Photo by Jenn G from Seattle, WA, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Nick DeSimone
Utah Mammoth Defense #57
Undrafted, 98 games across 4 seasons, and the 86th percentile.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | CGY | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 11:15 |
| 2023-24 | CGY/NJD | 34 | 2 | 5 | 7 | +3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 7.1 | 13:29 |
| 2024-25 | UTA | 20 | 1 | 5 | 6 | +4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 4.2 | 15:35 |
| 2025-26 | UTA | 40 | 2 | 6 | 8 | +4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 5.7 | 14:13 |
| 2026-27 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 98 | 5 | 16 | 21 | +7 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 91 | 5.5 | 14:07 |
This Season So Far
The 2026-27 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
2 goals and 6 assists in 40 games — 8 points, plus-4, at 14:13 a night with only 10 penalty minutes.
The Finesse Game
55 unblocked attempts from a median of 48 feet, 71 per cent from beyond 40, 2 goals. 21 points in 98 career games.
6 assists in 40 games is a modest third-pair return and the offensive game is not the reason he plays.
The Physical Game
6-2, 194, and light. 10 penalty minutes in 40 games is a very low rate.
He is not physical, does not clear a crease, and defends with position and stick. The skating is fair.
The Intangibles
53.8 per cent of the expected goals, 81st percentile, and 53.7 per cent of the shot attempts, 85th, across 558 minutes, with the chances 21.8 to 18.7 in his favour and the goals 24-20.
Those are the third-best figures of any Utah defenceman, behind Schmidt and Marino, from the seventh spot on the depth chart and in half a season.
He is 31, undrafted out of Union, and spent 8 years in the American League before this. A 31-year-old depth defenceman posting an 86th percentile in sheltered minutes is exactly the sort of thing that looks like a find and usually is not — but on this blue line it earned him games.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2025-26 · 558 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53.8%
- 81st pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.7%
- 85th 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: 24 for, 20 against. Expected: 21.8 and 18.7.
The eye and the numbers
SightedThe numbers rank him 58 points above where the report does. It was written with these numbers on screen and departs from them anyway, which makes the gap a judgment rather than an oversight. 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 656 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 67 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2025-26 · 40 games
- Top speed
- 21.6 mph
- 47th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.30 a game
- Distance
- 2.10 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 88.5 mph
- 39th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.6
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 88.9
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Recent form
Last 20 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first
4
points in his last 10 games — 0 goals, 4 assists, 12 shots
Each bar is one game by points. Filled bars are games he scored in.
Usual linemates
2025-26 · 558 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, 2025-26
- The club
- UTA took 53.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.8% — 0.7 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 558 minutes at five-on-five — 22nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Cole | 54.1% | 53.4% | 52.4% |
| JJ Peterka | 52.9% | 54.3% | 53.4% |
| Jack McBain | 50.5% | 55.2% | 53.2% |
54.1% together, 53.4% for him apart and 52.4% for Cole 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
55 unblocked shots in 2025-26, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 46 feet. 11% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 71% from beyond forty.