This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ross Johnston
Anaheim Ducks Left Wing
Four hundred penalty minutes in 202 games, eight minutes a night, and the worst chance share on the roster.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | NYI | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 16:17 |
| 2017-18 | NYI | 24 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 15.8 | 9:20 |
| 2018-19 | NYI | 17 | 1 | 3 | 4 | +3 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8.3 | 7:55 |
| 2019-20 | NYI | 32 | 3 | 1 | 4 | +1 | 78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 18.8 | 7:59 |
| 2020-21 | NYI | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.0 | 8:44 |
| 2021-22 | NYI | 32 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -3 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 22.2 | 10:16 |
| 2022-23 | NYI | 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 7:48 |
| 2023-24 | ANA | 68 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -12 | 117 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 2.3 | 8:12 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 202 | 10 | 18 | 28 | -15 | 400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 107 | 9.3 | 8:39 |
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
1 goal and 3 assists in 68 games — 4 points at 8:12 a night, minus-12, on 44 shots with 117 penalty minutes.
39.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 552 minutes, the 4th percentile — the worst mark on the roster. His ice went 9-20 against an expectation of 14.44-21.88, which is very nearly exactly what the chances said.
The Finesse Game
44 attempts at a median of 19 feet, with 53 per cent from inside 20, converting at 2.3 per cent. One goal in sixty-eight games and ten in 202 for his career.
There is no puck skill here and the club does not pretend otherwise. He does not carry, he does not distribute, and the four points are what eight minutes a night on a fourth line produces.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 232, and this is the entire report. He finishes every check and he hurts people, and he is the only man on this roster an opponent has to account for before touching a puck in the corner.
117 penalty minutes in 68 games and 400 in 202 for his career — very nearly two a game across an eight-year career. He takes liberties and he answers for them, and on a club that spent more time shorthanded than any team in hockey, that arithmetic is not obviously in the club’s favour.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Prince Edward Island and the Quebec league, and 202 NHL games across eight seasons — every one of them earned by being the hardest man available.
He is 30. A club that finishes thirtieth needs someone who makes the building unpleasant and it also needs to stop giving up 6:08 a game, and he is on both sides of that sentence.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
“**Undrafted**, out of Prince Edward Island and the Quebec league, and 202 NHL games across eight seasons — every one of them earned by being the hardest man available.”
“**He finishes every check and he hurts people**, and he is the only man on this roster an opponent has to account for before touching a puck in the corner.”
“**He finishes every check and he hurts people**, and he is the only man on this roster an opponent has to account for before touching a puck in the corner.”
“**He takes liberties and he answers for them**, and on a club that spent more time shorthanded than any team in hockey, that arithmetic is not obviously in the club's favour.”
“**6-5 and 232, and this is the entire report.**”
“There is no puck skill here and the club does not pretend otherwise. He does not carry, he does not distribute, and the four points are what eight minutes a night on a fourth line produces.”
“There is no puck skill here and the club does not pretend otherwise. He does not carry, he does not distribute, and the four points are what eight minutes a night on a fourth line produces.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 552 minutes
- Expected goals
- 39.8%
- 4th pct
- Shot attempts
- 41.1%
- 3rd 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: 9 for, 20 against. Expected: 14.4 and 21.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 2 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 — 53 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.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2023-24 · 68 games
- Top speed
- 22.2 mph
- 51st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.57 a game
- Distance
- 1.32 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 75.6 mph
- 10th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.1
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.5
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 552 minutes at five-on-five
- Brett Leason41%
- Bo Groulxoff the roster24%
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
- ANA took 45.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 39.8% — 6.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 552 minutes at five-on-five — 21st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Carrick | 39.5% | 40.1% | 47.7% |
| Brett Leason | 34.8% | 42.9% | 46.2% |
| Urho Vaakanainen | 46.4% | 36.7% | 46.9% |
39.5% together, 40.1% for him apart and 47.7% for Carrick apart. Carrick 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
57 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 12 feet. 53% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 23% from beyond forty.