This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sam Malinski
Colorado Avalanche Defense
Undrafted out of Cornell, a first game at 25, and ten points in twenty-three of them.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | COL | 23 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 9.7 | 14:14 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 23 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 9.7 | 14:14 |
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
Twenty-three games, 3 goals and 7 assists with 1 on the power play, 14:14 a night and plus-3. He took 47.3 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 314 minutes, the 31st percentile, and his ice went 10-14 against an expectation of 10.93-12.19.
Ten points in 23 games from a seventh defenceman is a genuinely good rate and the sample is far too small to mean anything else.
The Finesse Game
Thirty-one shots at a median of 55 feet with 81 per cent from beyond 40 and 2 per cent from inside 20 — the most perimeter shot profile on the blue line. Three of them went in.
Seven assists in 23 games. The puck moves quickly and correctly and the college habit of looking before receiving is visible.
The Physical Game
He is 5-11 and 190 and defends with position. Six penalty minutes in 23 games is a low rate.
He does not win the wall and he does not clear a net front. On a third pair behind Makar, Toews, Girard and Manson it has not yet been asked of him.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Cornell, and a first National Hockey League game at 25. That path produces about one player a season and he is one of them.
He is 26 and competing with Kylington, Ludvig and de Haan for two spots. Twenty-three games is not enough to say which way it goes.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 314 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47.3%
- 32nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.4%
- 30th 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: 10 for, 14 against. Expected: 10.9 and 12.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 18 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 55 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 · 314 minutes at five-on-five
- Caleb Jonesnow LAK13%
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
- COL took 52.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.3% — 5.0 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 314 minutes at five-on-five — 6th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Johnson | 42.9% | 50.9% | 48.5% |
| Ryan Johansen | 47.4% | 47.2% | 47.9% |
| Miles Wood | 39.4% | 51.6% | 51.0% |
42.9% together, 50.9% for him apart and 48.5% for Johnson apart. Both were better apart than together — the pairing was doing neither of them any favours.
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
47 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 48 feet. 2% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 81% from beyond forty.