Brenden Dillon was a late but impactful addition to the 19-20 Capitals.
By the Numbers
| 10 | games played |
| 20.0 | time on ice per game |
| 0 | goals |
| 0 | assists |
| 51.9 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 54.9 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 44.0 | 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 lots of information for the player over 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
We only got to see ten regular-season games of Brenden Dillon in a Caps uniform, so I’m reluctant to draw any hard conclusions. He played most of his minutes with John Carlson, and he seemed to be a modest improvement for Carlson (underwater in goals, but in the black on shot attempts, and fairly dominant in expected goals).
As shown above in the visualization from hockeyviz, Dillon has a reputation for a having a game-slowing impact, so I suppose the intention was for him to mitigate the defensive liabilities of his partner as well as some forwards without disrupting the offense, in which Dillon tends not to get directly involved. Dillon attempted a lower rate of shots than any Caps defender except Lewington.
Dillon’s postseason was pretty crummy, but he’s not exceptional among Caps in that point. What did stick out was his penalties. Dillon took three minor penalties in five games, about the same torrid pace as he committed penalties during the regular season — a rate higher than Tom Wilson’s. That obviously cannot continue or else it would be a fiasco, but it is a curious point. What is Dillon doing differently in a Caps uniform that caused his penalty rate to double from where it was in San Jose? I have some suspicions, but I’m gonna need a lot more time before I’m confident. Dillon’s an unrestricted free agent, so I don’t know if we’ll get that or not.
Dilly on RMNB
- Dillon donated 10,000 masks to healthcare workers in our region.
- Brian MacLellan seems to want to extend Dillon, but we shall see. Dillon seems to be into it too.
- Dillon was a superstar on Tik Tok.
- Then Dillon immediately retired from Tik Tok because his teammates bullied him. The NHL is no fun.
- Pre-game rituals upped a notch when Dilly showed up.
Your Turn
Let’s keep it straightforward: will he be back or not? Do you want him back or not? If he comes back, what do you want to see him do differently? What’s his new deal look like to you?
Read more: Japers Rink
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