Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

6

Ryan Pulock

New York Islanders Defense

21:05 a night at the 15th percentile in chance share, and 3 per cent of his shots taken from inside 20 feet.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2015-16NYI15224+150001513.315:44
2016-17NYI1000+1000003:57
2017-18NYI68102232-4145001845.418:24
2018-19NYI8292837+21223031805.022:22
2019-20NYI68102535+8143031636.122:24
2020-21NYI5621517+1580011211.722:26
2021-22NYI5651621022001224.121:08
2022-23NYI8252126+10141011264.020:54
2023-24NYI5851419+312201905.622:33
2024-25NYI7451823+216101975.121:05
2025-26 so far
Career56053161214+571071701010984.821:12

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 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, 5 goals and 18 assists for 23 points at 21:05 a night, on 97 shots at 5.15 per cent. 16 penalty minutes. Plus-2.

A 45.3 per cent chance share is the 15th percentile in the league and the worst of any regular on this blue line by four points. The on-ice goals were 53-56 against an expected 44.08-53.13 — his line scored nine more than the chances warranted and conceded three more, which is to say the plus-2 is doing a considerable amount of concealing.

The Finesse Game

3 per cent of his shots came from inside 20 feet and 75 per cent from beyond 40, at a median of 51. That is a pure point shot, and it is a genuinely heavy one — the reason he runs a power-play unit and the reason 97 attempts is a reasonable volume from a defenceman who does nothing else offensively.

The first pass is clean and unhurried. He does not carry the puck out of his own zone and has never needed to; the outlet arrives on time and on the tape, which on this roster is most of the job.

The Physical Game

6-1 and 219 and among the more willing shot-blockers in the league — the block is a genuine part of his game rather than a last resort, and it is why the expected goals against on his ice time run high while the actual number runs lower.

He clears his crease competently and 16 penalty minutes in 74 games at twenty-one minutes a night is excellent discipline.

The Intangibles

Eleven seasons in one organisation, a first-round pick who became exactly what was projected, and three consecutive years of missing games.

He is 31 and the ice time has not come down. On a club that finished 19th at suppressing chances, the man playing the second-most minutes posted the 15th percentile, and that is the more uncomfortable reading of a season that ended at plus-2.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,231 minutes

Expected goals
45.3%
15th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
46%
17th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 53 for, 56 against. Expected: 44.1 and 53.1.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
12th
Numbers
15th

The two rank him within 3 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 64 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

2024-25 · 1231 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, 2024-25

The club
NYI took 49.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 45.3% — 4.6 below the club he did it on.
The role
Second pair, 1,231 minutes at five-on-five — 87th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Adam Pelech46.5%44.7%61.7%
Bo Horvat46.4%44.8%52.3%
Kyle Palmieri43.4%46.2%51.2%

46.5% together, 44.7% for him apart and 61.7% for Pelech apart. Pelech 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

136 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 60 feet. 3% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 75% from beyond forty.