This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Neal Pionk
Winnipeg Jets Defense
Undrafted, 39 points in 69 games, and 86 per cent of his shot attempts from beyond 40 feet.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | NYR | 28 | 1 | 13 | 14 | -1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 1.8 | 22:23 |
| 2018-19 | NYR | 73 | 6 | 20 | 26 | -16 | 35 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 132 | 4.5 | 21:10 |
| 2019-20 | WPG | 71 | 6 | 39 | 45 | +10 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 177 | 3.4 | 23:23 |
| 2020-21 | WPG | 54 | 3 | 29 | 32 | +6 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 3.0 | 21:58 |
| 2021-22 | WPG | 77 | 3 | 31 | 34 | +5 | 46 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 140 | 2.1 | 21:08 |
| 2022-23 | WPG | 82 | 10 | 23 | 33 | -12 | 44 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 142 | 7.0 | 21:56 |
| 2023-24 | WPG | 82 | 5 | 28 | 33 | +9 | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 146 | 3.4 | 20:50 |
| 2024-25 | WPG | 69 | 10 | 29 | 39 | +21 | 44 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 123 | 8.1 | 22:04 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 536 | 44 | 212 | 256 | +22 | 296 | 13 | 0 | 8 | 1014 | 4.3 | 21:47 |
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
10 goals and 29 assists in 69 games — 39 points at 22:04 a night, plus-21, with 4 power-play goals and 2 game-winners on 123 shots, and 44 penalty minutes.
50.7 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 60th percentile. His ice went 54-29 against an expectation of 45.96-44.73 — eight goals better than expected for and sixteen fewer conceded, which is the goaltender again.
The Finesse Game
123 attempts at a median of 57 feet with 86 per cent from beyond 40 and 4 per cent from inside 20, converting at 8.1 per cent for 10 goals. That is a genuinely good return from the point.
29 assists and 212 in 536 career games. He runs a power-play unit, the outlet pass is quick, and he will carry the puck out of his own zone rather than chip it — which is also how he loses it.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 190 and he plays a harder game than the size suggests. He finishes checks and he is not soft in front of his own net, and he does not win many battles against a 220-pound winger.
44 penalty minutes in 69 games at twenty-two a night is a moderate rate, and a share of it is the stick foul after being beaten to the outside.
The Intangibles
Undrafted out of Minnesota-Duluth, signed by the Rangers in 2017, and 536 games and 256 points in eight seasons.
He is 30. He came here in the Jacob Trouba trade and has been a top-four defenceman on a Presidents’ Trophy club, which is a long way from where an undrafted college defenceman starts.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,233 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50.7%
- 61st pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.8%
- 62nd 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: 54 for, 29 against. Expected: 46.0 and 44.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 15 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 77 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 · 1233 minutes at five-on-five
- Haydn Fleury16%
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
- WPG took 51.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.7% — 1.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,233 minutes at five-on-five — 88th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Samberg | 55.9% | 43.8% | 49.1% |
| Mark Scheifele | 50.5% | 50.8% | 50.9% |
| Kyle Connor | 48.6% | 51.6% | 51.1% |
55.9% together, 43.8% for him apart and 49.1% for Samberg 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
190 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 10 of them goals. His median goal came from 54 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 86% from beyond forty.