This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ondrej Palat
New Jersey Devils Left Wing
28 points at 34 on a 15.6 per cent rate, in the fourth year of a contract that has not worked.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | TBL | 14 | 2 | 2 | 4 | +5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 12.5 | 11:44 |
| 2013-14 | TBL | 81 | 23 | 36 | 59 | +32 | 20 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 165 | 13.9 | 18:02 |
| 2014-15 | TBL | 75 | 16 | 47 | 63 | +31 | 24 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 139 | 11.5 | 17:26 |
| 2015-16 | TBL | 62 | 16 | 24 | 40 | +10 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 117 | 13.7 | 17:55 |
| 2016-17 | TBL | 75 | 17 | 35 | 52 | +8 | 39 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 162 | 10.5 | 19:07 |
| 2017-18 | TBL | 56 | 11 | 24 | 35 | +16 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 109 | 10.1 | 17:00 |
| 2018-19 | TBL | 64 | 8 | 26 | 34 | +4 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 100 | 8.0 | 14:53 |
| 2019-20 | TBL | 69 | 17 | 24 | 41 | +25 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 128 | 13.3 | 16:11 |
| 2020-21 | TBL | 55 | 15 | 31 | 46 | +1 | 26 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 111 | 13.5 | 17:27 |
| 2021-22 | TBL | 77 | 18 | 31 | 49 | +15 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 143 | 12.6 | 16:30 |
| 2022-23 | NJD | 49 | 8 | 15 | 23 | +5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 10.1 | 15:32 |
| 2023-24 | NJD | 71 | 11 | 20 | 31 | -9 | 37 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 10.2 | 15:39 |
| 2024-25 | NJD | 77 | 15 | 13 | 28 | -5 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 96 | 15.6 | 13:45 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 825 | 177 | 328 | 505 | +138 | 252 | 34 | 8 | 34 | 1473 | 12.0 | 16:33 |
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
15 goals and 13 assists in 77 games for 28 points, minus-5, on 13:45 a night with a shorthanded goal.
49.8 per cent at five-on-five, the 51st percentile. 96 shots in 77 games is a very low volume and 15.6 per cent conversion is above his career rate.
The Finesse Game
The hockey sense is what remains and it is still good. He arrives in the right place, makes the simple play quickly, and is trusted defensively in every situation.
96 shots and 13 assists is not enough production for a top-nine forward, and the skating has thinned to the point where he no longer separates from anybody. 41 per cent of his attempts come from inside 20 feet, so the locations are right and the volume is not.
The Physical Game
6 feet and 194, and he is willing without being heavy. He forechecks honestly and goes to the net front on the power play.
12 penalty minutes over 77 games. The durability has been fine here after a run of interrupted seasons in Tampa.
The Intangibles
Two Cups, a decade in Tampa as the least-discussed member of a great forward group, and a five-year free-agent contract signed at 31.
At 34 the projection is 25 points and reliable defensive work. The contract has one of the largest gaps between price and production on any roster in this edition.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 918 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.8%
- 52nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.4%
- 45th 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: 38 for, 30 against. Expected: 38.4 and 38.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 6 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 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 · 918 minutes at five-on-five
- Jack Hughes65%
- Jesper Bratt62%
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
- NJD took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.8% — 0.9 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 918 minutes at five-on-five — 48th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Hughes | 53.8% | 40.6% | 61.3% |
| Jesper Bratt | 53.0% | 43.2% | 50.9% |
| Brenden Dillon | 49.0% | 50.4% | 50.1% |
53.8% together, 40.6% for him apart and 61.3% for Hughes apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Hughes and did not follow 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
147 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 15 of them goals. His median goal came from 14 feet. 41% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 18% from beyond forty.