Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

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

27

Ryan Graves

Pittsburgh Penguins Defense

The worst finishing figure on the club and the best goaltending figure on it, in the same 1,142 minutes.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2018-19COL26325+420002611.511:06
2019-20COL6991726+40450001346.718:57
2020-21COL5421315+15550001012.019:03
2021-22NJD7562228-9240001115.420:43
2022-23NJD7881826+34280021415.719:57
2023-24PIT7031114+1030001773.918:23
2024-25 so far
Career3723183114+941840035905.318:53

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

70 games, 3 goals and 11 assists for 14 points, none on the power play, 30 penalty minutes, 18:23 a night and plus-10, with 1 game-winner. He took 48.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,142 minutes, the 44th percentile, and his ice went 37-37 against an expectation of 50.15-52.55.

Thirteen goals of finishing below what the chances were worth — the worst figure on the club — and fifteen and a half goals of goaltending above them, the best. His ice was expected to be outscored by two and finished level, and neither number had much to do with him.

The Finesse Game

105 attempts at a median of 54 feet with 84 per cent of them from beyond forty and 5 per cent from inside twenty, 75 of those on goal, converted at 3.9 per cent against a career 5.25 across 590 shots.

Zero power-play goals in 372 career games. He is not on the unit and should not be; the shot exists to be tipped and the passing is a simple outlet rather than a play.

The Physical Game

He is 6-5 and 225 and took 30 penalty minutes.

184 career penalty minutes in 372 games. He defends with his body rather than his stick — he wins the net front, moves people out of the blue paint, and finishes checks along the wall. At that size he is very hard to get around and almost impossible to get through.

The Intangibles

One hundred and tenth overall in 2013 by the Rangers, six seasons, three organisations, and 114 points in 372 games.

A career plus-94 across six seasons and three clubs. He is 29, he takes the hard end of the rink, and he is paid to be exactly this.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,142 minutes

Expected goals
48.8%
45th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
48.9%
45th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 37 for, 37 against. Expected: 50.1 and 52.5.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
24th
Numbers
45th

The numbers rank him 21 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 652 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

2023-24 · 1142 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
PIT took 51.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.8% — 2.3 below the club he did it on.
The role
Second pair, 1,142 minutes at five-on-five — 77th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Kris Letang49.6%48.3%49.7%
Erik Karlsson46.3%50.1%56.2%
Sidney Crosby45.8%50.4%56.9%

49.6% together, 48.3% for him apart and 49.7% for Letang apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.

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

105 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 27 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 84% from beyond forty.