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Ben Kindel

Pittsburgh Penguins

Ben Kindel

PITForwardJersey number #81

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2025-26 regular season

Games played
77
Goals
17
Assists
18
Points
35

How good

Among 980 forwards, 2021-22 to 2026-27

Pool: every forward who played in those seasons · Sample: 83 games

Top quarter of his pool in shots on goal and power-play points. Top quarter in blocked shots, which describes his role rather than his quality.

Production

Production: percentile among 980 forwards, and the adjusted per-game rate it was computed from
StatPctlAdjusted per game
Points650.42
Goals750.20
Assists540.22
Shots on goal831.92
Power-play points800.12

Style and role

Style and role: percentile among 980 forwards, and the adjusted per-game rate it was computed from
StatPctlAdjusted per game
Hits90.50
Blocked shots870.77
Penalty minutes170.22

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: 17 goals, 18 assists and 35 points in 77 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 Pittsburgh Penguins games at his modelled per-game rate

Points
35.5
Goals
17.1
Assists
18.4
Shots on goal
161.3
Power-play points
10.1
Hits
42.0
Blocked shots
64.9
Penalty minutes
18.8

Based on 83 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 Pittsburgh Penguins 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

Below-average finishing; most of it projected to recover

2025-26−1.05−0.192026-27, projected
Goals above expected per 100 attempts, against the average for centres

That was −2.3 goals over 219 attempts; the forecast is ≈ −0.4 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 centres carries into the next: −1.05 × 18% ≈ −0.19 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 centres, not raw goals above expected. Goals minus was −3.9: 17 goals on 20.9 xG, or −1.80 per 100 attempts. Centres as a group scored −0.75 per 100 against xG, so against centres his rate was −1.05. 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 cold 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

9 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 17 where a league-average finisher would score 20.0 from his chances: 3.0 fewer.

  1. 2025-26 · on the rink17 G · 20.0 avg · −3.0 · 69 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
2025-2620.017−3.069219

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. Injury

    Pens Points: Lizotte suffers injury as Kindel nears return (external site)

    SB Nation via Yahoo Sports ·

    In this story: Blake Lizotte, Ben Kindel, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins

All news about Ben Kindel

Detail

The record

Regular season

Regular season, by season
SeasonGAP
2025-26771718350.4515115:04

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

Even strength
12 goals, 11 assists, 23 points
Power play
4 goals, 6 assists, 10 points
Shorthanded
1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points

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
Apr 29@ PHI, playoff game200013019:28
Apr 27vs PHI, playoff game200022011:49
Apr 25@ PHI, playoff game100031010:16
Apr 22@ PHI, playoff game100020013:07
Apr 20vs PHI, playoff game300000011:00
Apr 18vs PHI, playoff game000020012:59
Apr 14@ STL101000018:05
Apr 9@ NJD100000014:47
Apr 5vs FLA100003011:35
Apr 4vs FLA000001012:10

PO = playoff game.

Markets · latest captured, not current

Apr 9 at New Jersey Devils · 7:00 PM ET

The prices posted for a game already played. Open to see them.

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

Pre-game snapshotCaptured Oct 1, 8:21 PM ET

This game’s markets: the posted line, the model’s projection and its chance of the over
MarketLineModel projectionModel chance of over
Anytime goal0.50.221%