Carl Hagelin’s professional career — and his life — changed at practice on March 1.

By the Numbers

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, 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.

Exit Interview

Peter’s Take

At practice on March 1, Carl Hagelin got hit in the eye with a stick. That injury ended his season and will permanently hinder his vision for the rest of his life.

Stopped abruptly after 53 games, Hagelin’s season up until that point was exactly what we expected from the Swedish forward: low-scoring, dependable play in the team’s bottom six. Except, for a player who earned $2.5 million, “just getting by” is probably below expectation, and there’s evidence that Hagelin, 33, had been trending in a worsening direction. His individual shooting rates have been on a steady decline (and one not atypical of the aging curve), dropping by about one shot attempt per hour each season he’s been in Washington.

Using Evolving Hockey’s goals-above-replacement metric, Hagelin was the weakest Caps forward this season, offering below-replacement contributions in every aspect of his game except the penalty kill. And though the pairing of Dowd and Hathaway struggled for a bit without Hagelin, they seemed to capture their chemistry again when Johan Larsson joined the squad.

This is all a very long and very indirect way of saying that Carl Hagelin’s time as an active player with Washington is almost certainly at an end. He’s got one more year on his deal, and I suspect he’ll collect that salary on long-term injured reserve. Vision aside, an agility-based player like Hagelin has always had a limited lifespan, and I think we all know where on that lifespan we’re at right now.

According to Orson Welles

Hags on RMNB

• Twenty-six games into the season, Hagelin got his first goal.
• Hagelin is opening a padel center in Nykvarn. Come learn about what padel is with us.
• Hagelin had some kind of nasty non-COVID illness and possibly an injury for which he took maintenance days around Christmas. Then he went on COVID protocol. So rough midseason. (It gets worse.)
• On January 8, Hagelin scored the greatest goal of his career – a 152-footer during a delayed penalty. It was against his own team.
• On March 1, Hagelin got struck in the eye at practice. MacLellan said the injury was serious. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was called up as a temporary replacement. Hagelin needed at least one surgery. Peter Laviolette said a return to hockey was secondary to Hagelin’s health and quality of life. He himself said he will never get one-hundred percent of his vision back.
• But Hagelin was able to attend some team events, including the team photo.
• In May he skated with the strength-and-conditioning coach, but he was still “not close to returning.“

Your Turn

Have you ever had a serious eye injury? I did, and it’s the most pain I’ve ever been in. Also, do you think Hagelin will play next year?

Read more: Japers Rink