This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Zach Werenski
Columbus Blue Jackets Defense
Fifty-seven points and 24:27 a night — the largest single source of offence on the club, by a distance.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | CBJ | 78 | 11 | 36 | 47 | +17 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 188 | 5.9 | 20:55 |
| 2017-18 | CBJ | 77 | 16 | 21 | 37 | +8 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 207 | 7.7 | 22:35 |
| 2018-19 | CBJ | 82 | 11 | 33 | 44 | -12 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 168 | 6.6 | 22:54 |
| 2019-20 | CBJ | 63 | 20 | 21 | 41 | +9 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 187 | 10.7 | 23:59 |
| 2020-21 | CBJ | 35 | 7 | 13 | 20 | -9 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 8.9 | 24:22 |
| 2021-22 | CBJ | 68 | 11 | 37 | 48 | -15 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 216 | 5.1 | 25:40 |
| 2022-23 | CBJ | 13 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 7.3 | 23:36 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 70 | 11 | 46 | 57 | 0 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 202 | 5.5 | 24:27 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 486 | 90 | 212 | 302 | -8 | 115 | 20 | 1 | 12 | 1288 | 7.0 | 23:24 |
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
11 goals and 46 assists in 70 games — 57 points at 24:27 a night, even, with 2 power-play goals on 202 shots at 5.45 per cent, and 22 penalty minutes.
Twenty-four twenty-seven is the most ice of anyone on the roster and 46 assists is the largest single source of offence on the club. A defenceman finishing even on a team that conceded 300 goals is its own statement.
47.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,366 minutes, the 33rd percentile. His ice went 55-57 against an expectation of 60.65-67.35 — ten fewer goals conceded than the chances predicted.
The Finesse Game
202 attempts at a median of 44 feet, with 58 per cent from beyond 40 and 11 per cent from inside 20, converting at 5.45 per cent — the second-largest shot volume on the roster and it comes from the blue line.
He carries the puck out of his own zone rather than passing it out, and the skating is what makes 24:27 possible against the other side’s best. He walks the line and holds the puck until a forechecker commits.
46 assists and 212 in 486 career games. This is a first-pairing offensive defenceman on any roster in the league.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 214. He defends with skating rather than force and he does not clear his crease. The gap control is good and the body is not part of it.
22 penalty minutes in 70 games and 115 in 486 for his career is one of the lowest rates on any blue line in this edition, and it is low because he is beaten cleanly rather than forced into a hook.
The Intangibles
Eighth overall in 2015, out of Michigan, and 486 games and 302 points at 27, all of them here, on clubs that have made the playoffs twice.
Fifty-seven points in seventy games from a defenceman on a twenty-ninth-place team is a genuinely rare line, and the shoulder that has cost him most of two seasons is the reason it is seventy and not eighty-two.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,366 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47.4%
- 33rd pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.7%
- 42nd 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: 55 for, 57 against. Expected: 60.6 and 67.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 60 points above where the numbers do. 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 76 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 · 1366 minutes at five-on-five
- Adam Boqvistnow FLA24%
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
- CBJ took 45.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.4% — 1.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,366 minutes at five-on-five — 92nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johnny Gaudreau | 51.6% | 45.0% | 47.8% |
| Damon Severson | 47.9% | 47.1% | 48.1% |
| Boone Jenner | 49.2% | 46.6% | 47.4% |
51.6% together, 45.0% for him apart and 47.8% for Gaudreau apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
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
283 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 12% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 58% from beyond forty.