Nick Paul

Nick Paul

L · Left shotSecond LinerAge 316'3" · 225 lbMississauga, Canada
cap hit$3.15M7-year extensionsigned July 1, 2022contract ledger →

Points by season

Career NHL points, ending with the 84-game projection (violet).

20: 20 pts202021: 20 pts2022: 18 pts182222: 14 pts1423: 32 pts322324: 46 pts4625: 41 pts412526: 15 pts1534PROJ27: 7 pts (projected 34)27

Pool value

Projected full-season fantasy worth.

34/100
why 34?

Each row is one fantasy category turned into points over a full 84-game season. Add the rows up and that is his total fantasy worth.

  • proj goals12 × 3+36
  • proj assists22 × 1+22
  • PP points0 × 0.5+0
  • game-winning goals0 × 0.5+0
  • OT goals0 × 0.25+0
  • shots88 × 0.1+8.8
  • PIM50 × 0.05+2.5
  • ice time (min)1364 × 0.01+13.6
  • total83 pool points  ·  an elite forward season scores 24283 = 34/100

Weights follow what the average fantasy league actually counts: goals at 3× assists (the universal core), power-play points and game-winners at half weight (common extra categories), OT goals, shots and PIM small (many leagues skip them), and ice time as a quiet availability bonus. The scale: add up a whole season of those categories and compare against the best forwards in the NHL — an elite season scores about 242 points, and that is what 100 means. So 83 points is 34 out of a perfect fantasy season at his position. Defensemen and forwards are graded on separate scales because the D slot can only be filled by a defenseman. Goals and assists come from the backtested season model; the rest ride your own season-to-date pace over 84 games (20 games so far). Hits/blocks are excluded: the free NHL feeds don't publish full-season totals, and we don't invent them.

The Situation

  • Every night: in the lineup for all of the team's last 10 games.
  • Availability: every game this season — 16 of 16 for TOR.

Every line is measured from our own boxscore ledger; absence reasons from the NHL Status Report and our transaction wire only — no insider guessing.

Finishing check on pace O/U • −0.5

Model: goals vs shot volume vs live league position baselines; talent SH% is an empirical-Bayes shrinkage of the season…

His shooting talent is estimated by shrinking his season shooting percentage toward his league position mean in proportion to sample size (kappa pseudo-shots prior), then projecting the gap over 84 games at his current shot volume. Small samples stay near zero — the number only moves when the evidence does.

The method follows published hockey-analytics research: a shooter is judged against his own career shooting percentage, because a player's own career rate predicts his next goals better than any league average (“Expected by Whom? A Skill-Adjusted Expected Goals Model for NHL Shooters and Goaltenders,” arXiv:2511.07703). Thin careers (rookies) shrink toward the league mean for the position, and the season number is shrunk toward the player's own anchor with empirical-Bayes weights — Nandakumar & Jensen (2019), Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application, doi:10.1146/annurev-statistics-030718-105202. This section is about the gap between luck and his pace, not talent.

Season stats

NHL regular-season totals, season by season. The 84-G proj line extends the current season with our public model — methodology in the caption below the table.

SeasonTeamGPGAP+/-PIMPPGPPPSHGTOI/GPGWGOTGSS%FOW%
2015-16Senators24235-3600012:1200287.1%51.7%
2016-17Senators1000-2000016:290040.0%38.5%
2017-18Senators11101-400007:5400119.1%25.0%
2018-19Senators20112-1040008:2800303.3%45.7%
2019-20Senators569112002401014:27201038.7%51.2%
2020-21Senators565152051902116:05001054.8%52.1%
2021-22Senators5911718-182222017:22101318.4%49.0%
2021-22Lightning21591441700114:06103514.3%56.0%
2022-23Lightning80171532113344116:104012014.2%53.7%
2023-24Lightning82242246-1627914017:162015315.7%54.3%
2024-25Lightning76221941133025016:273114115.6%50.0%
2025-26Lightning517815-153213013:41106810.3%53.9%
2026-27Maple Leafs21257-61200016:1200219.5%46.2%
84-G projMaple Leafs84122234—47—2—15:50——114——

84-G proj — current pace blended with the player's own history (recent seasons weighted heaviest), mixed with a similarity projection from historical players with comparable profiles, then adjusted for the aging curve (league-average peak at 27; decline after) — at age 31 that is -3%. Dashes mark stats the model doesn't project.

Comparable player-seasons: Kasperi Kapanen (2025-25) · Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2025-25) · Blake Lizotte (2025-25) · William Carrier (2025-25) · Teddy Blueger (2025-25).

Goals — with the line

TimeSTTypeGoalHis lineOpp ice
Nov 10 · vs COL
P2 19:31EVAssist#? (McKenna, Paul) → 2-3
Paul · Tverberg · McKenna
Ekman-Larsson
Necas · Kelly · O'Connor
Kulak · Makar
Blackwood (G)
Oct 31 · @ VAN
P1 01:23EVAssist#? (#?, #?) → 1-0
Sissons · Joshua
Ekman-Larsson · Stecher
O'Connor · Rossi · Lekkerimaki
Oleksiak · Willander
Merilainen (G)

Line mates

Teammates sharing the most ice time with Nick over the last 10 games — reconstructed shift-by-shift from the NHL's official timing feed (goalies excluded).

PlayerShared minGP
Oliver Ekman-Larsson TOR6310
Troy Stecher TOR6110
William Nylander TOR5410
Darren Raddysh TOR4910
Jake McCabe TOR4510

Data via the public NHL API · 2026 Pro Hockey Stats