Trevor van Riemdsyk is a good depth defender. But is he also bait for the expansion draft?
By the Numbers
| 20 | games played |
| 17.1 | time on ice per game |
| 1 | goals |
| 2 | assists |
| 52.3 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 56.0 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 47.4 | 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
We didn’t see a ton of Trevor van Riemsdyk this season. He played exclusively when other D were hurt. Even when the Caps were playing against his brother’s team and the bottom-pairing was uncertain, TVR didn’t get many looks. All of which might suggest that he’s not very good.
Except he is. He is very good!
Remember that graph of Caps D pairs from the Schultz review? Here it is again (with the axes correctly labeled), but with TVR’s pairs in red.
Don’t worry about the Orlov-TVR pair — they were trash, but they played just 21 minutes together.
Neither HockeyViz nor Evolving Hockey think much of van Riemsdyk’s acumen for offense, and that’s fine. Washington has a lot of weapons for offense, but they’re a bit more skint when it comes to reliable two-way players. Heck, even if all TVR did were stabilize Brenden Dillon’s play, he’d be worth it. Here’s a WOWY visualization from HockeyViz that shows how well they played together, with my annotation in pink.
I admit there’s a lot of eye-test here. I found TVR’s play to be reliable compared some of the other more flighty Caps D. I really liked how he and Dillon paired up over their 200-plus minutes: not lighting the world on fire, but solidly out-chancing opponents.
Let’s see if we get any more of that. TVR’s two-year extension in March at a million bucks per could make him an appetizing snack for the Kraken. We’ll see.
TVR on RMNB
- Van Riemsdyk was a surprise signing in October: a one-year deal for $800k.
- Despite little ice time, the Caps felt good enough about van Riemsdyk to extend him for two more years in March.
- On signing with the Caps: “Excited to not have to step in front of one of [Ovechkin]’s one-timers this year.”
- Late in the season, Ian rightly noted how good the Dillon-TVR pairing was.
Your Turn
so….
…right?
Read more: Japers Rink
