On the same day that TJ Oshie reached his incredible 1,000-game milestone, Ivan Miroshnichenko also hit a pretty important, personal games-played mark. The Capitals’ 2022 first-round draft selection got into his 10th NHL contest this season, effectively burning the first year of the three-year, entry-level contract he signed with the team last May.
The final call to have Miroshnichenko play that deciding game in Vancouver comes as a bit of a surprise as the Capitals could have chosen to maximize the value of his first deal and have the first year slide onto the 2024-25 books. But, the young Russian winger made the decision easy for team brass with his great play in his second stint with the big club this season.
“He’s playing great and that’s why he’s here now for that 10th game that we all know about, right? He’s earned it,” head coach Spencer Carbery said postgame. “This isn’t a courtesy, ‘Hey, young player, first-round pick, 20 years old, here just get your feet wet in the National Hockey League.’ He is earning his ice time and opportunity with the way that he’s playing.”
On average during his most recent six-game run with the Capitals, Miroshnichenko is playing 12:47 of ice time per game. Back in December, he was only being given an average of 10:22 per game and skated under 10 minutes in two of his four games.
The 20-year-old winger is rewarding the coaching staff for their increased faith in him with some of the best five-on-five process stats on the team. In the last six games, the Capitals are seeing 54 percent of the shot attempts, 59.1 percent of the expected goals, 56.7 percent of the scoring chances, and 51.3 percent of the high-danger chances with Miro over the boards.
Among all Capitals players at five-on-five during the same period of games, no one has more individual expected goals (2.1), shot attempts (27), individual scoring chances (18), or individual high-danger chances (7) than Miroshnichenko. Additionally, only Beck Malenstyn (20) has thrown more hits than Miro (16).
After going without a point in his prior four-game NHL spell, Miroshnichenko has three points (2g, 1a) in this six-game stretch. He recorded his first NHL assist in Saturday night’s win over the Canucks, feeding linemate Tom Wilson with a beautiful, no-look pass.
“It’s been fun to play with him,” Wilson said. “He’s got a ton of potential. Made an amazing play. You can tell he’s a smart player. As he gets more comfortable, he’s making really good plays and good reads. I kinda showed him something on the iPad in Seattle and he made sure he passed it to the backdoor tonight so we were having some fun out there. He’s definitely coming out of his shell a little bit.”
Miroshnichenko’s coachable nature, as evidenced by Wilson’s successful iPad session, is one of the main reasons why he’s sticking around the Capitals despite prior plans to send him back to the AHL before the end of the regular season. As he gets into more of a routine at the top level, his confidence level is growing and so is apparently his grasp of the English language.
“It’s incredible to watch young players grow,” Carbery said. “Miro, in English, is yelling things to players on the ice. As a coach, you’re just smiling because you can feel the investment and how bad they want to win and how they want to do the right things to win.”
Miroshnichenko’s English journey has coincided with his growth this season. During the preseason, he needed Alex Ovechkin to translate parts of questions asked to him by the media. In his most recent media availability after scoring his first NHL goal, he needed no help with the questions and only had Aliaksei Protas translate his answers.
He also gave a brief speech to his teammates completely in English when they prodded him to cap off the locker room celebrations in Pittsburgh.
Pretty to watch all around#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/XfJRcVmCbU
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 8, 2024
“Thank you guys,” he said. “It’s an amazing night for me, for my family. Keep going!”
