Skip to content
Alexander Nikishin

Carolina Hurricanes

Alexander Nikishin

CARDefenceJersey number #21

Compare with…

2025-26 regular season

Games played
81
Goals
11
Assists
22
Points
33

No 2026-27 games counted yet · tonight’s game is added the next morning

Playing now: WSH at CAR · live game stats

How good

Among 509 defencemen, 2021-22 to 2026-27

Pool: every defenceman who played in those seasons · Sample: 102 games

Top quarter of his pool in power-play points. Top quarter in hits, which describes his role rather than his quality.

Production

Production: percentile among 509 defencemen, and the adjusted per-game rate it was computed from
StatPctlAdjusted per game
Points680.35
Goals730.11
Assists630.24
Shots on goal691.37
Power-play points850.10

Style and role

Style and role: percentile among 509 defencemen, and the adjusted per-game rate it was computed from
StatPctlAdjusted per game
Hits851.65
Blocked shots411.04
Penalty minutes380.38

Further right means more, not better: hits, blocked shots and penalty minutes describe a role, not quality.

What adjusted per game means — not his recorded rate
Adjusted per game is the rate each percentile was computed from: his recorded rate, weighted toward recent games and pulled toward the league average by sample size, so a short career does not read as an elite one. It sits closer to average than the rate recorded, so a skater with no points in his games can still show points per game above zero.

How he got here

Each regular season

One regular season so far, 2025-26: 11 goals, 22 assists and 33 points in 81 games. The season-by-season chart starts with his second regular season.

What next

2026-27, projected

Full-season pace · his rate times the schedule

If he plays all 84 Carolina Hurricanes games at his modelled per-game rate

Points
29.2
Goals
9.3
Assists
19.8
Shots on goal
115.0
Power-play points
8.4
Hits
138.3
Blocked shots
87.0
Penalty minutes
32.1

Based on 102 games he has played, weighted toward recent ones. It assumes he plays all 84: injuries, scratches and trades are not modelled.

How the pace is worked out — the figure the projections board ranks on

Each figure is his per-game rate, weighted toward recent games, times the 84 games on the Carolina Hurricanes schedule. It is the pace the projections board ranks the league on, so the figure a reader clicked there is the one at the top of this card.

What carries into 2026-27 · a forecast, not a result

Above-average finishing; most of it projected to fade

2025-26+1.55+0.282026-27, projected
Goals above expected per 100 attempts, against the average for defencemen

That was +3.0 goals over 195 attempts; the forecast is ≈ +0.6 at the same volume.

How the forecast is worked out — the carried share is measured over five seasons

18% of a season's rate against defencemen carries into the next: +1.55 × 18% ≈ +0.28 per 100 attempts. The share is measured over five seasons of skaters clearing the same 100-attempt floor, and what does not carry regresses toward the rate for his position.

Against defencemen, not raw goals above expected. Goals minus was +3.5: 11 goals on 7.5 xG, or +1.77 per 100 attempts. Defencemen as a group scored +0.23 per 100 against xG, so against defencemen his rate was +1.55. Penalty-shot goals are left out: the model does not rate penalty shots.

Shot volume is not projected, so the goal figures assume the same number of attempts. A gap that persists means he reliably scores above what this model expects, which may be finishing skill or may be shots the model under-rates; the measurement cannot separate the two. Running hot is a statement about the season just played, not about talent.

This projection is written to a prediction log on the night it is produced, so it can be scored against what actually happens rather than restated later.

Shooting

Where he shoots, and how he finishes

Shot density · 2025-26 · open play, regular season

FewerMore attempts, up to this skater’s busiest cell

7 more attempts came from outside the offensive zone and are not in the grid.

Open play · regular season · goals

Goals against a league-average finisher, by season

In 2025-26 he scored 11 where a league-average finisher would score 7.2 from his chances: 3.8 more.

  1. 2025-26 · on the rink11 G · 7.2 avg · +3.8 · 73 GP

  • Goals
  • A league-average finisher
What the ring counts — what a league-average finisher would score from the same attempts

The shot model prices the chance of a goal on every unblocked attempt he took in open play during the regular season; shootouts and penalty shots are left out. Those chances are scaled so that, across the league, they add up to the goals actually scored that season, so the ring is what a league-average finisher would have scored from his attempts and each season is measured against its own average. The gap is his goals minus that; the table below lists the exact figures.

Finishing against the league average · open play, regular season

Finishing by season: goals against a league-average finisher on the same attempts
SeasonG
2025-267.211+3.873195

G vs avg: goals minus what a league-average finisher would score from the same attempts (Exp G, the model’s expected goals scaled to that season’s league-wide scoring).

From the last 7 days · newest first

News

  1. Rumour

    A Hurricanes Trade For Connor Hellebuyck Reportedly Could Depend On The Blues And Alexander Nikishin (external site)

    The Hockey News - St. Louis Blues via Yahoo Sports ·

    In this story: Connor Hellebuyck, Alexander Nikishin, Carolina Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues

All news about Alexander Nikishin

Detail

The record

Regular season

Regular season, by season
SeasonGAP
2025-26811122330.4112218:11

2025-26 regular season by strength · G-A-P

Even strength
6 goals, 16 assists, 22 points
Power play
4 goals, 6 assists, 10 points
Shorthanded
1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point

Penalty-shot goals are not counted here: each one leaves these a goal and a point below his regular-season totals.

Last 10 games

Last 10 games, newest first
DateOppGAHITBLKPIM
Jun 14@ VGK, playoff game000010011:40
Jun 11vs VGK, playoff game000010014:01
Jun 9@ VGK, playoff game000022010:13
Jun 6@ VGK, playoff game300050019:16
Jun 4vs VGK, playoff game100010016:18
Jun 2vs VGK, playoff game100010012:48
May 29vs MTL, playoff game101000212:14
May 27@ MTL, playoff game000050012:41
May 25@ MTL, playoff game300000016:45
May 23vs MTL, playoff game100012013:36

PO = playoff game.

Markets · tonight

Oct 2 vs Washington Capitals · 7:00 PM ET

The model has not beaten the Pinnacle closing line: shots-on-goal ROI −0.0709 [−0.0932, −0.0467] per unit over 7,171 bets in a 2025-26 backtest of 512 games. How this was measured

Lineup unconfirmed

Pre-game snapshotCaptured Oct 2, 6:52 PM ET· not updated during play

This game’s markets: the posted line and the model’s projection
MarketLineModel projection
Assists, shots on goalNo line posted.