Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Reviewing the season of Troy Brouwer, the hero of the Winter Classic and one the only people in the NHL who inspires people to dress in spandex
The Washington Capitals had a successful season in 2014-2015. Here at Stars and Sticks, we’ll analyze each of the Washington Capitals and their season. Yesterday, we threw our buddy Jay Beagle a bone as he had a surprisingly efficient season. Today, we look at the Washington Capitals’ second-line right wing, Troy Brouwer.
The Good: Troy Brouwer once again posted decent boxcar stats for the Washington Capitals, matching his 2013-2014 total of 43 points, the fourth most productive forward in that regard on the team behind Marcus Johansson, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. His 21 goals were second best on the team behind Ovechkin. Although this time around, him scoring over 20 goals didn’t get us the reward of seeing a Washington Capitals blogger dress in spandex. He scored one of the biggest goals in Washington Capitals history with his game-winner in the Winter Classic in the dying seconds of regulation. He did that in front of his dad who rarely gets to see him play, so that’s pretty cool.
He’s a big dude and can play a pretty nasty game. We watched him take out Calvin De Haan in the Isles’ series with a clean but ruthless hit, and he laid the lumber on a few Rangers in the second round too. Troy Brouwer finished fifth among all Washington Capitals forwards in assists per 60 minutes at even strength (0.94) and points per 60 minutes at even strength (1.57). He also had the fifth lowest score-adjusted CorsiAgainst per 60 minutes at even strength (49.29). Troy Brouwer wasn’t that great at creating shot attempts, but he was at least good at suppressing them, which has value.
Troy Brouwer is really good at killing penalties. Perhaps it’s because he’s so good at completely missing the net and it’s completely acceptable to do that while killing penalties?
Other good things? My girlfriend seems to think he’s pretty cute. Anytime I criticize him she rushes to his defense. It’s like the guy is immune from criticism. Maybe that’s why he’s gotten some of the most luxurious deployments on the Washington Capitals, occupying the slot area on a historically awesome power play and having his name etched in stone as a top-six forward until the playoffs.
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The Bad: Troy Brouwer is one of those forwards that people who don’t buy into analytics might see as a legitimate top-six forward on a Stanley Cup contender. The underlying stats, however, tell us that for that to be true, he’d need to be surrounded by top-flight talent as he was in Chicago. That isn’t the case with the Washington Capitals.
Troy Brouwer’s most frequent linemates, Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov, fared better without him. Ditto his two most frequent partners on defense, Karl Alzner and Matt Niskanen. While he had a CF% of 50.83% during the regular season, the team was 51.53% without Troy Brouwer on the ice. That’s certainly not ideal from a top six forward. One has to wonder how much better Kuznetsov and Johansson could have been had they not been line mates with Brouwer.
Most damning, perhaps, was his playoff performance. Over 14 games, he didn’t score once and only came up with three assists. That’s three goals in 35 playoff games for Troy Brouwer in a Caps’ uniform. If that’s good enough for a top-six forward, maybe the standards need to change. For a $3.75 million cap hit, he’s not the worst deal on the Caps’ roster but he’s also not a bargain.
Troy Brouwer got scoring chances, but he failed to convert on many of them. I found myself yelling at my TV because of him perhaps more often than because of any other player.
Future Outlook: Because his boxcar numbers are decent and his salary is affordable, Washington Capitals’ GM Brian MacLellan would be smart to look for a trading partner for Brouwer. While Brouwer is a serviceable bottom-six forward, he’s miscast here as a top-six guy. MacLellan has made it a priority to upgrade top-six forward group and the cap situation in D.C. is such that MacLellan has little flexibility to add someone without shipping someone on the roster out, even if Joel Ward and Mike Green don’t re-sign.
I would be fine with Brouwer in a checking line role. I actually think that he would thrive in such a role. He’s at worst above average at shot suppression and he is very good at winning face-offs. However, paying a checking line wing $3,750,000 is probably not what is best for the Washington Capitals right now. Tom Wilson or Riley Barber could easily fill that third line role for much cheaper. Heck, Joel Ward could probably be re-signed for cheaper than $3,750,000 a season.
Grading on a Curve: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rank Troy Brouwer’s 2014-2015 season with the Washington Capitals relative to what you’ve come to expect from him? One represents falling very short of them, five represents barely meeting them, ten represents far exceeding them.
Tomorrow, we continue with Andre Burakovsky.
Next: Washington Capitals Team Awards