Hockey, perhaps more so than any other sport, thrives on the unexpected. Whether it's a journeyman suddenly breaking out for a career season, an established star mysteriously going cold in the middle of his prime, or a goalie playing out of character (in any direction), the NHL is rarely short on surprises. And through the first few months of the 2024-25 season, we've already seen plenty of examples for each type of performance.
We can measure which players have defied expectations -- for better or worse -- relative to their previous careers using my adjusted Goals Above Replacement (GAR) metric.