Jonas Siegenthaler might just be the future of the Washington Capitals blue line.
By The Numbers
| 26 | games played |
| 14.2 | time on ice per game |
| 0 | goals |
| 4 | assists |
| 48.6 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 57.8 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 63.8 | 5-on-5 goal percentage, adjusted |
Visualization by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows various metrics for the player over the course of the season. A short description of each chart:
- Most common teammates during 5-on-5
- Ice time per game, split up by game state
- 5-on-5 adjusted shot attempts by the team (black) and opponents (red)
- 5-on-5 adjusted shooting percentage by the team (black) and opponents (red)
- Individual scoring events by the player
- 5-on-5 adjusted offensive (black) and defensive (red) zone starts
Peter’s Take
The RMNB crashers (a group chat for our patrons) were enthusiastic about Jonas Siegenthaler even before he made his debut, but I was skeptical. The early returns on Siegenthaler were high enough that I was suspicious of a small-sample distortion.
Turns out: Nope. He’s just real good.
Hockeyviz, for example, estimates that Siegenthaler’s impact on opponents’ offense is to slow them down 24 percent.
Even if that number would drop with more and tougher minutes, Siegenthaler is still a force for good: pulling Washington up from being one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
And though we only saw him 26 times, he was good in pretty much all of them. There were only four stinkers in the group, and most of the time the Caps did unambiguously better when Siegenthaler was on the ice.
The kicker to all this: More than half of Siegenthaler’s minutes were with Brooks Orpik and Madison Bowey as his partners. The Caps controlled 46.7 percent of shot attempts in those minutes, but the Caps controlled more than 50 percent when Siegenthaler was with Orlov or Djoos (58 minutes), two players who are more likely to be his partners next season.
The Caps having been on top for so long, their prospect pool is sort of depleted. But Siegenthaler is a bright spot — a young stud on the blue line — and his best days are still ahead of him.
Siegs on RMNB
View this post on Instagram
- On his debut: “I dreamed about [this moment] all my life. I never felt this happy in my life. It’s something really special for me and I worked hard to get here. It’s so special, I can’t really describe it. It’s just a big step in my life and I’m pretty excited about it.”
- Siegenthaler played well, but when Christian Djoos returned, Siegenthaler was the only roster player exempt from waivers, so he was re-assigned.
- Siegenthaler returned in the postseason, slotting in for Djoos after a turnover preceded a goal.
- Finally,
Your Turn
Who would you like to see Siegenthaler playing with next season? What do you imagine his role as?
Read more: Japers Rink
