Victor Hedman

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

82 games, 20 goals and 65 assists at 25:05 a night, plus-26, thirty-six penalty minutes, 219 shots. Six of the twenty came on the power play. Second overall in 2009 by Tampa Bay, thirteen seasons, 898 games, 603 points.

The Finesse Game

Eighty-five points is the 3rd-largest total any defenceman in the league produced — Roman Josi took ninety-six and Cale Makar eighty-six — and it came off 25:05 a night, the 95th percentile among the 202 who played forty games.

3:35 on the power play is the 99th percentile and forty-five per cent of his points came there, the 97th.

1.77 even-strength points per 60 is the 97th percentile, so the power play is not doing the work on its own.

6.39 shots per 60 is the 89th percentile at 9.1 per cent, the 95th — twenty goals from a 49-foot median with sixty-nine per cent of his attempts from beyond forty feet.

55.5 per cent of the expected goals is the 89th percentile and 53.6 per cent of the attempts the 82nd, out of 54.8 per cent offensive-zone starts, the 188th-highest of 652 skaters.

1.52 takeaways per 60 is the 87th percentile. His ice went 78-58 against an expectation of 72.64-58.27 — five ahead in front and level behind, which for eighty-two games of top-pair ice is remarkably close to the model.

The Physical Game

6-7 and 244 pounds, and 2.71 hits per 60 is the 30th percentile with 3.76 blocks at the 37th.

Thirty-six penalty minutes in eighty-two games at twenty-five minutes a night. He is one of the largest men in the league and plays a game with almost no contact in it.

The Intangibles

A 23.1 mph top speed is the 98th percentile among defencemen and 2.9 bursts over twenty miles an hour per 60 the 82nd, at 6-7 and 244 pounds.

His shot is 101.2 mph, the 95th percentile.

8.46 miles per 60 is the 51st percentile, which at twenty-five minutes a night is a great deal of total ground.

He is 31, with 603 points in 898 games across thirteen seasons, and the eighty-five is a career high by thirteen. Size, speed, a hard shot, the largest workload on a contender and elite production at both strengths — there is no soft spot in this file. The one thing worth watching is the age: he turns 32 in December, and 898 regular-season games at 23:20 a night is a great deal of hockey.