Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

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

17

Marc Gatcomb

New York Islanders Center

A 41.9 per cent chance share — the 4th percentile in the league — and 8 goals on 41 shots.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2024-25NYI39819-4110014119.59:47
2025-26 so far
Career39819-4110014119.59:47

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

39 games, 8 goals and 1 assist for 9 points at 9:47 a night, on 41 shots at 19.51 per cent. 11 penalty minutes. Minus-4.

A 41.9 per cent chance share is the 4th percentile in the league — the worst figure in this chapter by a distance — and the on-ice goals were 20-15 against an expected 9.53-13.22. In 333 minutes his line was comprehensively outplayed and outscored opponents by five, and he personally scored eight goals on 41 shots. Every number here is a small sample working in the same fortunate direction.

The Finesse Game

44 per cent of his shots came from inside 20 feet at a median of 24, and 19.51 per cent is not a rate that survives contact with a second season.

There is 1 assist in 39 games, which describes the playmaking exactly. He arrives at the net, he shoots what he is given, and he does not create anything for the men beside him.

The Physical Game

6-2 and 200 and willing on the forecheck, which is the reason he is in the league at all. He finishes checks and he goes to the front of the net.

11 penalty minutes in 39 games is a good rate for a player whose value is entirely in the physical exchange.

The Intangibles

Undrafted, four years at Quinnipiac, two American League seasons, and an NHL debut at 25.

Eight goals will keep him employed and a 4th-percentile chance share is what a coaching staff actually sees. The gap between those two things is the whole of his professional situation, and it will not stay open for long.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 333 minutes

Expected goals
41.9%
5th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
47.7%
30th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 20 for, 15 against. Expected: 9.5 and 13.2.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
3rd
Numbers
5th

The 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 357 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.

Usual linemates

2024-25 · 333 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
NYI took 49.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 41.9% — 8.0 below the club he did it on.
The role
Fourth line, 333 minutes at five-on-five — 7th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Pierre Engvall38.9%43.7%49.5%
Maxim Tsyplakov57.1%33.6%53.3%
Anthony DeAngelo32.6%47.4%52.2%

38.9% together, 43.7% for him apart and 49.5% for Engvall 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

55 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 8 of them goals. His median goal came from 14 feet. 44% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 18% from beyond forty.