Andrew Mangiapane played a solid bottom-six role on a middle-six contract for a team without room in their top six.
By the Numbers
14
Goals
14
Assists
81
Games played
13
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
53%
Shot attempts
54%
Expected goals
51%
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 when on the ice. 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 Mangiapane
Breadmouth, like an off-brand Breadman, is bourgeoisie jealousy manifest. Everything is coveted, even stupid nicknames.
Peter’s Take
It’s a sign of intellectual maturity when you’re able to keep two thoughts in your head at the same time. I cannot. I see Andrew Mangiapane on the ice, and my thought is, “Oh, that’s a sturdy defensive, bottom-six forward who isn’t afraid to go the dangerous areas on attack.” And then I see Andrew Mangiapane on a spreadsheet, and my thought is “$5.8 million?! Gah!”
These thoughts are not compatible, and everyone knows it. I think Mangiapane knows it too. He went from playing around 16 minutes a night in his last few seasons with Calgary to barely 13 minutes in DC. He went from playing with Blake Coleman to Lars Eller. No wonder his points dropped off.
We do an appropriate amount of hooting and hollering about Washington’s super-successful 2024 offseason. Those were winning moves. In theory, Mangiapane should have been counted among them, but the fit just wasn’t there. He played top-six minutes in maybe five games all season, the same number of games in which he saw under 10 minutes of ice time.
And for the record, he was very good in those minutes. Only three Caps saw opponents get a lower rate of high-danger chances — Dowd, Duhaime, and Eller — all common Mangiapane linemates. But he didn’t play on the PK, and he didn’t play on the PP, and with so many other forwards making big leaps (e.g. PLD, McMichael, Protas), the top six had no empty slots. So it just didn’t work. I don’t think that’s a criticism of the player. I think he deserves and is going to get a good deal with summer, maybe even back with Calgary, and he’s going to do great on it.
Mouth-bread on RMNB
- Mangiapane was one of the seven major moves Brian MacLellan made to transform the Washington Capitals last summer.
- Mangiapane was close with Johnny Gaudreau, who was killed by a drunk driver last summer.
- RMNB Investigates: Heinz 57 and Mangiapane’s first goal as a Cap.
- With Ovechkin out, Spencer Carbery opted to use him on the first line for a while. A little while.
- In December, he got the flu. Didn’t we all. He missed one game.
- He pummeled Brandon Carlo. Love this.
- I thought he was crucial to the third line being not bad when the third line was not bad.
- Mangiapane was huge in a big win over the Panthers. Carbery said it was “arguably the best game he’s had as a Capital’.
- Stealth prankster on a team filled to bursting with pranksters.
- I just need to say this: I didn’t understand the Caps’ game-winning puck thing for the playoffs. The row of three and then the row of one. I don’t like it. Can’t blame Mangiapane for being confused.
- He took a puck to the mouth in round two.
Your Turn
Did I get this wrong? Was the problem with Mangiapane just a mismatch of contract and roster slots, or was there something worse going on?
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