Armchair Scout
Shayne Gostisbehere

Photo by TheAHL, CC BY 2.0

Shayne Gostisbehere

Carolina Hurricanes Defense #4

Fifty points in fifty-five games from the second pair, at thirty-three.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-2655133750+112260111611.219:14
Career744117345462-632774621815947.319:59

Last Season

Thirteen goals and 37 assists in 55 games — 50 points, plus-11, at 19:14 a night with six power-play goals. Twenty-seven games missed.

The Finesse Game

Still one of the better offensive defencemen in the league and it is all in the hands and the head. He walks the line, changes the angle, and finds the seam pass that most defencemen do not look for.

The shot is a genuine weapon from distance: 194 unblocked attempts, 69 per cent from beyond forty feet, median 48, and thirteen went in. He gets it through and he gets it on net, which at that range is the whole trick.

Fifty points in 55 games is a first-pair rate produced from a second pair.

The Physical Game

Five foot eleven, 183, and it is the reason he has been traded five times. Twenty-two penalty minutes. He cannot defend the front of his net and gets moved out of the way by anyone who wants to be there.

The club hides him carefully and it works, most of the time.

The Intangibles

Fifty-eight per cent of the expected goals — 98th percentile — and 59.6 per cent of the shot attempts, 98th, across 834 minutes.

He is 33, 744 games and 462 points into a career that has been written off repeatedly. Eight points in his last ten.

The playoff question attaches to him more than to anyone here. A small offensive defenceman on a club that wants to control the puck is a wonderful regular-season asset. In a tight series he is the man the other team goes looking for.