Armchair Scout
73

Zach Metsa

Buffalo Sabres Defense

Five foot nine, undrafted, and an NHL debut at twenty-six.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-2643246+168001248.310:58
Career43246+168001248.310:58

Last Season

Two goals and four assists in 43 games, plus-16, at 10:58 a night. His first NHL season, at 26 years old, after four years in the American League.

The Finesse Game

Modest. Thirty-five unblocked attempts from a median of 53 feet with 11 per cent inside twenty, and two goals. He is not being asked to create.

What he does have is a clean first pass and enough skating to make it under pressure, which at his size is the only route to an NHL shift.

The Physical Game

Five foot nine and 198 pounds. Eight penalty minutes in 43 games. He cannot move a man from the front of the net and does not try; the defending is angles, stick and anticipation, and when it fails there is no plan B.

The Intangibles

Four hundred and sixty-five five-on-five minutes is a thin sample and reads mixed: 48.3 per cent of the expected goals, 38th percentile, against 45.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 16th. The goals went 32-17 in his favour, which given expected goals of 18.6 to 19.9 is a fourteen-goal gift and tells you nothing about him.

The plus-16 is the same gift.

He is 27 and undrafted and he got here, which almost nobody his size does any more. Whether he stays is a different question and the honest answer is that 43 games is not enough to have one. Ask again in a hundred.