This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sean Walker
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
A 57.4 per cent chance share, a minus-7, and 15 goals of finishing and goaltending disappearing from underneath him.
| 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 | CAR | 82 | 5 | 11 | 16 | -7 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 144 | 3.5 | 16:50 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 395 | 31 | 81 | 112 | -33 | 188 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 680 | 4.6 | 17:22 |
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 11 assists in 82 games for 16 points, minus-7, on 16:50 a night.
57.4 per cent at five-on-five, the 97th percentile, over 1,194 minutes. His on-ice goals were 49-48 against an expected 59-44 — the largest gap on the roster between what a player’s minutes created and what the scoreboard recorded, and it produced a minus-7.
The Finesse Game
Modest. 144 shots and 5 goals, two-thirds of them from beyond 40 feet, and a first pass that is quick without being creative.
He moves the puck and joins the rush occasionally and does not attempt anything difficult. On a third pair on this club, that is the entire job description.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 191, and small for a defenceman. He defends with feet and stick rather than weight and does not clear a net front.
46 penalty minutes over 82 games is a high total for a third-pair defenceman and reflects a man who is occasionally overmatched physically.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, three organisations, and a career of being a useful third-pair defenceman who is worth more to a possession team than to anybody else.
At 31 the projection is what happened. The minus-7 should be ignored entirely: a 97th-percentile chance share with a negative rating is a goaltending fact, not a defenceman one.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,194 minutes
- Expected goals
- 57.4%
- 97th pct
- Shot attempts
- 60.6%
- 100th 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: 49 for, 48 against. Expected: 59.2 and 44.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 66 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 69 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 · 1194 minutes at five-on-five
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
- CAR took 55.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 57.4% — 1.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,194 minutes at five-on-five — 84th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 61.1% | 49.6% | 58.4% |
| Jesperi Kotkaniemi | 57.6% | 57.2% | 53.4% |
| Eric Robinson | 57.4% | 57.4% | 56.6% |
61.1% together, 49.6% for him apart and 58.4% for Gostisbehere apart. He was worse away from Gostisbehere, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Gostisbehere did.
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
220 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 40 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 66% from beyond forty.