This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ryker Evans
Seattle Kraken Defense
Twenty-five points in his first full season at 23, on the third pair of a club that was 29th in chance share.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | SEA | 36 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -5 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 2.3 | 19:11 |
| 2024-25 | SEA | 73 | 5 | 20 | 25 | -12 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 8.5 | 19:29 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 109 | 6 | 28 | 34 | -17 | 50 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 5.8 | 19:23 |
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
5 goals and 20 assists in 73 games — 25 points at 19:29 a night, minus-12, with 30 penalty minutes. It was his first full NHL season.
46.5 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 22nd percentile, across 1,223 minutes. His ice went 48-47 against an expectation of 41.63-47.96 — six goals better than expected for and level against, which for a 23-year-old playing nineteen minutes on a bad possession club is a respectable first year.
The Finesse Game
59 attempts in 73 games at a median of 50 feet with 67 per cent from beyond 40. He does not shoot much and 5 goals is a good return from the volume.
20 assists is the number that matters. He is a puck-mover: he retrieves quickly, he escapes the first forechecker, and he is comfortable carrying it through the neutral zone. On this blue line that is a scarce commodity below Dunn.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 195 and light for the position. He does not clear a crease and he is not going to out-muscle a heavy forward in front of his own net.
30 penalty minutes in 73 games is a moderate rate. He defends by angling and by stick position, and against a first line that has not been consistently good enough yet.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2021, and 109 NHL games in after two full American League seasons.
He is 23. The club has three defencemen over 32 in its top four and this is the one who has to become something.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,223 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46.5%
- 22nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 46.8%
- 22nd 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: 48 for, 47 against. Expected: 41.6 and 48.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 14 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 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 · 1223 minutes at five-on-five
- Adam Larsson26%
- Josh Mahura19%
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
- SEA took 47.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.5% — 0.7 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,223 minutes at five-on-five — 87th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon Montour | 47.8% | 45.6% | 48.5% |
| Matty Beniers | 45.1% | 47.0% | 49.8% |
| Chandler Stephenson | 42.7% | 47.8% | 43.2% |
47.8% together, 45.6% for him apart and 48.5% for Montour 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
106 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 33 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 67% from beyond forty.