In these Washington Capitals player previews we go by order of jersey number and after just doing Garnet Hathaway it’s only fitting that up next is Nic Dowd. Dowd rounds out a quartet of centers the Caps have and like the other three will have to step up with Nicklas Backstrom hurt. It is unclear if Dowd will keep his spot on the fourth line or move up to the third but he’ll be ready regardless.
Last season saw Dowd center a fourth line that had a lot of success and Dowd even had some career high numbers to boot. He scored a career high 11 goals and four assists for 15 points. He also had a plus/minus of plus four while averaging a career high 14:22 in ice time. Dowd also blocked 40 shots and had 109 hits.
In the playoffs Dowd had two goals including the game winning goal in overtime of Game 1 that was the only Caps win in the first round against the Boston Bruins. Dowd’s advanced stats in the regular season included a Corsi For percentage of 46.79 percent, a Scoring Chances For percentage of 50.68 percent and a High Danger Chances For percentage of 52.09 percent. Not too bad.
The fourth line of Dowd, Hathaway and Carl Hagelin had a combined Corsi For percentage of 49.89 percent, a 52.08 percent Expected Goals For percentage, and a 56.67 High Danger Chances For percentage. That’s pretty darn good and why the fourth line should remain untouched.
It will likely be the case. Hagelin, Dowd, and Hathaway remained on the fourth line at Friday’s training camp practice. That leaves competition on the third line center position between young studs Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre which will make the final four preseason games fun to watch.
Dowd was also a beast on the face off circle, winning 56.3 percent of his draws which is also a career high. That was also good for 15th in the NHL. Per the Peerless Prognosticator, the Caps went 10-2-0 when Dowd won at least 10 of his face offs and 15-2-0 when he won at least 65 percent of his draws.
This is also the last season of Dowd’s contract where he carries a cap hit of $725,000. He will definitely command more salary when he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. For now, enjoy at least one more year of Judy!