Anthony Beauvillier came out of nowhere (Pittsburgh) to shine, briefly, on Washington’s top line.
By the Numbers
2
Goals
3
Assists
18
Games played
12
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
53%
Shot attempts
52%
Expected goals
60%
Actual goals
Isolated Impact by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This image by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows how the player has impacted play. At the top of the image is the team’s offense (even strength at left, power play at right) and at bottom is the team’s defense (with penalty kill at bottom right). In each case, red/orange blobs mean teams shoot for more from that location on the ice, and blue/purple means less. In general, a good player should have red/orange blobs near the opponent’s net at top, and blue/purple blobs near their own team’s net at bottom. The distributions in middle show how the player compares to league average at individual finishing, setting up teammates to score, and taking and drawing penalties. The number at center is Synthetic Goals: a catch-all number for the player’s impact.
Player Card by All Three Zones
About this player card: This image from Corey Sznajder of All Three Zones shows how the player compares to league averages in different microstats in the defensive, neutral, and offensive zones. Blue bars mean the player has a higher rate in that statistic compared to league average, and orange means a lower rate. The numbers are Z-scores, also known as standard deviations, indicating how far the number is from league average, where more than two standard deviations means the player is on the extreme edge of the league.
Player Card by Evolving Hockey
About this player card: This card from Josh and Luke of Evolving Hockey compares the player to league averages based on their impact on on-ice statistics. GAR means “goals above replacement,” where “replacement” means an average player called up from the AHL. xGAR is the same figure but assuming league-average goaltending. The numbers at top are the player’s percentile ranks overall and then for offense and defense alone.
Player Overview by NHL Edge
About this visualization: The NHL’s advanced statistics program, Edge, tracks player and puck movement. At left are the player’s numbers in various statistics along with the average number for that same stat among players of the same position and the player’s percentile rank in it. At right is a radar chart for various statistics, where the bigger the shape the better the player performs in those measures.
Fan Happiness Survey
About this visualization: At three times during the season, RMNB conducted an open survey with readers, 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?” The numbers above show the average score for the player in each survey period.
Slavoj Žižek on Beauvillier
The very idea of a trade-deadline upgrade is a perversion – in the Marxist mold. You think you are in control, but it controls you – you must upgrade your Beauvillier each year, an endless cycle, ending only in civilizational collapse
Peter’s Take
After an ambitious offseason last summer, the Washington Capitals were uncharacteristically conservative at the trade deadline. Bringing in Beauvillier from the Penguins was the deal of the day, and what you think about it depends on when you stopped measuring.
Five points in 18 games is fine for a UFA rental on a $1.3 deal, playing bottom-six minutes, mostly with Dowd and Duhaime. The Caps got good offense rates in those shifts, but that’s not what anyone will remember from Beauvillier’s 2024-25 season.
To my mild surprise, Beauvillier started the playoffs on a line with Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin. It worked great. He recorded a goal and an assist in Game 1, and added three more assists before the Caps advanced.
Spencer Carbery switched up that top line during Game 1 of the second round, and Beauvillier’s play got a lot less scoreboard-y. He picked up one point that series – a goal in the elimination game – and had a minus-three on-ice goal differential.
Beauvillier has expressed an interest to remaining in Washington. He’s unrestricted at age 27, and I’d bet his cap hit will double this summer. It feels like that’s just enough to price him out of DC, where he could become a blocker for up-and-coming forwards that the organization needs to take their next steps. That’s a shame; Beauvillier is a fun, fast, shoot-first (4th among Caps in individual shot-attempt rate) forward. He’d be an asset, if the math worked.
Bovy on RMNB
- In March, the Capitals got Beauvillier in a trade with the Penguins for a second-round pick
- “I’m excited to play,” Beauvillier said. “And obviously that’s a building that’s tough to come in as a visiting team. I’m super happy to be on the good side of it now.”
- Skating on the fourth line, Beauvillier made his debut against Seattle days later.
- “[His speed is] noticeable,” Carbery said. “The pace he plays with – I’ve been really impressed. And not just with his speed, he’s tenacious on the puck. He’s not shy to go to hard areas and go into corners, net-front, all that. And that’s helped. He’s been a very, very significant addition to our group, I would say. That’s what I’ve seen so far.”
- Beauvillier played on the top line against Montreal in the first period, and he was tremendous.
Your Turn
Do you want to see Beauvillier back? If so, what’s the number, and what’s the role?
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