Every individual hockey fan is drawn to the sport for some unique reason. Maybe it’s the dramatics, maybe it’s the blood-pumping action, and perhaps it is tactical chess match that sometimes goes on inside the game. Or, if you’re a fan of the way Nick Seeler plays hockey, you like to see dudes get their teeth knocked loose and some blood drawn.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ 2021-22 season did not have many highs, since it was pretty much all lows, but for some, having Seeler on the team and doing what he does every single night — even if he wasn’t punching faces, he was being a little bit more physical than others — was something to at least tune-in for.
It was evident by the fact that he sort of just wandered around positionally — most of the time playing on the bottom defensive pairing, but sometimes played entire games as a winger — that the coaches knew he wasn’t good for contributing to actually winning a hockey game, but just being that physical brute. But he at least possibly had the fight of the season against his now-teammate Nic Deslauriers.
Deslauriers and Seeler go at it in an All-Star bout. pic.twitter.com/dBiyueQNgj
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 30, 2022
All of this ended up giving Flyers management enough reason to hand Seeler a contract extension shortly after the season concluded. Now signed for two more years for just over league minimum salary, he will at least stick around and be available if someone needs to bleed a little bit.
Basic Stats
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM | Shots on Goal | Shooting Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 32 | 3.13 |
What can you really say about Seeler’s stats? It is not like they really mean much. We’re talking about a dude that has a professional season-high of 12 points, and that was almost five years ago. At least his one goal this season was against the Pittsburgh Penguins and gave the good guys the mid-game lead.
Nick Seeler?! Yes Nick Seeler gives the Flyers the lead! pic.twitter.com/GpM7LWuVIo
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) February 16, 2022
Unfortunately and predictably, the Flyers ended up losing that game in overtime, but the goal still counts for something.
Other than that, he shot some goals and got in the penalty box a significant amount of time? Huh.
5v5 On-Ice Stats
| Corsi For% | Corsi For Relative | Goals For% | Expected Goals For% | PDO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44.63 | -3.53 | 43.9 | 40.48 | 0.992 |
Here are some words that have never been spoken out loud before, or even popped in as a thought bubble in someone’s head: I wonder what Nick Seeler’s on-ice expected goals for percentage is. For a player of Seeler’s ilk, these numbers don’t matter a whole lot. Of course the other team has the overall on-ice advantage when he is out there, but are they also punching some dudes and bashing some bodies? Hard to argue with that.
I wouldn’t blame you if you just skimmed over these numbers and did a full-on shrug.
5v5 Individual Stats
| Points/60 | Primary Points/60 | Shot Attempts/60 | Expected Goals/60 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.35 | 0.12 | 7.53 | 0.15 |
What do you want from me? Do you want me to criticize Seeler for not securing more primary points per hour? He played a total of 562 minutes this season and had three points to show for it. I’ll make sure that he gets a scolding for not putting up more expected goals and instead firing off shot attempts from the blue line that never go in; like he has for his entire career.
For some players, you just have to let go of some desires, I guess. Sure, your favorite hockey club could be run like a machine with cold, calculated players that all play to the 99th percentile and win more hockey games. Any team with Seeler on the roster will not be that, so there are some vacuumous holes in the lineup that will take some time to accept will never be filled with a skilled player and the players that play like Seeler will just stick around to be on some highlight reels for taking their gloves off.
All stats via Natural Stat Trick.
