Nathan Bastian
Dallas Stars Right Wing
A 6-4 fourth-line winger with 10 points and 31 penalty minutes, signed to make a fourth line heavier.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | NJD | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 23.1 | 12:41 |
| 2020-21 | NJD | 41 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 6.5 | 12:37 |
| 2021-22 | SEA/NJD | 72 | 12 | 6 | 18 | -12 | 65 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 97 | 12.4 | 11:54 |
| 2022-23 | NJD | 43 | 6 | 9 | 15 | +7 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 62 | 9.7 | 12:26 |
| 2023-24 | NJD | 54 | 5 | 7 | 12 | -10 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 8.8 | 10:10 |
| 2024-25 | NJD | 59 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -4 | 31 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 44 | 9.1 | 10:56 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 276 | 33 | 35 | 68 | -19 | 190 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 319 | 10.3 | 11:34 |
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
4 goals and 6 assists in 59 games for 10 points, minus-4, on 10:56 a night with New Jersey, with a shorthanded goal.
The smallest role on an NHL roster, and the numbers are what that produces. 44 shots, 4 goals, and nothing in the box score that argues for more ice time.
The Finesse Game
Limited and honest about it. The hands are functional at speed and nothing more, and he has never scored more than 8 goals in a season.
What he does is get the puck in deep and go and get it, which is a real fourth-line skill. He is a better forechecker than his skating suggests because he takes the direct line and arrives with weight.
The Physical Game
6-4 and 217, and the job description. He hits, he fights when the game asks for it, and he is genuinely difficult for a defenceman to handle below the goal line.
31 penalty minutes in 59 games. Most of it is the cost of playing this way; some of it is not, and a fourth-liner who takes a bad penalty is worth less than one who does not.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick who became a fourth-liner, spent his whole career in one organisation, and has never given any indication of being difficult about it.
Dallas is buying size for a fourth line that had none and a penalty killer for a unit that finished 17th. That is a sensible thing to buy for the money. It is not a thing that decides a season.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 563 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44.6%
- 13th pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.9%
- 31st 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, 24 against. Expected: 15.5 and 19.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 12 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 69 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 with NJD · 563 minutes at five-on-five
- Tomas Tataroff the roster43%
- Paul Cotter27%
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
- NJD took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.6% — 6.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 563 minutes at five-on-five — 20th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curtis Lazar | 40.6% | 51.1% | 32.3% |
| Tomas Tatar | 47.8% | 42.3% | 51.6% |
| Brenden Dillon | 38.7% | 47.4% | 51.2% |
40.6% together, 51.1% for him apart and 32.3% for Lazar apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Lazar behind.
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
59 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 6 feet. 53% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 14% from beyond forty.