This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Uvis Balinskis
Florida Panthers Defense
Undrafted, from Ventspils, and a first National Hockey League game at 27.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | FLA | 26 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 4.5 | 14:06 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 26 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 4.5 | 14:06 |
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
26 games, 1 goal and 2 assists for 3 points, 8 penalty minutes, 14:06 a night and even. He took 48.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 343 minutes, the 38th percentile, and his ice went 10-8 against an expectation of 12.10-13.11.
Five fewer conceded than the chances called for across 343 minutes, which is noise. Twenty-six games is not enough to know anything and it is twenty-six more than most players from Latvia get.
The Finesse Game
22 shots at a median of 40 feet with 52 per cent from beyond 40, converted at 4.5 per cent.
Two assists in 26 games. He makes the simple pass and moves it quickly, which is what a seventh defenceman on a Stanley Cup club is asked to do and nothing more.
The Physical Game
He is 6-0 and 196 and defends positionally.
8 penalty minutes in 26 games is a low rate. He blocks shots and stays in front of people rather than hitting them.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Ventspils, and a first National Hockey League game at 27 after a career spent entirely in Europe.
He is 28 and there is no upside to project. What there is, is a player who arrived from nowhere and did not look out of place on the best club in hockey, which for a Latvian defenceman nobody drafted is the whole story.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 343 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48%
- 38th pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.7%
- 83rd 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: 10 for, 8 against. Expected: 12.1 and 13.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 28 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 415 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 56 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 · 343 minutes at five-on-five
- Josh Mahuranow SEA47%
- Niko Mikkola22%
- Oliver Ekman-Larssonnow TOR11%
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
- FLA took 53.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.0% — 5.7 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 343 minutes at five-on-five — 9th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Mahura | 46.5% | 49.2% | 48.0% |
| Eetu Luostarinen | 50.5% | 46.8% | 54.4% |
| Kevin Stenlund | 52.1% | 46.6% | 43.4% |
46.5% together, 49.2% for him apart and 48.0% for Mahura apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
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
29 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 8 feet. 21% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 52% from beyond forty.