2025-26 · five-on-five

Defensive Partner
Independence

Does a defenseman improve every partner he plays with? Compare each pair's expected goals against with the partner's results away from that defenseman.

-Games

-Defensemen

-Ranked

01Pair them up

Measure xGA/60 during every defense pairing's shared minutes.

02Take one away

Measure each partner without the featured defenseman, on the same team.

03Weight and combine

Weight each comparison by shared minutes. A more negative change is better.

The leaders

Strongest partner lifts

Among defensemen meeting every sample threshold. Select a card for the complete partner breakdown.

Independence rank-

Partners without him-xGA / 60

Partners with him-xGA / 60

Weighted improvement-Lower is better

Every partner comparison

Partner	Shared min.	Without min.	With xGA/60	Without xGA/60	Difference	Change	Sample

Explore the league

Defenseman rankings

Find a defenseman Team Order Ranked only

Rank	Defenseman	5v5 min.	Partners	Shared min.	With xGA/60	Partners without	Difference	Change

Methodology

What this measures

With: expected goals against from all unblocked five-on-five attempts while both defensemen share the ice. Without: that partner's rate away from the featured defenseman, limited to the team or teams where they were partners. Each defenseman's aggregate is weighted by shared minutes so a one-shift pairing cannot carry the score.

Every defenseman with recorded five-on-five time appears in the browser. A defenseman needs - minutes to rank. A pair enters the ranking with at least - shared minutes and - partner-without minutes; a defenseman needs - qualifying partners. Pair rows below those thresholds remain visible but do not affect the aggregate.

This is a descriptive on/off result, not an isolated player-value model. Deployment, forwards, score state, opposition, and team systems can move the numbers. Expected goals use shot distance, angle, type, and rebounds; lower xGA/60 is better.