Matty Beniers

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

77 games, 15 goals and 22 assists for 37 points, 6 on the power play, 20 penalty minutes, 17:58 a night and minus-11, with 1 game-winner. He took 51.3 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,117 minutes, the 62nd percentile, and his ice went 36-36 against an expectation of 44.83-42.54.

Nine goals of finishing below what the chances were worth — the second-worst figure on the club — and seven goals of goaltending above them. He took better chances than almost anybody in Seattle and his ice finished level, which is the whole club’s season written on one player.

The Finesse Game

196 attempts at a median of 25 feet with 42 per cent of them from inside twenty, 137 of those on goal, converted at 11.3 per cent against a career 14.05 across 299 shots.

Forty-two goals and 61 assists in 167 career games. He plays a straight, hard, north game with the puck and gets to the middle of the ice more often than his linemates give him credit for; the drop from 57 points to 37 is a shooting rate and a supporting cast rather than a change in the player.

The Physical Game

He is 6-2 and 181 and took 20 penalty minutes.

Twenty-two career penalty minutes in 167 games. He forechecks hard and finishes checks for a 181-pound centre, and the frame will carry more weight than it does now — at 21 the willingness is ahead of the strength.

The Intangibles

Second overall in 2021 by Seattle, three seasons, and 103 points in 167 games.

He is 21 and already the most important forward this club has drafted. Twelve power-play goals in 167 games and a career plus-2 on a roster that was outscored is a start rather than a verdict.