Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

72

Nick Bjugstad

Utah Hockey Club Center

Twenty-two goals at 32 and 6-6, on the second-best plus-minus on the club.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2012-13FLA11101-82000175.915:13
2013-14FLA76162238-14160141858.616:13
2014-15FLA72241943-73870320711.616:35
2015-16FLA67151934-8416031718.815:31
2016-17FLA547714-1922101917.713:09
2017-18FLA82193049+5411012308.315:07
2018-19FLA/PIT64141226+6302021549.115:08
2019-20PIT13112+38000185.612:14
2020-21MIN4461117+717003787.711:49
2021-22MIN577613-220100818.610:16
2022-23ARI/EDM78171229+133411114511.716:12
2023-24ARI76222345+115921216513.317:27
2024-25 so far
Career694149162311-133282132015429.714:60

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

76 games, 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points, 2 on the power play, 1 shorthanded, 59 penalty minutes, 17:27 a night and plus-11, with 2 game-winners. He took 48.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,031 minutes, the 44th percentile, and his ice went 52-38 against an expectation of 43.71-45.86.

Eight goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and eight of goaltending above them. Twenty-two goals is his most since 2014-15 and the plus-11 is tied for the second-best figure on the club.

The Finesse Game

244 attempts at a median of 26 feet with 40 per cent of them from inside twenty and 22 per cent from beyond forty, 164 of those on goal, converted at 13.3 per cent against a career 9.66 across 1,542 shots.

149 career goals and 20 game-winners in 694 games. At 6-6 he stands where the puck is going to arrive and takes 40 per cent of his attempts from inside twenty feet; the release is quick for his size and the reach makes a bad pass into a shot.

The Physical Game

He is 6-6 and 210 — the tallest man on this roster — and took 59 penalty minutes.

328 career penalty minutes in 694 games. He is enormous and plays a heavy game without a mean one, going to the front of the net and staying there rather than looking for contact along the wall.

The Intangibles

Nineteenth overall in 2010 by Florida, twelve seasons, and he has played for five organisations.

A career minus-13 and 311 points in 694 games. He is 32, and the only other time he scored twenty or more was nine seasons ago.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,031 minutes

Expected goals
48.8%
45th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
49.4%
50th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 52 for, 38 against. Expected: 43.7 and 45.9.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
80th
Numbers
45th

The report ranks him 35 points above where the numbers do. 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. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.

Both bars are percentiles among the 652 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

2023-24 with ARI · 1031 minutes at five-on-five

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, 2023-24

The club
ARI took 48.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.8% — 0.1 below the club he did it on.
The role
First line, 1,031 minutes at five-on-five — 62nd percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Matias Maccelli53.4%41.0%47.7%
Lawson Crouse51.9%44.2%47.2%
J.J. Moser47.4%49.7%51.5%

53.4% together, 41.0% for him apart and 47.7% for Maccelli 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

244 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 24 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 40% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 22% from beyond forty.