This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Troy Stecher
Edmonton Oilers Defense
Undrafted, 5-10, 494 games, and a shot-blocking third pairing that came out ahead of its chances.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | VAN | 71 | 3 | 21 | 24 | -16 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 2.4 | 19:59 |
| 2017-18 | VAN | 68 | 1 | 10 | 11 | -7 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 94 | 1.1 | 18:49 |
| 2018-19 | VAN | 78 | 2 | 21 | 23 | +9 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 105 | 1.9 | 19:55 |
| 2019-20 | VAN | 69 | 5 | 12 | 17 | +10 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 5.8 | 15:21 |
| 2020-21 | DET | 44 | 3 | 8 | 11 | -13 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 5.5 | 17:19 |
| 2021-22 | DET/LAK | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -7 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 2.0 | 16:40 |
| 2022-23 | ARI/CGY | 81 | 3 | 11 | 14 | -6 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 3.4 | 16:22 |
| 2023-24 | ARI/EDM | 54 | 1 | 6 | 7 | +9 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 2.0 | 18:07 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 494 | 19 | 91 | 110 | -21 | 225 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 654 | 2.9 | 17:56 |
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
54 games, 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points, 32 penalty minutes, 18:07 a night and plus-9. He took 49.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 869 minutes, the 50th percentile, and his ice went 34-27 against an expectation of 34.52-35.10.
Eight goals fewer conceded than the chances called for, on a pairing that broke exactly even at creating. Eighteen minutes a night is more than a club should need from him and he did not embarrass anybody with it.
The Finesse Game
51 shots at a median of 47 feet with 60 per cent from beyond 40, converted at 2.0 per cent. One goal in 54 games and 19 in 494 career games.
91 career assists in 494 games. The first pass is quick and safe and there is no third option behind it. At 5-10 he cannot hold the puck at the line against pressure and he does not try to.
The Physical Game
He blocks shots at 5-10 and 184, which is most of what he is for.
He is hard to move for his size and he defends the front of the net by getting under people rather than over them. 32 penalty minutes in 54 games is a real rate for a man this small, and a lot of it is a stick when he has been beaten wide.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Richmond, three years at North Dakota, and 494 games since. He is 5-10 and 184 and has outlasted most of the men picked ahead of him.
At 30 he is exactly what he was at 24, which for an undrafted defenceman is the whole point. The club needs him to play fifteen minutes rather than eighteen.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 869 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.6%
- 50th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.7%
- 53rd 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: 34 for, 27 against. Expected: 34.5 and 35.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 25 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 316 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 59 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 ARI · 759 minutes at five-on-five
- Juuso Välimäkinow UTA40%
- Michael Kesselringnow UTA16%
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
- EDM took 56.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.6% — 7.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 869 minutes at five-on-five — 46th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juuso Välimäki | 54.3% | 47.3% | 49.8% |
| Alex Kerfoot | 50.4% | 49.3% | 45.5% |
| Nick Bjugstad | 48.4% | 50.0% | 48.9% |
54.3% together, 47.3% for him apart and 49.8% for Välimäki apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
82 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 10 feet. 11% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 60% from beyond forty.