Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

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

44

Mikey Anderson

Los Angeles Kings Defense

A 53.8 per cent chance share in the hardest defensive minutes on the club with the best defence in the league.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2019-20LAK6101+40001911.118:09
2020-21LAK5411011030001521.921:11
2021-22LAK57268+68001583.520:07
2022-23LAK7751520+2040101905.621:40
2023-24LAK7421618+2218000892.320:38
2024-25LAK7761824+1728000847.122:41
2025-26 so far
Career345176582+691241043824.521:17

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

6 goals and 18 assists in 77 games for 24 points, plus-17, on 22:41 a night — the heaviest workload on the blue line.

53.8 per cent at five-on-five, the 85th percentile, over 1,415 minutes. His on-ice goals were 41-41 against an expected 53.9-46.2, so the finishing ran 13 goals against him while he was defending the other club’s best line.

The Finesse Game

Almost none and none required. 82 per cent of his shots came from beyond 40 feet and 6 goals came from 84 attempts, which is a defenceman keeping pucks alive at the line and nothing more.

18 assists at 23 minutes a night is a low return. The first pass is quick and safe and it is the only part of the puck game that matters here.

The Physical Game

6 feet and 195, and he defends far heavier than that. He boxes out in front of his own net, wins battles below the goal line against bigger forwards, and blocks shots constantly.

28 penalty minutes over 77 games at 23 minutes a night is exceptional and reflects a defenceman who is almost never late.

The Intangibles

A fourth-round pick, six seasons in one organisation, and a shutdown role on the best defensive club in the league.

At 26 the projection is unchanged and the value is substantial. With Vladislav Gavrikov gone to New York, he becomes the entirety of this blue line’s defensive identity.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,415 minutes

Expected goals
53.8%
85th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
51.2%
67th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 41 for, 41 against. Expected: 53.9 and 46.2.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
71st
Numbers
85th

The two rank him within 14 points of one another. 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.

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 · 1415 minutes at five-on-five

  • Vladislav Gavrikovnow NYR60%
  • Jordan Spencenow OTT8%

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
LAK took 54.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.8% — 0.2 below the club he did it on.
The role
First pair, 1,415 minutes at five-on-five — 96th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Vladislav Gavrikov54.5%52.7%54.4%
Anze Kopitar49.1%56.1%49.9%
Adrian Kempe51.6%54.9%47.9%

54.5% together, 52.7% for him apart and 54.4% for Gavrikov 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

142 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 36 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 82% from beyond forty.