Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

12

Radek Faksa

St. Louis Blues Center

Thirteenth overall in 2012, and nine seasons of the same defensive job.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2015-16DAL455712+916001677.512:21
2016-17DAL80122133-6670001329.116:10
2017-18DAL79171633+213602311814.415:16
2018-19DAL81151530-35411111413.216:26
2019-20DAL6611920-64230310910.115:53
2020-21DAL556814-1530110946.417:26
2021-22DAL7751419-2052111895.615:46
2022-23DAL8111920+9390138812.513:43
2023-24DAL7471219020022719.912:31
2024-25 so far
Career63889111200-11356681488210.115:07

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

74 games with Dallas, 7 goals and 12 assists for 19 points, 2 shorthanded, 20 penalty minutes, 12:31 a night and even, with 2 game-winners. He took 50.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 768 minutes, the 56th percentile, and his ice went 29-34 against an expectation of 26.79-26.40.

Two goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and eight more conceded than they called for. Finishing even on the season from a checking centre on a club that was outscored is a fair result.

The Finesse Game

119 attempts at a median of 20 feet with 47 per cent of them from inside twenty, 69 of those on goal, converted at 9.9 per cent against a career 10.09 across 882 shots.

Eighty-nine career goals and 111 assists in 638 games, and 6 power-play goals in nine seasons. Everything he produces comes from close range on the forecheck; there is no creation in his game and there has never needed to be.

The Physical Game

He is 6-3 and 216 and took 20 penalty minutes.

356 career penalty minutes in 638 games. He wins defensive-zone pucks with his frame and holds them until help arrives, and nine seasons of taking the other club’s best centre have cost him more penalty minutes than points.

The Intangibles

Thirteenth overall in 2012 by Dallas, nine seasons, two organisations, and 200 points in 638 games.

Eight career shorthanded goals and a career minus-11 across nine seasons of the hardest defensive assignment. He was a top-fifteen pick who became a checking centre and has been an excellent one for a decade.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 768 minutes

Expected goals
50.4%
56th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
55.1%
90th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 29 for, 34 against. Expected: 26.8 and 26.4.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
67th
Numbers
56th

The 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 652 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 73 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 DAL · 768 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
DAL took 54.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.4% — 4.2 below the club he did it on.
The role
Fourth line, 768 minutes at five-on-five — 36th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Craig Smith53.0%43.1%62.8%
Sam Steel49.4%51.8%51.5%
Ryan Suter50.2%50.5%54.1%

53.0% together, 43.1% for him apart and 62.8% for Smith apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Smith 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

119 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 27 feet. 47% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 22% from beyond forty.