This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sean Walker
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
Undrafted, ten goals from a third pairing, and two shorthanded goals.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | LAK | 39 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 5.5 | 15:26 |
| 2019-20 | LAK | 70 | 5 | 19 | 24 | -12 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 127 | 3.9 | 18:50 |
| 2020-21 | LAK | 47 | 5 | 13 | 18 | -13 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 92 | 5.4 | 18:10 |
| 2021-22 | LAK | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0.0 | 18:22 |
| 2022-23 | LAK | 70 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -3 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 94 | 3.2 | 14:50 |
| 2023-24 | PHI/COL | 81 | 10 | 19 | 29 | +11 | 50 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 150 | 6.7 | 19:14 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 313 | 26 | 70 | 96 | -26 | 142 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 536 | 4.9 | 17:31 |
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
10 goals and 19 assists in 81 games for Philadelphia and Colorado — 29 points at 19:14 a night, plus-11, with 2 shorthanded goals and 1 game-winner on 150 shots at 6.67 per cent, and 50 penalty minutes. A career high in goals and points.
52.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,331 minutes, the 73rd percentile. His ice went 64-59 against an expectation of 59.90-53.50 — four goals scored above expectation and six conceded above it.
The Finesse Game
150 attempts at a median of 48 feet, with 68 per cent from beyond 40 and 8 per cent from inside 20, converting at 6.67 per cent. Ten goals is more than a third of the twenty-six he has scored in 313 NHL games.
19 assists. He moves the puck quickly and he will carry it out when the pass is not there, and the skating is the reason he plays nineteen minutes a night at 5-11.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 191 and light. He defends with feet and stick and he will not clear a crease against a heavy forward.
50 penalty minutes in 81 games and 142 in 313 for his career is a moderate rate, and a share of it is the stick foul that follows losing a step. He is trusted a man short and scored 2 shorthanded goals.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Bowling Green, and 313 NHL games and 96 points at 29 across three clubs, with a career minus-26 accumulated almost entirely in Los Angeles.
He was signed here in the summer. An undrafted defenceman playing nineteen minutes a night is a real career, and he and Shayne Gostisbehere are between them what this club received for Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,331 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52.8%
- 73rd pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.8%
- 84th 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: 64 for, 59 against. Expected: 59.9 and 53.5.
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 — 65 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 with PHI · 1040 minutes at five-on-five
- Nick Seeler65%
- Egor Zamula11%
- Cam York11%
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 52.8% — 0.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- 1,331 minutes at five-on-five — 91st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Seeler | 52.9% | 52.7% | 50.3% |
| Joel Farabee | 53.7% | 52.6% | 48.7% |
| Cam Atkinson | 51.4% | 53.2% | 49.8% |
52.9% together, 52.7% for him apart and 50.3% for Seeler 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
205 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 10 of them goals. His median goal came from 31 feet. 8% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 68% from beyond forty.