Armchair Scout
29

Nate Danielson

Detroit Red Wings Center

Twenty-eight games at twenty-one, and the best of a bad set of Detroit numbers.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-2628257-74000316.511:03
Career28257-74000316.511:03

Last Season

Two goals and five assists in 28 games — seven points, minus-seven, at 11:03 a night with four penalty minutes. His first NHL games, at 21.

The Finesse Game

Not enough of a sample to describe honestly. Forty-seven unblocked attempts, two goals, median 28 feet with 36 per cent inside twenty.

He is a two-way centre by trade and the assists rather than the goals are meant to be the return. Five in 28 games is neither encouraging nor alarming.

The Physical Game

Six foot two, 195, and he competes without being heavy. Four penalty minutes in 28 games.

The skating is good and it is what got him a look at 21 on a club with four centres ahead of him.

The Intangibles

Two hundred and seventy five-on-five minutes, which is a small sample, and it reads 48.1 per cent of the expected goals, 36th percentile — below the line and better than most of the forwards ahead of him on the depth chart.

Three points in his last ten.

He was the ninth pick in 2023 and there is nothing here yet, in either direction. Detroit has Larkin, Copp, Kasper and Compher at centre and a genuine logjam. Ask again when he gets sixty games.