Hendrix Lapierre ended one of the longest goal droughts ever, but what’s next for him?
By the Numbers
4
Goals
12
Assists
74
Games played
9
Minutes per game
On-ice percentages
54%
Shot attempts
56%
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 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.Â
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
I was skimming my previous reviews for Lapierre to jog my memory, and I was worried I forgot to do one last year. Then I remembered he played just 27 games, so he didn’t make the cut to get a review. That absence speaks volumes.
While the puck generally headed in the right direction while Lapierre was on the ice this season, the player himself has not proven himself a producer at the NHL level. He went 90 games between goals. That’s not sufficient for a part-time fourth liner, let alone a center with top-six aspirations who was once as first-round draft pick.
There’s bad luck. and there’s this.
Lapierre is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. Unless the Caps have a surprise in store for us, I’d expect him to be back – but at a low price. And that’d be fine if he can become a grinder who scores at least every once in a while.
Lapierre on RMNB
- In July the Capitals re-signed Lapierre to one-year, $850k contract.
- He had a three-point night in his preseason debut.
- And someone how got the third-line center spot from Connor McMichael
- On making the team in 2025-26: “I have something to prove — a little more, maybe, than last year.”
- He knocked a tooth out of Brendan Gaunce’s mouth with a high stick.
- Nabbing the longest active goalless streak in the NHL. Congrats!
- On going a full season’s worth of NHL games without scoring a goal: “I feel like right now, I’m overthinking at times.”
- On that goal: “It felt like I scored my first goal all over again.“
- He credited Tom Wilson’s one-year-old son Teddy for getting him out of his slump: “He’s been doing a couple pregame pump-up speeches for me.”
- Consider what it meant that he was getting top-six minutes in March.
- First career fight! vs Noah Laba.
Your Turn
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