This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ryan Shea
Pittsburgh Penguins Defense
Seventy-six per cent of his shot attempts from beyond 40 feet, in a 39-game season that was his first extended run at 27.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | PIT | 31 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 5.9 | 12:37 |
| 2024-25 | PIT | 39 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -9 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 10.5 | 16:44 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 70 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -8 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 8.3 | 14:55 |
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
2 goals and 3 assists in 39 games — 5 points at 16:44 a night, minus-9, with 14 penalty minutes.
48.5 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 36th percentile, across 541 minutes. His ice went 25-33 against an expectation of 20.02-21.26 — twelve goals conceded above expectation on a third pairing.
The Finesse Game
19 attempts in 39 games at a median of 57 feet with 76 per cent from beyond 40 and 5 per cent from inside 20. He does not shoot.
The first pass is the job and it is adequate. He does not carry the puck out and he does not attempt the play that turns into a rush against, which is the correct trade at this level.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 200 and honest. He blocks shots, he takes the body, and he defends the front of the net without moving anybody out of it.
14 penalty minutes in 39 games. He is not nasty and he is not an agitator; the physical game is functional.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick of Chicago in 2015 out of Northeastern, who did not sign with them, signed with Dallas, did not play there either, and reached the NHL at 26.
70 games in two seasons. He is 28 and a seventh defenceman, and on a club that used eight of them last season the distinction matters less than it should.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 541 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.5%
- 36th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.1%
- 54th 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: 25 for, 33 against. Expected: 20.0 and 21.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 29 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 62 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 · 541 minutes at five-on-five
- Ryan Graves36%
- Kris Letang20%
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
- PIT took 49.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.5% — 0.5 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 541 minutes at five-on-five — 19th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Graves | 47.5% | 49.0% | 50.5% |
| Evgeni Malkin | 54.0% | 46.4% | 46.4% |
| Noel Acciari | 40.7% | 50.6% | 43.6% |
47.5% together, 49.0% for him apart and 50.5% for Graves apart. Graves 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
37 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 69 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 76% from beyond forty.