This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Zach Werenski
Columbus Blue Jackets Defense
82 points and 26:45 a night, and the largest single-season workload by any defenceman in this edition.
| 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 | CBJ | 81 | 23 | 59 | 82 | +12 | 31 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 298 | 7.7 | 26:45 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 567 | 113 | 271 | 384 | +4 | 146 | 25 | 2 | 17 | 1586 | 7.1 | 23:53 |
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
23 goals and 59 assists in 81 games for 82 points, plus-12, on 26:45 a night — the heaviest workload of any skater in the league — and 298 shots.
52.1 per cent at five-on-five, the 71st percentile, over 1,650 five-on-five minutes, which is more than any other player in this edition. His on-ice goals were 62-65 against an expected 73-67: 11 goals of finishing and goaltending taken off the top of a season that would otherwise have been unarguable.
The Finesse Game
The best offensive defenceman in the league last season by production and close to it by play. The skating is powerful rather than dazzling — he beats a forecheck by going through the space rather than around it — and he carries out of his own zone as a matter of routine.
298 shots from the blue line is an enormous volume and 23 goals from them is a genuine release, not a deflection total. 59 assists is where the value concentrates: he walks the line, holds it until a killer commits, and finds the man arriving. There is nothing in the puck game he cannot do.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 214, and he is willing rather than punishing. He defends his net front adequately, takes contact to make a play, and does not hunt hits.
31 penalty minutes over 81 games playing nearly 27 a night is excellent discipline. The larger physical question is what 1,650 five-on-five minutes does to a 28-year-old, and whether a club with this little depth behind him can keep asking.
The Intangibles
Nine seasons in one organisation, through a rebuild, a retool, and the death of a teammate before the season began. He played the best hockey of his life in the year that followed.
At 28 he is a genuine top-three defenceman in the league on a club that has made the playoffs twice in his career. The contract runs long and the workload is not sustainable; the club has to find a second pairing that can take 20 of his minutes.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,650 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52.1%
- 72nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 52.5%
- 78th 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: 62 for, 65 against. Expected: 73.4 and 67.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 24 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 83 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 · 1650 minutes at five-on-five
- Dante Fabbro58%
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
- CBJ took 48.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.1% — 3.8 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,650 minutes at five-on-five — 100th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dante Fabbro | 51.1% | 53.7% | 46.0% |
| Kirill Marchenko | 54.4% | 50.7% | 45.7% |
| Adam Fantilli | 50.1% | 53.0% | 39.5% |
51.1% together, 53.7% for him apart and 46.0% for Fabbro apart. Fabbro was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Fabbro than for him.
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
428 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 23 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 13% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 54% from beyond forty.