Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

24

Nick Seeler

Philadelphia Flyers Defense

Seventy-nine per cent of his shot attempts came from beyond 40 feet, and his ice conceded fourteen goals more than the chances said it should.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2017-18MIN22044+1021000170.014:32
2018-19MIN71257-464001673.012:20
2019-20MIN/CHI12011-81500050.011:55
2021-22PHI43123-329000323.113:05
2022-23PHI7741014+156000844.814:29
2023-24PHI7111213+9780001001.016:57
2024-25PHI7731720+1036001823.717:17
2025-26 so far
Career373115162+152990023872.814:53

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

3 goals and 17 assists in 77 games — 20 points at 17:17 a night, plus-10, with 36 penalty minutes.

46.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 21st percentile — the worst of the club’s regular defencemen. His ice went 35-58 against an expectation of 38.28-44.21, which is fourteen goals conceded above expectation and a plus-10 that came from somewhere else entirely.

The Finesse Game

82 attempts at a median of 57 feet with 79 per cent from beyond 40 and 4 per cent from inside 20 — a defenceman who shoots from the blue line and nowhere else. 3 goals.

The puck game is the limitation and always has been. He makes the short pass and he chips it out when the short pass is not there, and under a heavy forecheck the exits stop.

The Physical Game

6-3 and 197 and this is the entire case for him. He blocks shots at a rate among the highest in the league, he clears the front of his own net by force, and he fights.

36 penalty minutes in 77 games is a moderate total for a player who plays this way, which is to his credit. He is punishing without being reckless.

The Intangibles

A fifth-round pick in 2011 who did not play a full NHL season until he was 25 and has now played 373 games across three organisations.

He is 32, on a contract that runs four years, and he is what this defence has instead of a heavy top-four right shot. The 17 assists were a career high by five.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,137 minutes

Expected goals
46.4%
21st pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
43.7%
7th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 35 for, 58 against. Expected: 38.3 and 44.2.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
17th
Numbers
21st

The two rank him within 4 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 — 66 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 · 1137 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, 2024-25

The club
PHI took 52.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.4% — 5.7 below the club he did it on.
The role
Second pair, 1,137 minutes at five-on-five — 80th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Jamie Drysdale46.9%45.8%52.5%
Travis Konecny41.0%49.0%54.1%
Sean Couturier40.4%48.8%56.2%

46.9% together, 45.8% for him apart and 52.5% for Drysdale apart. Drysdale was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.

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

143 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 30 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 79% from beyond forty.