Folks, Erik Gudbranson is on pace for a historic season - a historically bad one.

I have pulled some of the worst 5v5 performances by Dmen dating back to the '18-'19 season. Erik Gudbranson's underlying metrics are some of the worst and I'd contend he's on pace for the worst 5v5 season of any NHL defenseman in at least the last five years. I also included what I believe is the worst season for any Dman in the "analytics era" (since 2007-2008) - Josh Gorges of the actively-tanking 2014-2015 Buffalo Sabres.

Here is the relevant information:

-For '22-'23, I pulled Dmen with a minimum 200 minutes played at 5v5, which is 159 players.

-For the full seasons of '21-'21 and '18-'19, I used minimum TOI of 500 minutes.

-It got weird/tricky with the covid-shorted seasons, so I used 400 minutes for '20-'21 and 300 minutes for '19'-20.

-All stats per NaturalStatTrick, so if you use other sites the results may vary slightly. All stats at 5v5 as well.

-I tried to capture the worst CF% and worst xG% Dmen of each season, though it was tricky in those shortened seasons. I also noted games played at the end for guys who didn't play 60 games in a season. Your personal cutoff, if higher than what I used, would bring the "worst" of each season up slightly.

Link if you'd like to zoom in.

I quickly dug through every season available (back to '07-'08 on NST) but I was not able to find any Dman giving up 75.92 shot attempts / 60 minutes on the ice (CA, or Corsi against). Heck, I think I only found one other player over 71 and that was Hajek in '19-'20 and he didn't even play a half season's worth of games. No Dman I could find - shortened or full season - put up a CF% below 37% except for Gorges in '14-'15 (and his teammate, Rasmus Risolainen). I didn't find any player with a FA/60 (fenwick against - unblocked shot attempts allowed while on the ice, per 60 minutes) above 55. But for Troy Stretcher's historically bad season so far in expected goals %, Gudbranson would also claim that spot.

There is still a lot of season to go. Historically bad starts aren't that unusual. Most of the "worst" guys each season end up around 40% in shot share and expected goals %, plus or minus a percent or two. Right now, Erik Gudbranson is well below those marks.

A lot can happen, but for the moment Erik Gudbranson looks poised to put up a historic season.