Washington Capitals: 2019 predictions for Brendan Leipsic

Next up on our player previews is Brendan Leipsic, one of the newest fourth liners you’ll see on the Washington Capitals.

The salary cap. It’s caused a lot of good things in the National Hockey League. Notably the parity across the entire league. The NHL unlike other leagues is a very hard league to predict who will win before the season starts. For that reasons it’s a very fun league to follow all season.

Something else the salary cap has caused is roster turnover. A great team will be built, players will excel, put up good numbers and performances and demand the appropriate salary. The salary cap allows you to have only so many great players. Once you pay your core players you have to make hard decisions on other players.

The Capitals know this process very well. Washington has lost plenty of both good and popular players. Notable players lost thanks to this system is Marcus Johansson, Karl Alzner, Brett Connolly and Jay Beagle.

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The league will never stop however. It’s out with the old and in with the new. One of the new guys Capitals fans might get to know this season is Brendan Leipsic. The twenty-five year old has already had a mini tour of the NHL being a part of four organizations before finding his way to D.C. this summer.

It’s by no means a blockbuster signing. Leipsic has not quite found his way in the NHL just yet but with spots open in Washington perhaps this is the year he makes himself an NHL regular.

It’s hard to know what to expect from the Winnipeg, Manitoba native. How much will he play? When he plays how many points can we expect? What kind of a player is he anyways?

Projections about him when he came into the league said he is a skilled player but doesn’t have top six NHL skill. The Hockey News describes Leipsic’s play as “agitating and frustrating” to play against. Also a solid two-way game.

That’s a pretty good recipe for some success on a bottom line on a Cup contending team like the Capitals are. The others questions are, “To Be Determinded” only to be answered when games are being played. Still, maybe we can look at some stats and numbers and take a look at what the Capitals could be getting out of Brendan Leipsic.

Last season Leipsic played sixty-two games in the NHL scoring six goals and 19 points. His sixty-two games played was a new career high for games played in a season, the previous mark was 58 when he split time between Vegas and Vancouver two seasons ago. He also set a career high in goals with his previous best being five in 2017-18.

When you dive into some numbers a little further a few things stand out. Last season with the LA Kings, Leipsic had 10 primary assists (in 45 games with LA) while 5v5. That was fourth on the team behind only Drew Doughty (11), Anze Kopitar (12), and Dustin Brown (13). Even more interesting, all of those guys I mentioned played well over 1,000 minutes. Leipsic on the other hand played about 555 minutes, half the time, even a third of the time as some of them.

10 primary assists is something Jay Beagle has never done and Caps fans know how good he can be on a fourth line. Should we expect Leipsic to be a Beagle? Clearly not, but the potential scoring he could add in a bottom six or bottom three role would be outstanding.

Something else to possibly watch for from Leipsic is drawing penalties. If he is truly frustrating to play against then you wouldn’t really expect much else from him. Last season he drew ten penalties while playing for the Kings. That was tied for fourth on the team. Again he didn’t play all season with the Kings, just 45 games. Being so high in some of the ranking on the team is pretty impressive.

Another surprising thing is how small his hits total was. In the 45 games with LA last year he had just 42 hits. He also had 11 hits in 17 games with Vancouver before heading to southern California. If the agitating and frustrating to play against is true it doesn’t come from being overly physical and sandwiching guys on the boards.

Something of note is Leipsic’s zone starts last season. 58% of his zone starts were in the offensive zone. Apparently he has not yet gained the faith of coaches to start his shifts in the D-zone. Not incredibly important, but it’s nice to have bottom six players who can start in the defensive zone while the top guys take care of the offensive zone.

What would a good season mean for Brendan Leipsic? First off he needs to cement his place on the team. Be an everyday player, likely playing on the fourth line. Bring a two-way game and bring the agitating style that’s been described.

In terms of productions, I think a good season would be 5-8 goals, eight being the high-end while improving on last years career high. Aiming for 20 points would also be huge for the offense with the Capitals losing plenty of that in the summer.

It’s tough to judge what kind of player Leipsic will be. Being just twenty-five years old and continuously getting better is a good sign and it could be a fantastic signing if he is able to stick on the fourth line.