This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sean Kuraly
Columbus Blue Jackets Center
Four hundred and eighty games of fourth-line work, and the fifteenth percentile of chances.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | BOS | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0.0 | 9:12 |
| 2017-18 | BOS | 75 | 6 | 8 | 14 | -5 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 134 | 4.5 | 12:15 |
| 2018-19 | BOS | 71 | 8 | 13 | 21 | +6 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 134 | 6.0 | 13:46 |
| 2019-20 | BOS | 69 | 6 | 17 | 23 | -2 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 95 | 6.3 | 13:17 |
| 2020-21 | BOS | 47 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -10 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 88 | 4.5 | 14:04 |
| 2021-22 | CBJ | 77 | 14 | 16 | 30 | +2 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 121 | 11.6 | 15:52 |
| 2022-23 | CBJ | 71 | 11 | 9 | 20 | -28 | 68 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 11.0 | 15:04 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 62 | 9 | 9 | 18 | -5 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 9.8 | 13:44 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 480 | 58 | 78 | 136 | -43 | 303 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 775 | 7.5 | 13:56 |
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
9 goals and 9 assists in 62 games — 18 points at 13:44 a night, minus-5, on 92 shots at 9.78 per cent, and 40 penalty minutes.
44.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 724 minutes, the 15th percentile. His ice went 32-28 against an expectation of 27.51-34.83 — five goals scored above expectation and seven fewer conceded, which on this club was rare.
The Finesse Game
92 attempts at a median of 27 feet, with 42 per cent from inside 20 and 24 per cent from beyond 40, converting at 9.78 per cent. Fifty-eight goals in 480 career games.
9 assists. He does not create and he is not asked to — the job is to win the draw, get the puck deep and change.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 208, and he forechecks first and finishes his checks. He wins pucks below the goal line and he is one of the few forwards on this roster an opponent has to account for.
303 penalty minutes in 480 games and he will fight. He wins the draw that begins the shift and he is trusted a man short.
The Intangibles
A hundred and thirty-third overall in 2011 by San Jose, out of Miami of Ohio, and 480 games and 136 points at 31 across two clubs with a Stanley Cup final behind him.
A fifth-round pick who plays four hundred and eighty NHL games as a fourth-line centre has had exactly the career that role allows, and on a club whose penalty kill was 29th he is one of the few men doing the job properly.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 724 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44.1%
- 15th pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.9%
- 35th 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: 32 for, 28 against. Expected: 27.5 and 34.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 36 points above where the numbers do. 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 201 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
2023-24 · 724 minutes at five-on-five
- Alexandre Texiernow STL42%
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
- CBJ took 45.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.1% — 1.8 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 724 minutes at five-on-five — 33rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Danforth | 48.1% | 40.1% | 43.8% |
| Alexandre Texier | 46.3% | 42.3% | 42.4% |
| Mathieu Olivier | 46.8% | 42.2% | 42.1% |
48.1% together, 40.1% for him apart and 43.8% for Danforth apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
115 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 9 of them goals. His median goal came from 10 feet. 42% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 24% from beyond forty.