This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Tyler Kleven
Ottawa Senators Defense
Six-foot-five and 225 pounds with the worst chance share on the blue line, and one per cent of his shot attempts from inside 20 feet.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | OTT | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0.0 | 14:41 |
| 2023-24 | OTT | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.0 | 12:39 |
| 2024-25 | OTT | 79 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -11 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 78 | 5.1 | 14:28 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 96 | 4 | 9 | 13 | -13 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 96 | 4.2 | 14:19 |
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
4 goals and 6 assists in 79 games — 10 points at 14:28 a night, minus-11, with 27 penalty minutes.
44.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 12th percentile — the worst figure on the roster alongside Zetterlund. His ice went 40-56 against an expectation of 32.44-40.33: the results were poor and the underlying play was poorer.
The Finesse Game
78 attempts at a median of 53 feet with 73 per cent from beyond 40 and 1 per cent from inside 20. The shot is heavy and it is a point shot; 4 goals is what it produced.
The puck game is the limitation. He is not comfortable under a forecheck, the first pass is not always on, and the club’s exits get worse when he is the man making them.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 225 and this is the entire case for him. He hits very hard, he blocks shots, and he moves men out of the front of his own net by force.
27 penalty minutes in 79 games is a reasonable rate for a defenceman who plays this way. He is not an agitator; the physicality is functional rather than provocative.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2020 out of North Dakota, and 96 NHL games in. He is 23 and last season was his first full one.
The size is real and so is the third-pairing chance share. The club has to decide whether he becomes a penalty-killing bottom-pair defenceman or something more, and one season at 44.6 per cent is not the evidence to settle it.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,063 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44.6%
- 13th pct
- Shot attempts
- 46.9%
- 22nd 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: 40 for, 56 against. Expected: 32.4 and 40.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 8 points of one another. 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.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 67 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 · 1063 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
- OTT took 50.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.6% — 5.6 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,063 minutes at five-on-five — 70th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikolas Matinpalo | 45.5% | 44.2% | 54.7% |
| Tim Stützle | 44.9% | 44.5% | 55.7% |
| Adam Gaudette | 39.6% | 46.2% | 52.1% |
45.5% together, 44.2% for him apart and 54.7% for Matinpalo apart. Matinpalo was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more 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
110 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 65 feet. 1% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 73% from beyond forty.