Arseny Gritsyuk
Age: 25 Position: Forward
Statistics: 13 goals, 18 assists, 31 points (68 games)
Contract: Restricted free agent (RFA)
Grade: B+
2025-26 Review
The traditional statistics may not be flashy, but it was a really terrific North American debut season for Arseny Gritsyuk.
On the year he posted 13 goals, 18 assists, and 31 points across 68 games. His season was cut short due to injury. Among NHL rookies to play at least 50 games, Gritsyuk ranked seventh in points-per-game. Overall, he ranked 13th in points and had the sixth-most shots (149) among rookie skaters.
What really showed Gritsyuk’s value is the underlying metrics. Here is how Gritsyuk ranked among his Devils teammates in some important possession metrics:
- Corsi-for percentage (CF%): 1st
- Expected goals-for percentage (xGF%): 5th
- Scoring chances for-percentage (SCF%): 2nd
- High-danger CF% (HDCF%): 7th
The above is only at five-on-five and among 30 Devils to play at least five games this season.
To further show how strong Gritsyuk was in terms of on-ice impacts, you can utilize Evolving Hockey’s goals above replacement metrics (GAR). His overall on-ice impacts ranked in the 78th percentile. Impressively, especially for a rookie, his defensive impacts ranked in the 71st percentile while his offensive was in the 78th.
Specifically, his total GAR of 9.7 ranked sixth among NHL rookies and his expected GAR (xGAR) ranked fourth (195 rookies to play at least one game). Among just his teammates, Gritsyuk’s GAR ranked four and xGAR ranked sixth.
His 15:10 average of time on ice should increase in the coming seasons making way for an increase in tangible offensive production. We saw glimpses of this to end the season as Gritsyuk had eight points in his final 10 games of the season while seeing his ice time increase, playing 16-to-18 minutes on most nights in the final month. Hopefully a preview for things to come.
2026-27 Outlook
In his first season in North America, Arseny Gritsyuk showed he can be a valuable member of the organization going forward. The on-ice impacts are already there, hopefully, in 2026-27 he can take a leap forward in terms of actual offensive output. Albeit, 31 points in 68 games still gave the team a boost in their middle-six.
Gritsyuk is a restricted free agent this offseason, so new general manager Sunny Mehta will be tasked with providing the 25-year-old with a new contact. Midseason projections courtesy of AFP Analytics are below:
- Bridge (short term): two years, $3,551,600 annually
- Long term: five years, $6,583,200 annually
Regardless of the route the team chooses to go, Gritsyuk will play a large part in helping the team hopefully return to the playoffs in 2026-27. If he can remain with those strong on-ice metrics and hit the 40-to-50 point plateau in 2026-27, the fifth-round pick the team used on him in 2019 will appear as even more of a steal.
Note, all above statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey.