The shine came off Brandon Duhaime‘s fourth line in 2025-26.
By the Numbers
4
Goals
5
Assists
82
Games played
11
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
46%
Shot attempts
49%
Expected goals
44%
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
Duhaime is tough. No one is taking that away from him. He played in every game and leveled more hits than everyone except Wilson. But the effectiveness of Washington’s fourth line fell off significantly in 2025-26. With league-extreme (really, historically extreme) deployments, they had in prior seasons kept the Caps at or near even in goals. Duhaime was on ice for 29 WSH goals and 31 opponent goals in 2024-25, which is two in the red but still very good. In 2025-26, that stat fell to 18 for WSH and 23 for opponents, even as the deployments got a little less extreme.
And with Nic Dowd’s contributions falling off even before he left the team, Duhaime couldn’t come close to repeating his surprise scoring in 2024-25. He fell from 21 points to single digits (9).
Duhaime is a utility player, and the Caps could certainly use him if they choose to re-sign him, but he would need help to become effective again.
Dewey on RMNB
- He has a spearfishing YouTube channel. It had some technical difficulties.
- Penny the Bald Eagle scared the hell out of him.
- Carbery is a big fan. “He’s got such an energy, enthusiasm, positivity about him.”
- The werewolf prank. Then the retaliation that followed.
- The ‘dog walk’ went international.
- vs Joel Edmundson, which got him massive respect (and barking)
- This is one of the best highlights of the season:
After disgusting assist, Brandon Duhaime tells Aliaksei Protas to ‘stop that’ in goal hug
- vs. Jacob Trouba, to avenge hit that injured Ryan Leonard.
- Fashion cop Tom Wilson forced Duhaime to wear suits for two weeks after he wore an outfit he didn’t like.
- He got fined for not being like a sportsman.
- Surprise wedding during the Olympic break!
- He got some trade deadline buzz, but ultimately it was linemate Nic Dowd who got dealt.
- vs Brandon Tanev
- He changed his goal song to Lilo & Stitch’s ‘Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride.’ I don’t know this song.
Your Turn
Duhaime is a UFA this summer, earning $1.8M right now. Does he come back?
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