Ethen Frank is fast, but the Caps will need more than speed in his next two seasons.
By the Numbers
12
Goals
12
Assists
62
Games played
12
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
47%
Shot attempts
51%
Expected goals
58%
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 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. The player’s shot speed, skating speed, and skating distance are at top along with percentile rank. At bottom left is a shot location map, and at bottom right is zone time per zone.
Gratuitous Generative Art by Peter
Peter’s Take
Ethen “Big Game” Frank showed up in a big way a few times last season. Half of his total goal output came in three two-goal games – including a 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit in which he was Washington’s only scorer. Another January win over Montreal was two-thirds his doing.
He’s a prolific shooter – ranked behind only Beauvillier, Protas (A), and Ovechkin in individual expected goal rate. He’s tenacious and aggressive up close. If anything he was unlucky in his production despite a 13.2 shooting percentage.
The trouble is the other end of the ice, where Frank played way too often. A lot of that was the result of deployments: his most common on-ice partners were on that famously conservative fourth line. Frank’s alacrity wasn’t well matched to the dig-it-out duties of Dowd and Duhaime. But it also isn’t clear he’ll be successful in other usages. The Caps scored 25 goals to opponents’ 15 when Frank is on the ice without Duhaime, but the process behind that goal differential is mixed. The Caps got outshot, but they had better high-danger chances.
And that’s what we need to see from Frank under his new two-year contract. He needs to keep crashing the net, but he also needs to improve his puck retrievals and his play on the rush, an area where the Caps really faltered in the back half. Frank could be part of the solution there, but it’s a lot to ask.
Frenk on RMNB
- Frank dueled for a spot on the opening roster but didn’t make the final cut.
- Thus he toiled for nearly two weeks before he got recalled from the Hershey Bears.
- Then he sorta swapped places with PLD and came back when Strome got hurt.
- At the end of October, Frank got hurt crashing into Mikko Rantanen and missed about 10 days.
- He had a career-best night in the Capitals’ 8-4 win over Montreal.
- Not long after was his two-goal game against Detroit. “Part of my job now is to do that a little more consistently.”
- Logan Thompson on Frank: “You can see him getting more comfortable in this league. You hear about how fast he was in the American League and how dominant he was. Some players just need time, and I think he’s really come into to his own. It’s really impressive.”
- We will not be discussed the Ovechkin-Dowd-Frank line.
- At the start of March, Frank signed a two-year, $4 million contract extension. He called it “emotional” and “really exciting.”
- Frank came back from that injury and then got healthy-scratched so David Kampf could play. Ha. P.S. – There will be no David Kampf review.
Your Turn
What skills development would you need to see for Frank to become an every-night player?
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