This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Parker Wotherspoon
Pittsburgh Penguins Defense
Eighteen minutes a night in Boston from a seventh defenceman with 108 NHL games at 28.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | NYI | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.0 | 13:20 |
| 2023-24 | BOS | 41 | 0 | 8 | 8 | +6 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 0.0 | 17:43 |
| 2024-25 | BOS | 55 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 2.3 | 18:02 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 108 | 1 | 15 | 16 | +1 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 1.2 | 17:23 |
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 6 assists in 55 games for Boston — 7 points at 18:02 a night, minus-10, on 10 penalty minutes.
Eighteen minutes a night is a great deal of ice for a player with 108 career games, and it says more about the club’s blue line than about him. Boston finished 26th in goals against.
The Finesse Game
44 attempts and 1 goal in 55 games. There is no shot — 16 points in 108 career NHL games.
The first pass is quick and simple and he does not hold the puck. That is the whole of the offensive contribution and it is enough for the job he is asked to do.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 190 and light for a defensive defenceman. He blocks shots and he defends positionally, and he does not clear the front of his own net by force.
10 penalty minutes in 55 games at eighteen minutes a night is a very low rate. He is disciplined and he does not reach.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick of the Islanders in 2015 who spent six full seasons in the American League before an NHL job.
108 games at 28. Pittsburgh signed him in the summer for depth, and on a club that dressed eight defencemen last season that is not a formality.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 832 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.7%
- 50th pct
- Shot attempts
- 47%
- 24th 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: 27 for, 42 against. Expected: 29.8 and 30.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 41 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 — 63 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 with BOS · 832 minutes at five-on-five
- Andrew Peeke21%
- Mason Lohrei18%
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
- BOS took 48.4% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.7% — 1.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 832 minutes at five-on-five — 39th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Pastrnak | 52.6% | 48.4% | 49.8% |
| Morgan Geekie | 54.4% | 47.8% | 50.8% |
| Pavel Zacha | 50.3% | 49.4% | 48.6% |
52.6% together, 48.4% for him apart and 49.8% for Pastrnak apart. He was worse away from Pastrnak, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Pastrnak 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
62 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 28 feet. 0% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 85% from beyond forty.