Photo by All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ryan McLeod
Buffalo Sabres Center #71
Fifty-four points, plus twenty-five, and a five-on-five record that tells a different story.
| Season | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 81 | 14 | 40 | 54 | +25 | 16 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 90 | 15.6 | 17:37 |
| Career | 379 | 66 | 116 | 182 | +48 | 72 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 456 | 14.5 | 15:11 |
Last Season
Fourteen goals and 40 assists in 81 games — 54 points and a career high by a distance, plus-25, at 17:37 a night.
The Finesse Game
The speed is the asset and always has been. He is among the quickest centres in the league in a straight line and he uses it to drive wide and force defencemen to turn, which is where most of his 40 assists begin.
The shot is an afterthought — 90 shots on goal in 81 games, 14 goals, median attempt 27 feet. He is a passer who occasionally shoots rather than a threat to do either.
The Physical Game
Six foot three, 204, and light for it. Sixteen penalty minutes in 81 games. He does not win pucks by force and does not try to; the game is played at speed or not at all.
The Intangibles
Two numbers on this page disagree and both are worth having. He finished plus-25. At five-on-five, over 1,073 minutes, the goals while he was on the ice went 43 for and 55 against.
Those measure different things — plus-minus includes overtime three-on-three, empty nets and shorthanded goals, none of which are in the five-on-five column — but a gap this size is unusual and the reader should know it is there.
The process was fine: 51.6 per cent of the expected goals, 68th percentile. So the fair reading is a good, fast middle-six centre who had a career year in the counting stats and a perfectly ordinary one underneath. Ten points in his last ten. Price him as the second thing.