This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Mason Appleton
Winnipeg Jets Center
A sixth-round pick with 329 games, playing on a club that allowed the fewest goals in hockey.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | WPG | 36 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 10.3 | 8:12 |
| 2019-20 | WPG | 46 | 5 | 3 | 8 | -9 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 55 | 9.1 | 11:10 |
| 2020-21 | WPG | 56 | 12 | 13 | 25 | +11 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 13.6 | 14:25 |
| 2021-22 | SEA/WPG | 68 | 8 | 13 | 21 | -1 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 98 | 8.2 | 14:53 |
| 2022-23 | WPG | 41 | 5 | 11 | 16 | +2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 7.0 | 16:01 |
| 2023-24 | WPG | 82 | 14 | 22 | 36 | +16 | 26 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 122 | 11.5 | 16:03 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 329 | 47 | 69 | 116 | +28 | 102 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 463 | 10.2 | 13:59 |
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
82 games, 14 goals and 22 assists for 36 points, 2 on the power play, 1 shorthanded, 26 penalty minutes, 16:03 a night and plus-16, with 2 game-winners. He took 51.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,147 minutes, the 61st percentile, and his ice went 41-30 against an expectation of 46.46-44.40.
Five goals of finishing below what the chances were worth and fourteen goals of goaltending above them. Thirty-six points and 14 goals are both career highs and he played all 82 games for the first time.
The Finesse Game
184 attempts at a median of 28 feet with 30 per cent of them from inside twenty and 23 per cent from beyond forty, 117 of those on goal, converted at 11.5 per cent against a career 10.15 across 463 shots.
Forty-seven career goals and 69 assists in 329 games. He shoots from the middle distance and does it often for a third-line winger; a career 10.15 per cent across four hundred and sixty shots is exactly the rate that total suggests.
The Physical Game
He is 6-2 and 196 and took 26 penalty minutes.
102 career penalty minutes in 329 games. He forechecks honestly and finishes checks without ever crossing into penalty trouble; six seasons of it have cost him a third of a penalty minute a game.
The Intangibles
One hundred and sixty-eighth overall in 2015 by Winnipeg, six seasons, and Winnipeg is his second organisation.
A career plus-28 in 329 games. He was a sixth-round pick, he was taken in the expansion draft and traded back, and 36 points at sixteen minutes a night is the best season he has had.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,147 minutes
- Expected goals
- 51.1%
- 62nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.1%
- 56th 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: 41 for, 30 against. Expected: 46.5 and 44.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 28 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 652 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 79 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 · 1147 minutes at five-on-five
- Adam Lowry77%
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
- WPG took 52.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 51.1% — 0.9 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,147 minutes at five-on-five — 78th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Lowry | 54.4% | 41.8% | 57.0% |
| Nino Niederreiter | 53.1% | 46.8% | 61.7% |
| Dylan DeMelo | 50.5% | 51.6% | 54.2% |
54.4% together, 41.8% for him apart and 57.0% for Lowry apart. He was worse away from Lowry, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Lowry did.
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
184 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 14 of them goals. His median goal came from 22 feet. 30% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 23% from beyond forty.