Edgehalla
Justin Kirkland headshotMinnesota Wild logo

Minnesota Wild

Justin Kirkland

#23CenterShoots L6'3"181 lb

0.0 in 4 days
2025-26 regular season
20
GP
1
G
1
A
2
P
11
SOG
9.1% SH
9:49
TOI/GP

C · MIN · NHL id 8477993

Justin Kirkland has played 20 games for the Minnesota Wild in 2025-26, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist (2 points) on 11 shots while averaging 9:49 a night (8:10 at even strength, 0:02 on the power play and 1:36 shorthanded). At 5v5 he has skated 66% of his 5v5 minutes with Adam Klapka and 65% with Ryan Lomberg over the last 10 games, and the Wild have controlled 51% of shot attempts with Kirkland on the ice (6-5 in goals, 29% offensive-zone starts). In the Wild's most recent game against MIN he was on L4 with Joel Farabee and Adam Klapka and off the power play. He is shooting 9.1% this season against 11.5% across the 50 games in our data.

Right now

From the Jan 29 game vs MIN, detected from shift data

Line
L4
Joel FarabeeAdam Klapka
Power play
No PP unit
Penalty kill
PK2F
Jonathan Huberdeau
Last 5: L4 · L4 · L4 · L4 · L4

Deployment timeline

2025-26 · per-game ice time by strength, with line and power-play unit changes

Usage: 11 games, 9:59 average time on ice, PP1 in 0 games, 0 line changes.

PPLine444444444440m3m7m10m13mDec 16Dec 20Dec 27Dec 31Jan 5Jan 8Jan 13Jan 17Jan 21Jan 25
  • Even strength
  • Power play
  • Penalty kill
  • 5-game average
  • Did not play
  • ▲ promoted · ▼ demoted
11 games shown, 9:59 average. Line and PP unit come from where the player's ice time ranks among his teammates that night.

NHL EDGE tracking

2025-26 percentiles among skaters at his position

Source: NHL EDGE
Top speed18th1921.4 mph
Bursts 20+ mph18th1811
Hardest shot63rd6387.0 mph
Offensive-zone time12th1339.0%
Distance skated22nd2232.5 mi
High-danger SOG21st226
Percentile among position peers│ tick = 3-season weighted

Season-level NHL EDGE puck and player tracking, refreshed nightly. The percentile is the league rank among skaters this season; the label at the right is the raw value.

Shot map

2025-26 · 29 attempts, 11 on goal, 1 goal

Shot map, OPP at MIN: 29 attempts, 11 on goal, 1 goal, 1.54 expected goals; best chance Justin Kirkland at 0.23 xG.

  • Even strength
  • Power play
  • Penalty kill
  • Goal
  • Shot on goal
  • Missed
  • Blocked
Every attempt (goals, shots, misses and blocks), attacking toward the right (or the top on phones).

Luck

2025-26 · 20 GP · 2 points vs 4.2 expected

Luck Meter →
Hold

Last 20 games: -36. Positive means running hot (sell), negative running cold (buy).

9.1%
101.0
33.3%
G vs xG
1 / 1.5
  • • Role rose over the last 10 games (2 promotion events): some of the heat may be real.
Goals against expected goals
012-0.5goals below expected-0.4σ10/81/29
  • Actual goals
  • Expected
  • ±1σ
  • Above expected
  • Below expected

Player analytics

Compare with another player →

2025-26 regular season. Rank is among all qualified players; the bar is his percentile among forwards. Each stat links to its explainer.

Fantasy box score

  • Games played20
  • Goals1634th
  • Assists1701st
  • Points2703rd
  • Power-play points0437th
  • Shorthanded points0227th
  • Shots on goal11711th
  • Hits29553rd
  • Blocked shots10686th
  • Plus/minus+1283rd
  • Penalty minutes2701st
  • Faceoffs won63202nd

Possession & shot quality (5-on-5 on-ice)

Transition, turnovers & faceoffs

Usage

Special teams & discipline

Luck & trend

NHL EDGE tracking

Unranked rows are below the sample minimum (20 GP, 200 five-on-five minutes, 100 draws or 10 goalie games).

Beyond the box score

2025-26 regular season · 20 of 20 games through the sequence engine

MethodLeaders
−0.087
Season net
−0.24xG

5-on-5. Each takeaway is credited, and each giveaway charged, at the league xG value of the zone.

MethodLeaders
Per 100 draws
+0.019
Season
+0.02G
50.0%126 draws

Wins by zone: OZ 14-12 · NZ 21-26 · DZ 28-25

MethodLeaders
Per 60
0.73
Attempts
2
0.085

5-on-5 shots within 10 seconds of winning the puck outside the offensive zone.

MethodLeaders
Season
−0.20G
Per 60
−0.062
Drawn / taken
0 / 1minors

MethodLeaders
48.4%
55.6%
48.2%
Transition CF/60
5.1
Turnovers won/60
18.4
Turnovers lost/60
22.8

5-on-5 while he is on the ice.

Role changes

Notable promotions, demotions and ice-time swings from Line Watch

All alerts →

How the goals happened

3 goals since 2023-24 with NHL EDGE tracking: press Replay to watch the tracking animation

Method
Goal anatomy
GamePlayEntryPassesShot mphNotesReplay
Jan 17, 2026 vs NYIOdd-man rushcarry2*37.52-on-1
Nov 12, 2024 @ VANReboundcarry026.2rebound
Oct 13, 2024 @ EDMRebound—036.8rebound

* includes a royal-road (cross-slot) pass. Derived from NHL EDGE puck and player tracking.

