This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Edmonton Oilers Center
A first overall pick who became a 19-minute complementary winger, and 448 career assists.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | EDM | 62 | 18 | 34 | 52 | -2 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 134 | 13.4 | 17:36 |
| 2012-13 | EDM | 40 | 4 | 20 | 24 | +3 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 5.1 | 18:52 |
| 2013-14 | EDM | 80 | 19 | 37 | 56 | -12 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 178 | 10.7 | 20:24 |
| 2014-15 | EDM | 76 | 24 | 32 | 56 | -12 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 189 | 12.7 | 20:38 |
| 2015-16 | EDM | 55 | 12 | 22 | 34 | -9 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 108 | 11.1 | 19:04 |
| 2016-17 | EDM | 82 | 18 | 25 | 43 | -10 | 29 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 200 | 9.0 | 17:42 |
| 2017-18 | EDM | 62 | 24 | 24 | 48 | +10 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 151 | 15.9 | 18:05 |
| 2018-19 | EDM | 82 | 28 | 41 | 69 | -13 | 26 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 208 | 13.5 | 20:06 |
| 2019-20 | EDM | 65 | 22 | 39 | 61 | +1 | 33 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 172 | 12.8 | 20:28 |
| 2020-21 | EDM | 52 | 16 | 19 | 35 | -4 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 135 | 11.8 | 20:46 |
| 2021-22 | EDM | 63 | 11 | 39 | 50 | +3 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 154 | 7.1 | 19:19 |
| 2022-23 | EDM | 82 | 37 | 67 | 104 | +12 | 35 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 201 | 18.4 | 19:48 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 80 | 18 | 49 | 67 | +10 | 36 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 183 | 9.8 | 19:37 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 881 | 251 | 448 | 699 | -23 | 310 | 70 | 7 | 31 | 2091 | 12.0 | 19:27 |
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
80 games, 18 goals and 49 assists for 67 points, 4 on the power play, 36 penalty minutes, 19:37 a night and plus-10. He took 60.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,103 minutes, the 99th percentile, and his ice went 59-45 against an expectation of 66.08-43.01.
Seven goals of scoring that did not arrive at one end. The 99th percentile is the third-highest chance share on the club and 67 points is the fourth-highest total, which is the whole of his career in one line.
The Finesse Game
183 shots at a median of 25 feet with 43 per cent from inside 20, converted at 9.8 per cent. The shot has never been the point.
448 career assists in 881 games. He plays the half-wall on the power play and the weak side at five-on-five, and he finds the seam a half-second before it opens. At 31 the hands and the head are exactly where they were.
The Physical Game
He is 6-1 and 192 and does not win a wall battle by force.
36 penalty minutes in 80 games at nearly twenty minutes a night is a disciplined rate. He kills penalties and has 7 career shorthanded goals in 881 games, and the defensive work is genuine rather than notional.
The Intangibles
First overall in 2011 out of Burnaby, thirteen seasons, and 699 points in 881 games. He was drafted to be the franchise and has spent a decade being the third-best forward on it without complaint.
That is worth saying plainly. A first overall pick who accepts a supporting role and plays it at the 99th percentile of chance share is a more useful thing to have than the player the draft promised.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,103 minutes
- Expected goals
- 60.6%
- 99th pct
- Shot attempts
- 57.4%
- 95th 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: 59 for, 45 against. Expected: 66.1 and 43.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 35 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 316 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 68 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 · 1103 minutes at five-on-five
- Zach Hyman62%
- Evander Kaneoff the roster22%
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
- EDM took 56.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 60.6% — 3.7 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,103 minutes at five-on-five — 73rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zach Hyman | 64.1% | 53.5% | 61.8% |
| Evan Bouchard | 64.0% | 56.3% | 61.4% |
| Connor McDavid | 65.0% | 55.5% | 61.6% |
64.1% together, 53.5% for him apart and 61.8% for Hyman apart. He was worse away from Hyman, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Hyman 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
261 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 20 of them goals. His median goal came from 11 feet. 44% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 13% from beyond forty.