This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Shayne Gostisbehere
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
45 points and a 60.5 per cent chance share — the highest of any skater in the league — and a defenceman nobody trusts to defend.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | PHI | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 12:34 |
| 2015-16 | PHI | 64 | 17 | 29 | 46 | +8 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 152 | 11.2 | 20:05 |
| 2016-17 | PHI | 76 | 7 | 32 | 39 | -21 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 198 | 3.5 | 19:36 |
| 2017-18 | PHI | 78 | 13 | 52 | 65 | +10 | 25 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 221 | 5.9 | 21:27 |
| 2018-19 | PHI | 78 | 9 | 28 | 37 | -20 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 180 | 5.0 | 19:40 |
| 2019-20 | PHI | 42 | 5 | 7 | 12 | -4 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 73 | 6.9 | 18:18 |
| 2020-21 | PHI | 41 | 9 | 11 | 20 | -2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 85 | 10.6 | 19:56 |
| 2021-22 | ARI | 82 | 14 | 37 | 51 | -23 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 151 | 9.3 | 22:11 |
| 2022-23 | ARI/CAR | 75 | 13 | 28 | 41 | -5 | 32 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 155 | 8.4 | 20:49 |
| 2023-24 | DET | 81 | 10 | 46 | 56 | -16 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 139 | 7.2 | 19:05 |
| 2024-25 | CAR | 70 | 7 | 38 | 45 | +1 | 52 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 122 | 5.7 | 18:31 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 689 | 104 | 308 | 412 | -74 | 255 | 40 | 2 | 17 | 1478 | 7.0 | 20:03 |
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
7 goals and 38 assists in 70 games for 45 points, plus-1, on 18:31 a night — the most points by any defenceman on the roster.
60.5 per cent at five-on-five, the 100th percentile — the highest chance share of any skater in the league. His on-ice goals were 53-41 against an expected 54-35, which means that even with the best share in hockey the club conceded 6 more than it should have while he played.
The Finesse Game
The puck game is everything. He walks the line, sees the seam, and gets pucks through traffic to the net, and 38 assists on a club that finished 28th in finishing is a genuine total.
122 shots from a median of 50 feet, and 74 per cent from beyond 40 — this is a point shooter rather than a rushing defenceman, and the release is quick enough to justify the volume. The power-play instincts are the best on the roster.
The Physical Game
5-11 and 183, and there is essentially nothing. He does not clear a crease, does not win a battle below the goal line, and is moved off pucks by forwards of any size.
52 penalty minutes over 70 games is a high rate and it is the tell — a defenceman who cannot win physically ends up reaching. That is what a 100th-percentile chance share and a negative goal differential look like at the same time.
The Intangibles
Eleven seasons, four organisations, and a career of being simultaneously the most productive defenceman on his club and the one every coach eventually reduces the minutes of.
At 32 in this system he has found the best version of the arrangement: heavy offensive-zone usage, a partner who defends, and a club that does not ask him to do the thing he cannot. It works, and the goal differential says it is still not free.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 997 minutes
- Expected goals
- 60.5%
- 100th pct
- Shot attempts
- 62.4%
- 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: 53 for, 41 against. Expected: 53.7 and 35.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 89 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 66 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 · 997 minutes at five-on-five
- Sean Walker78%
- Scott Morrownow NYR8%
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 60.5% — 4.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 997 minutes at five-on-five — 60th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Walker | 61.1% | 58.4% | 49.6% |
| Jesperi Kotkaniemi | 58.9% | 61.4% | 53.2% |
| Eric Robinson | 58.3% | 61.6% | 56.1% |
61.1% together, 58.4% for him apart and 49.6% for Walker apart. Walker was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Walker than for him.
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
201 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 3% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 74% from beyond forty.