Linemates

2025-26 · 5v5 time together and how each pairing performs with and without Kirkland

TeammatePosGPShareCF% togetherGF% togetherCF% Kirkland apartCF% mate apart
Ryan LombergLW18123:1775%52.2%44% (4-5)48.3% 19:0646.6% 40:49
Adam KlapkaRW15110:5668%50.4%50% (4-4)47.2% 20:4748.1% 36:15
Kevin BahlD1857:0735%48.1%67% (2-1)50.5% 92:3948.4% 277:12
MacKenzie WeegarD2056:2335%55.0%100% (2-0)47.9% 106:5850.7% 292:19
Joel HanleyD2056:2235%46.9%60% (3-2)52.9% 106:5954.6% 203:09
Rasmus AnderssonD1537:4023%47.7%50% (1-1)51.5% 77:0750.2% 216:12
Hunter BrzustewiczD826:1516%36.2%67% (2-1)49.5% 46:3247.7% 81:19
Yan KuznetsovD1125:1115%45.1%100% (1-0)46.3% 69:3747.3% 167:02
Jake BeanD824:4415%63.5%0% (0-1)55.4% 37:2961.5% 100:27
Joel FarabeeLW421:3713%41.7%100% (2-0)51.9% 18:0339.1% 28:01
Zach WhitecloudD419:4612%63.6%100% (1-0)38.1% 21:4660.2% 66:20
Brayden PachalD715:5810%45.2%0% (0-3)57.6% 33:0153.8% 69:32
William StromgrenLW211:087%45.0%— (0-0)50.0% 2:0625.0% 2:40
Yegor SharangovichC38:385%35.7%— (0-0)37.0% 14:0551.1% 26:39

Linemate and opposition quality

2025-26 · 5v5 · 163 min on ice · ranked against 510 forwards

46.3%

teammates' average xGF%

11th percentile · higher = stronger linemates

28.0%

opponents' average ice-time share

8th percentile · higher = faces more top-line minutes

Sheltered minutes: mostly faces weaker opposition.

QoT averages the season xGF% of Kirkland's 5v5 teammates; QoC averages how much of their team's ice time Kirkland's opponents get, so a high QoC means facing top lines. Both are weighted by time shared on the ice, lean on last season for small samples, and are ranked within forwards or defence.

Usage by score state

2025-26, 20 games.

Leading
9.7
min per 60
Tied
9.7
min per 60
Trailing
9.7
min per 60

Kirkland's ice time barely changes with the score. Power play: 0.0 min per 60 trailing, against 0.0 leading. On the ice for 6% of the team's 6-on-5 time.

Garbage time: 0 of 2 points (0%) came with the team up or down 3+. League garbage-time table

Tonight's game-script forecast

Faceoffs

Dot map, splits and head-to-head →
Model rating
48.0%
90%: 43.9%–52.2% vs an average centre
2026-27
—
0 won of 0 · 55% on his strong side
Next game
No projection yet.

Rating adjusts for opponents, home ice and dot side. All faceoff leaders

Game log

20 games in 2025-26, newest first

DateOppResultGAP+/-PIMHITBLKEVPPPK
Jan 29@ MINL 1-40000100050%10:3510:01—0:34
Jan 25vs ANAOTL 3-4000+1122150%12:0210:57—1:05
Jan 21vs PITL 1-4000+1002067%9:518:520:020:57
Jan 19vs NJDOTL 1-20000103025%11:5811:420:020:14
Jan 17vs NYIW 4-2101+1100220%10:459:340:150:21
Jan 15@ CHIW 3-1000-1001140%9:035:100:013:52
Jan 13@ CBJL 3-50000000025%9:577:37—2:20
Jan 10@ PITW 2-10000100067%8:005:37—2:23
Jan 8@ BOSL 1-4000-1104171%10:289:29—0:59
Jan 5vs SEAL 1-50000002050%8:478:47——
Dec 27vs EDMW 3-2000+1002240%8:537:02—1:51
Nov 1@ NSHL 2-40000001138%11:359:08—2:27
Oct 30@ OTTOTL 3-4000-1100050%9:027:510:140:57
Oct 28@ TORL 3-4011+1002050%8:387:00—1:38
Oct 26vs NYRW 5-10000002050%10:039:30—0:33
Oct 22vs MTLOTL 1-20000100080%8:518:09—0:42
Oct 20vs WPGL 1-20000303043%11:057:48—3:17
Oct 15@ UTAL 1-3000-1001063%9:196:20—2:59
Oct 9@ VANL 1-50000002050%9:236:33—2:50
Oct 8@ EDMW 4-30000002267%8:126:14—1:58

Season splits by strength

2025-26 regular season · on-ice numbers from shift and play-by-play data

StrengthGPTOI/GPSAGFGAGF%
All situations20196:279:4917320246.1%46.9%72876843%6.89.519%
Even strength20163:218:1016215750.8%52.7%66626555%6.16.529%
5v520163:218:1016215750.8%52.7%66626555%6.16.529%
Power play50:340:0700——0000—0.00.0—
Penalty kill1931:571:41104418.5%19.0%624030%0.33.00%
4v51931:291:39104219.2%19.5%623030%0.32.80%

Career by season

Seasons in Edgehalla's data (2025-26 is being backfilled; earlier seasons follow)

SeasonTeamGPGAP+/-PIMHITBLKTOI/GP
2025-26CGY20112+12119.1%29109:49
2024-25CGY21268+611922.2%45169:42
2023-24ARI20000010.0%517:14
2022-23ANA7000-3050.0%837:13

Justin Kirkland news

Headlines via LineupExperts. Links open the original publisher.

On-ice and deployment numbers are derived by Edgehalla from NHL play-by-play and shift data. Tracking percentiles are from NHL EDGE. Data updates after every game.