This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Matthew Kessel
St. Louis Blues Defense
No goals in 29 games, a 51.7 per cent chance share, and a fifth-round pick who has made himself a seventh defenceman.
| 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 | STL | 29 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0.0 | 13:08 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 70 | 1 | 9 | 10 | -4 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 2.1 | 15:14 |
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
No goals and 3 assists in 29 games — 3 points at 13:08 a night, minus-3, with 10 penalty minutes.
51.7 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 68th percentile, across 371 minutes. His ice went 16-11 against an expectation of 13.74-12.82, which for a seventh defenceman is a perfectly respectable line on a small sample.
The Finesse Game
17 attempts in 29 games and no goals, at a median of 54 feet with 72 per cent from beyond 40. 1 goal in 70 career NHL games.
The first pass is quick and correct and it is the entire offensive contribution. He does not attempt anything ambitious, which at this level is the right decision.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 212 and honest. He defends the front of his own net, he blocks shots, and he finishes checks without hurting anybody.
10 penalty minutes in 29 games. He is disciplined and he is not an agitator.
The Intangibles
A fifth-round pick in 2020 out of Michigan State, and 70 NHL games in across three seasons of moving between here and the American League.
He is 25 and a seventh defenceman, which on a club that dressed six healthy ones for most of a season is a job worth having.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 371 minutes
- Expected goals
- 51.7%
- 69th pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.4%
- 68th 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: 16 for, 11 against. Expected: 13.7 and 12.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 58 points above where the report does. 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 64 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 · 371 minutes at five-on-five
- Ryan Suteroff the roster26%
- Scott Perunovichoff the roster19%
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
- STL took 51.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 51.7% — 0.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- 371 minutes at five-on-five — 10th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Holloway | 59.1% | 48.6% | 53.1% |
| P.O Joseph | 48.9% | 52.9% | 49.7% |
| Brayden Schenn | 54.4% | 50.6% | 48.9% |
59.1% together, 48.6% for him apart and 53.1% for Holloway apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
29 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 0 of them goals. 7% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 72% from beyond forty.