Thomas Chabot

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 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

59 games, 7 goals and 31 assists for 38 points at 26:12 a night, minus-3, twenty-six penalty minutes, 173 shots. Eighteenth overall in 2015, six seasons, 313 games, 188 points, a career minus-62.

Twenty-six minutes and twelve seconds a night is the 2nd-most of the 202 defencemen who played forty games, behind Seth Jones by three seconds.

The Finesse Game

Thirty-one assists against seven goals in fifty-nine games, and 146 assists against 42 goals across six seasons — he walks the line looking for a pass.

6.72 shots per 60 is the 92nd percentile among defencemen and 173 shots in fifty-nine games is a real rate, from a 47-foot median that is the 16th percentile — he shoots from closer than five-sixths of the position.

1.13 even-strength points per 60 is the 70th percentile and thirty-four per cent of his points came on the power play, from 3:29 a night at the 97th.

2.64 giveaways per 60 is the 91st percentile. He has the puck constantly and loses it at close to the position’s highest rate.

49.0 per cent of the expected goals and 50.0 per cent of the attempts, from 57.1 per cent offensive-zone starts, the 122nd-highest of the 652 skaters who took two hundred end-zone starts.

His ice went 60-53 against an expectation of 52.48-54.73.

The Physical Game

2.83 hits per 60 is the 32nd percentile and 3.61 blocks the 31st at 6-1 and 200. Both are low for a man playing twenty-six minutes.

0.70 penalties drawn per 60 against 0.50 taken is the 92nd-percentile net, and twenty-six penalty minutes came out of fifty-nine games.

The Intangibles

Ten seconds a night short-handed is the 8th percentile among defencemen. A club that plays a man twenty-six minutes and keeps him off the penalty kill entirely is making a specific statement, and Ottawa’s kill finished 30th in the league.

21.9 mph is the 48th percentile, 2.0 bursts per 60 the 64th, 8.66 miles per 60 the 70th. Every chip measurement is ordinary and he covers 3.78 miles a game — the 4th-most of the 568 skaters who played forty, which is what twenty-six minutes will do.

He is 25 with 188 points and a career minus-62 on clubs that have finished 26th, 30th and 31st. The assist rate, the shot volume and the ice time are the case; the giveaways and the absence from the kill are the two things the file will not explain away.