This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Oskar Bäck
Dallas Stars Center
6-4 and 207, 59 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet, and the only fourth-line centre here who wins a puck by force.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | DAL | 73 | 4 | 12 | 16 | +1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 9.1 | 11:42 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 73 | 4 | 12 | 16 | +1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 9.1 | 11:42 |
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
4 goals and 12 assists in 73 games for 16 points, plus-1, on 11:42 a night — his first full NHL season at 25.
49 per cent at five-on-five, the 41st percentile, in the smallest forward role on the roster. The shot chart is unusual for a fourth-liner: a median of 17 feet with 59 per cent of his attempts inside 20, which is a man who only shoots from the paint.
The Finesse Game
There is very little of it and the numbers do not pretend otherwise. 44 shots in 73 games, 4 goals, and no meaningful playmaking — 12 assists in a season is a fourth-line centre’s total.
What he does well is simple and repeatable: win the draw, get the puck deep, retrieve it, and put it at the net from close range. Nothing about the game requires him to make a decision at speed.
The Physical Game
6-4 and 207, and this is the job. He is genuinely hard to move off a puck below the goal line, he finishes checks, and he can be put out to defend a lead against a bigger line.
8 penalty minutes in 73 games is exceptional discipline for a man who plays this heavily. He is physical without being late.
The Intangibles
A sixth-round pick who took six years to get here and does not appear to take a shift for granted. He is the club’s answer to needing a fourth-line centre who can play a heavy playoff series.
The projection is narrow and stable. He will be this for another five years, because none of it depends on scoring, and the only thing that removes him from a roster is a younger version of the same idea.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 724 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49%
- 41st pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.2%
- 67th 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: 34 for, 31 against. Expected: 24.8 and 25.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 11 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 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 · 724 minutes at five-on-five
- Sam Steel55%
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
- DAL took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.0% — 1.7 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 724 minutes at five-on-five — 30th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colin Blackwell | 49.0% | 49.0% | 53.7% |
| Sam Steel | 49.2% | 48.8% | 50.0% |
| Thomas Harley | 49.6% | 48.6% | 53.6% |
49.0% together, 49.0% for him apart and 53.7% for Blackwell apart. Blackwell 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
76 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 12 feet. 61% of his shots came from inside twenty feet.