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Getting to Know Daniel Winnik

By Patrick Holden

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March 1, 2016 11:53 am

Daniel Winnik

Photo: Derek Leung

Daniel Winnik was the Caps’ biggest acquisition prior to the trade deadline and he stands poised to make his Caps debut this week.

Winnik is a versatile, bottom-six forward who figures to slot in on the Caps fourth line to start, but is capable of playing effective third-line minutes as well. He’ll likely be a fixture on the penalty kill.

Here’s a quick glance of the new Caps’ forward.

Player GP TOI SA% rel SA% GF% PDO
Winnik 56 652 48.9 -2.7 44.7 99.2

* Score-adjusted numbers from War on Ice

Winnik’s possession numbers are sub-par, but they’ve been consistently moving in the right direction since recovering from an early season injury that seemed to curtail his effectiveness. Winnik has been a positive relative possession player in five of the last six seasons.

Winnik is averaging 11.2 shot attempts per 60 at 5v5 this season. This would rank 9th among Caps forwards and places him 207th among 379 qualifying forwards.

winnik

The viz above is from Micah McCurdy. Here’s what it’s telling us:

  • The top graph is who Winnik has skated with the most this season. His most common linemates have been Joffrey Lupul and Nick Spaling.
  • Second is Winnik’s ice time. The yellow bars show us that Winnik has seen pretty regular minutes on the penalty kill this season, although the 1.6 minutes per game are the lowest of his career. Expect him to see regular time on the Caps’ shorthanded unit.
  • Third are shot attempts for and against. Winnik has been regularly on the right side of the possession battle since about 25 games in, other than a small blip around the 50-game mark. For the past 15 games or so, the Leafs have consistently been the better possession team with Winnik on the ice.
  • In the fourth graph, the black line dipping so close to zero a few times shows that Winnik hasn’t had the best puck luck this season. He’s shooting just 4.9 percent and the Leafs as a team are shooting only 5.3 percent with him on the ice this season.
  • Lastly are Winnik’s scoring totals. He has four goals and 10 assists, six of which are of the primary variety.

What are your thoughts on Winnik?

Also read Japers Rink’s analysis of the Laich/Winnik swap.