Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

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

36

Mats Zuccarello

Minnesota Wild Center

54 points at 37, and a line that was outscored 20-29 against an expected 39-40.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2010-11NYR4261723+34002748.114:10
2011-12NYR10213061011020.010:03
2012-13NYR15358+1080002711.116:25
2013-14NYR77194059+113241417011.217:08
2014-15NYR78153449+17450031549.717:16
2015-16NYR81263561+23470416615.718:29
2016-17NYR80154459+15265031897.918:50
2017-18NYR80163753-10361031789.018:55
2018-19NYR/DAL48122840-82430110411.519:51
2019-20MIN65152237-9183029615.615:56
2020-21MIN42112435+983007414.916:41
2021-22MIN70245579+212470215915.118:35
2022-23MIN78224567-32690319811.120:12
2023-24MIN69125163-5305011736.918:54
2024-25MIN6919355402230615112.619:39
2025-26 so far
Career904217473690+5334351135192311.318:05

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

19 goals and 35 assists in 69 games for 54 points, even, on 19:39 a night with 6 game-winners.

49.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 43rd percentile. His on-ice goals were 20-29 against an expected 39.0-40.1 — 19 goals of finishing that did not arrive, the largest such gap on the club.

The Finesse Game

The passing is the whole player and it has not declined. He holds the puck on the wall until a defender commits and puts it through the space he leaves, and 35 assists at 37 on a club that scored 214 goals is the most impressive individual line in this chapter.

151 shots and 19 goals at 12.6 per cent, with only a quarter of them from inside 20 feet. He is a distributor and shoots when the option closes.

The Physical Game

5-8 and 181, and there is nothing here. He does not forecheck with weight, does not win pucks on the wall, and avoids the interior.

22 penalty minutes over 69 games. The durability at 37 has been reasonable and the legs are the thing to watch — a playmaker who cannot get to the wall has nowhere to work from.

The Intangibles

Undrafted, fifteen seasons, two organisations, and a partnership with Kirill Kaprizov that has defined both of their careers here.

At 38 the projection is 45 points and a declining five-on-five share. He is the second-best passer on the roster and there is nobody behind him.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,025 minutes

Expected goals
49.3%
44th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
47.3%
27th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 20 for, 29 against. Expected: 39.0 and 40.1.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
71st
Numbers
44th

The report ranks him 27 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 76 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 · 1025 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
MIN took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.3% — 0.2 above the club he did it on.
The role
First line, 1,025 minutes at five-on-five — 64th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Marco Rossi50.2%47.4%54.0%
Brock Faber48.3%50.2%46.1%
Matt Boldy51.5%47.2%55.2%

50.2% together, 47.4% for him apart and 54.0% for Rossi apart. Rossi 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

211 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 19 of them goals. His median goal came from 13 feet. 26% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 29% from beyond forty.