Ryan Leonard made a big impression in his first full season, but he’s still got work to do.
By the Numbers
20
Goals
25
Assists
75
Games played
14
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
46%
Shot attempts
45%
Expected goals
61%
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
Ryan Leonard is fun, and fun is an important quality. He’s fast as hell, he was a twenty-goal scorer in his rookie season, and he drives other skaters nuts.
Only four players drew more penalties than Ryan Leonard last season: Mark Kastelic, Mikko Rantanen, Matthew Schaefer, and Connor McDavid. Decent company.
I love everything about that (except for what Washington did with all those power plays). What Leonard is missing is a demonstrable ability to drive play in the right direction. Only Brandon Duhaime had a lower on-ice shot-attempt percentage among full-time forwards; only Anthony Beauvillier saw opponents get a higher rate of expected goals. Can’t pin it on them. Neither of those players were common linemates for Leonard.
A player who can draw penalties and score goals can have a lot of success even if they can’t get the puck back and up the ice, but they need proper support to do so. It worked with him and Connor McMichael (386 minutes together) in 2025-26, but I’m not convinced it will again in 2026-27. But more on that when we get to the M part of the alphabet on Thursday. In the meantime, Leonard is a blast, and I’m psyched to see what’s next for him.
Leno on RMNB
Ryan Leonard recalls his ‘Welcome to the NHL’ moment: ‘Holy sh*t, that’s Alex Ovechkin’
- On Ovi: “He’s always talking to me on the bench. He’s a great, great captain.”
- The Naval Academy obstacle course kicked his ass.
- This is probably why he got evicted from the Dubois home.
- Dubois said Leonard’s cooking was poor.
- EVICTED BY PLD.
- Carbery wants Leonard to stop measuring his game by goals and assists: ‘He wants to produce like Macklin Celebrini’. Carbery had a lot of wise thoughts on Leonard.
- Bedardian toe drag.
- Tony DeAngelo challenged him to a fight.
- Lindgren on Leno: “He’s only going to get better.”
- Jacob Trouba got away with this unsuspecting, blindside headshot.
- That hit was tres controversial. Tom Wilson chimed in. So did Carbery.
- His left arm was in a sling. It was a shoulder injury.
- ‘Untouchable’ in any potential trade.
- Back just before Christmas. Pulling off sick moves immediately.
- Carbery said the team was not interested in payback against Jacob Trouba.
- Brandon Duhaime got payback against Jacob Trouba.
- On the payback: “It went without saying that you knew my teammate was going to step up for me.”
- He got suckerpunched by Sebastian Aho.
- The Rangers wanted to get him; the Caps refused.
- Duo-ing with Cole Hutson in Fortnite.
- He replaced Dylan Strome as the Easter Bunny at the Stromes’ annual Easter egg hunt.
- The eighth Capitals rookie eer to score 20 goals in a season. That earned him a $250k performance bonus.
- Leonard and Cole Hutson will be roommates next season.
Your Turn
More or less than 20 goals in his sophomore season?
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