This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Zachary Aston-Reese
Columbus Blue Jackets Left Wing
17 points, a minus-15, and a fourth-line winger who took 48 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | PIT | 16 | 4 | 2 | 6 | +2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 11:23 |
| 2018-19 | PIT | 43 | 8 | 9 | 17 | +12 | 26 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 76 | 10.5 | 13:39 |
| 2019-20 | PIT | 57 | 6 | 7 | 13 | +6 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 98 | 6.1 | 14:25 |
| 2020-21 | PIT | 45 | 9 | 6 | 15 | +10 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 79 | 11.4 | 14:37 |
| 2021-22 | PIT/ANA | 69 | 5 | 10 | 15 | +9 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 6.4 | 13:02 |
| 2022-23 | TOR | 77 | 10 | 4 | 14 | -6 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 89 | 11.2 | 10:56 |
| 2023-24 | DET | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 5:09 |
| 2024-25 | CBJ | 79 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -15 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 101 | 5.9 | 13:27 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 389 | 48 | 49 | 97 | +18 | 153 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 542 | 8.9 | 13:02 |
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
6 goals and 11 assists in 79 games for 17 points, minus-15 — the worst rating on the club — on 13:27 a night.
50.6 per cent at five-on-five, the 59th percentile, which is a perfectly reasonable share and sits oddly with the rating. His on-ice goals were 48-37 against an expected 36-35, so the five-on-five results were good; the minus-15 came elsewhere.
The Finesse Game
Limited. 101 shots and 6 goals at 5.9 per cent, and 11 assists — there is no finishing here and never has been.
48 per cent of his attempts came from inside 20 feet, so the locations are right and the hands are not. He is on a roster to defend and to forecheck, and the offence is incidental.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 203, and he plays a hard, honest, physical game. He blocks shots, finishes checks, and is one of the more reliable defensive forwards on the club.
27 penalty minutes over 79 games is disciplined for the style.
The Intangibles
Undrafted out of Northeastern, five organisations, and an NHL career built on being trusted defensively.
At 31 the projection is unchanged: a fourth-line winger who kills penalties. The minus-15 should not be held against him — the underlying five-on-five play was among the better bottom-six numbers on the roster.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 905 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50.6%
- 59th 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: 48 for, 37 against. Expected: 36.2 and 35.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 23 points above where the report does. 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 315 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 71 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 · 905 minutes at five-on-five
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 50.6% — 2.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 905 minutes at five-on-five — 46th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathieu Olivier | 50.2% | 51.1% | 45.0% |
| Justin Danforth | 53.5% | 48.2% | 45.9% |
| Zach Werenski | 56.0% | 46.7% | 51.1% |
50.2% together, 51.1% for him apart and 45.0% for Olivier apart. Olivier was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Olivier 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
135 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 11 feet. 48% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 21% from beyond forty.