What is Assists?

A goal credit awarded to a player whose pass or action directly led to a teammate scoring.

What this tells us

When a player records an assist, it means he helped set up a goal — either with a pass on the scoring play or, occasionally, by creating a rebound or deflection that another teammate finished. Assists reward playmaking and are one of the three basic ways to accumulate points (goals, assists, and points-per-game).

Limitations

Assists are awarded at the discretion of the official scorekeeper, and the rules vary slightly by league. Sometimes a player gets credit for a pass two or three touches before the goal; sometimes a secondary assist is given to a player who didn't directly touch the puck before the shot. This means assists can be subjective and inconsistent, especially across different rinks or leagues. That's why we also show expected goals (xG), which weights each shot by how dangerous it actually was — a better measure of how much real offense a playmaker is creating.

Example

A typical second-line forward might record 40–50 assists over a full season. A primary playmaker or top-line center can easily exceed 60 assists in a season.