
- Top speed
- 22.6 mph
- 71st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 1.20 a game
- Distance
- 2.68 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 96.9 mph
- 95th 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 · 1011 minutes at five-on-five
- Cody Eakinoff the roster36%
- Dylan Cozens32%
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
- BUF took 46.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 45.0% — 1.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,011 minutes at five-on-five — 63rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zemgus Girgensons | 45.6% | 44.8% | 50.8% |
| Cody Eakin | 41.5% | 46.7% | 40.1% |
| Dylan Cozens | 51.7% | 41.8% | 46.1% |
45.6% together, 44.8% for him apart and 50.8% for Girgensons apart. Girgensons 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
237 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 20 of them goals. His median goal came from 16 feet. 29% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 32% from beyond forty.