Daniel Sprong is one of Washington’s good, young, restricted-free-agent forwards. Wait a second, he’s Washington’s only RFA forward.
By the Numbers
| 42 | games played |
| 11.7 | time on ice per game |
| 13 | goals |
| 7 | assists |
| 51.0 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 50.4 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 59.2 | 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
Fan Happiness Survey
About this visualization: At three times during the season (end of January, end of March, and end of May), RMNB shared an open survey with fans, asking the following question for each player:
On a scale from 1 to 5, how HAPPY are you to have this player on the team?
1 means VERY UNHAPPY TO HAVE THEM ON THE TEAM
2 means UNHAPPY
3 means NEITHER HAPPY NOR UNHAPPY
4 means HAPPY
5 means VERY HAPPY TO HAVE THEM ON THE TEAM
The numbers above show the average score for the player in each survey period.
Peter’s Take
The average age of the players we’ve reviewed so far is 30, so Daniel Sprong is an odd duck at 24. He’s one of those riotous young’ns who suggests that the future might not be an endless narrowing black tunnel leading inexorably towards the universe’s quivering stoma.
Anyway: goals. Sprong scored 14 goals, which is blah until you consider that he played 42 games and under 12 minutes a night. His goals per hour was highest on the team, besting Alex Ovechkin.
A big chunk of Sprong’s output came in short bursts when he played up in the lineup, filling in for various mayfly-ass Caps top sixers. Those spurts were big minutes with star players, during which Sprong shot like a demon — 17.6 percent on the season, a career high by a lot. Compare that to his 11.9 percent shooting with the Ducks over the prior two seasons and I think we should urge caution in setting expectations too high for the guy. I doubt he will beat Ovechkin in goals per hour again next year, but I think he’s worth finding ice time for.
Sprong isn’t a big puck carrier, and as such he doesn’t draw penalties. I’m skeptical that he has any meaningful impact on driving puck possession either, but hey — he gets looks, and he scores with them. So get him some ice, get him some looks, and let’s find out.
Sprong on RMNB
- From early in January, Peter Laviolette was using Sprong as a sorta swiss army knife whenever he wanted or needed a new look in the lineup, especially in the top six.
- But when Ovechkin was nursing an injury, Sprong really stepped up. He scored three goals in two games.
- Then in March he had three goals in four games.
- But when the playoffs happened, Laviolette leaned on Daniel Carr more than Sprong. I don’t understand why.
- Finally, Brian MacLellan’s looking to get Sprong more ice time next season.
- Wait, no, that’s not the finally. This is the finally:
— RMNB (@russianmachine) January 27, 2021
Your Turn
So if GMBM wants more time from Sprong, where does that time come from?
Read more: Japers Rink
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