This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Nick DeSimone
Utah Mammoth Defense
Undrafted, twenty games at fifteen minutes a night, and no penalty minutes at all.
| 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 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 58 | 3 | 10 | 13 | +3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 56 | 5.4 | 14:03 |
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
1 goal and 5 assists in 20 games — 6 points at 15:35 a night, plus-4, on no penalty minutes at all.
53.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 79th percentile, across 241 minutes. His ice went 8-11 against an expectation of 11.08-9.82, which on that sample says nothing.
The Finesse Game
24 attempts in 20 games at a median of 55 feet with 83 per cent from beyond 40, and 1 goal. 13 points in 58 career NHL games.
The first pass is simple and quick. He does not carry the puck and he does not attempt anything that turns into a rush the other way.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 194 and light for the position. He defends positionally rather than physically, and he does not clear the front of his own net.
Zero penalty minutes in 20 games. He does not foul because he does not engage, which for a seventh defenceman is neither good nor bad.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, and he played six full seasons in the American League before an NHL job at 28 — 58 games across three organisations.
He is 31. A seventh defenceman on a club whose blue line was healthy all season plays twenty games, and that is exactly what happened.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 241 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53%
- 79th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.7%
- 49th 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: 8 for, 11 against. Expected: 11.1 and 9.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 72 points above where the report does. 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 62 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 · 241 minutes at five-on-five
- Olli Maatta38%
- Juuso Välimäkioff the roster34%
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
- UTA took 53.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.0% — 0.2 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 241 minutes at five-on-five — 3rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olli Maatta | 45.2% | 57.9% | 51.2% |
| Juuso Välimäki | 53.4% | 52.9% | 50.8% |
| Josh Doan | 55.1% | 52.4% | 60.4% |
45.2% together, 57.9% for him apart and 51.2% for Maatta apart. Both were better apart than together — the pairing was doing neither of them any favours.
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
36 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 64 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 83% from beyond forty.