This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Matthew Kessel
St. Louis Blues Defense
Thirty-nine games at 16:48 in a first season, from a fifth-round pick.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | STL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 | 15:10 |
| 2023-24 | STL | 39 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 3.6 | 16:48 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 41 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 3.2 | 16:43 |
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
39 games, 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points, 12 penalty minutes, 16:48 a night and even. He took 43.3 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 622 minutes, the 18th percentile, and his ice went 19-19 against an expectation of 20.46-26.84.
A goal of finishing below what the chances were worth and eight goals of goaltending above them. Nineteen goals for and nineteen against on a 43 per cent chance share is a crease doing a great deal of work.
The Finesse Game
42 attempts at a median of 53 feet with 69 per cent of them from beyond forty and 10 per cent from inside twenty, 25 of those on goal, converted at 4.0 per cent.
Six career assists and one goal in 41 games. He plays a simple game with the puck and gets it to the far wall rather than trying anything through the middle, which for a fifth-round pick in a first season is the correct instinct.
The Physical Game
He is 6-3 and 212 and took 12 penalty minutes.
Twelve career penalty minutes in 41 games. He is a large, straightforward defenceman who plays the net front and clears it, and there is more physical game available here than sixteen minutes a night has asked for.
The Intangibles
One hundred and fiftieth overall in 2020 by St. Louis, two seasons, one organisation, and 7 points in 41 games.
A career minus-1 in 41 games. He was a fifth-round pick who reached the league at 23 and took sixteen and a half minutes a night in his first season.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 622 minutes
- Expected goals
- 43.3%
- 12th pct
- Shot attempts
- 45.7%
- 20th 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: 19 for, 19 against. Expected: 20.5 and 26.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 31 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 — 68 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 · 622 minutes at five-on-five
- Torey Krugoff the roster61%
- Nick Leddy13%
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
- STL took 44.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 43.3% — 1.5 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 622 minutes at five-on-five — 27th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torey Krug | 43.2% | 43.3% | 46.1% |
| Jordan Kyrou | 46.7% | 41.7% | 51.4% |
| Robert Thomas | 47.3% | 41.4% | 49.8% |
43.2% together, 43.3% for him apart and 46.1% for Krug apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
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
42 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 29 feet. 10% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 69% from beyond forty.