Oliver Kylington
Colorado Avalanche Defense
Thirty-three games back after two years away, at 27, and still skating like the man who had 31 points.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | CGY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 17:22 |
| 2018-19 | CGY | 38 | 3 | 5 | 8 | +3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 14.3 | 12:25 |
| 2019-20 | CGY | 48 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -6 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 5.4 | 13:42 |
| 2020-21 | CGY | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.0 | 13:05 |
| 2021-22 | CGY | 73 | 9 | 22 | 31 | +34 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 138 | 6.5 | 18:10 |
| 2023-24 | CGY | 33 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -6 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 7.1 | 17:15 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 201 | 17 | 38 | 55 | +24 | 52 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 246 | 6.9 | 15:39 |
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
Thirty-three games in Calgary, 3 goals and 5 assists, 17:15 a night and minus-6. He took 48.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 535 minutes, the 43rd percentile, and his ice went 21-18 against an expectation of 23.04-24.16.
It was his first hockey in more than a season and it is a fair set of numbers for a man returning to a league he had been away from. He is plus-24 across 201 career games.
The Finesse Game
The skating is the reason he is in the league — quick feet, a tight turn, and the ability to escape a forechecker on the first touch. It is the thing that came back first.
Forty-two shots at a median of 52 feet with 69 per cent from beyond 40. Seventeen goals and 38 assists in 201 games is a third-pair offensive rate, and the 31-point season in Calgary that made his name is the outlier rather than the level.
The Physical Game
He is 6-0 and 183 and does not play a heavy game. Twelve penalty minutes in 33 games is an ordinary rate and there is nothing hostile in it.
The defending is done with feet and position. Against size in front of the net he is not a factor.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2015 out of Stockholm, who missed a full season and came back at 26 to play 33 games. Whatever a return like that costs, he paid it and he is playing.
Colorado signed him as the seventh defenceman on a club with three very good ones. The skating is worth the bet.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 535 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.8%
- 43rd pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.3%
- 38th 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: 21 for, 18 against. Expected: 23.0 and 24.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 27 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 56 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 CGY · 535 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
- CGY took 49.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.8% — 1.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 535 minutes at five-on-five — 20th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmus Andersson | 50.8% | 46.8% | 47.9% |
| Brayden Pachal | 46.0% | 50.5% | 48.0% |
| Nazem Kadri | 48.0% | 49.2% | 49.4% |
50.8% together, 46.8% for him apart and 47.9% for Andersson apart. He was worse away from Andersson, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Andersson did.
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
67 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 40 feet. 12% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 69% from beyond forty.