This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Wyatt Kaiser
Chicago Blackhawks Defense
57 games at 23 on 18 minutes a night, and a defenceman the club still has no read on.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | CHI | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.0 | 18:36 |
| 2023-24 | CHI | 32 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0.0 | 17:19 |
| 2024-25 | CHI | 57 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 6.1 | 18:07 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 98 | 4 | 14 | 18 | -4 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 4.1 | 17:54 |
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 4 assists in 57 games for 8 points, even, on 18:07 a night.
46.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 20th percentile — which on this roster is above average. 69 per cent of his shots came from beyond 40 feet and 2 per cent from inside 20.
The Finesse Game
The skating is good and the first pass is adequate, and that is the whole of it. 66 shots and 4 goals, and 4 assists in 57 games at 18 minutes a night is one of the lowest offensive returns in this edition.
He does not stall a breakout. He also does not start anything, and three seasons of professional hockey have produced no evidence of the offensive game he had in college.
The Physical Game
6 feet and 190, and light. He does not clear a net front and does not win battles by force, and he defends with feet and stick.
14 penalty minutes over 57 games. Disciplined.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick out of Minnesota-Duluth, three years of being moved between the leagues, and a first extended NHL run at 23.
The projection is a third-pair defenceman. On a club with this much ice time to hand out, the fact that he has not taken more of it is itself an answer.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 886 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46.3%
- 21st pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.1%
- 25th 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: 41 for, 46 against. Expected: 33.2 and 38.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 12 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 63 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 · 886 minutes at five-on-five
- TJ Brodieoff the roster17%
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
- CHI took 43.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.3% — 3.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- 886 minutes at five-on-five — 43rd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connor Bedard | 44.0% | 47.4% | 40.4% |
| Ryan Donato | 45.5% | 46.6% | 43.2% |
| Tyler Bertuzzi | 45.0% | 46.8% | 40.8% |
44.0% together, 47.4% for him apart and 40.4% for Bedard apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Bedard behind.
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
90 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 35 feet. 2% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 69% from beyond forty.