How have Carl Hagelin and Nick Jensen impacted the Washington Capitals?

Since the trade deadline on Feb. 25, the Washington Capitals have been one of the strongest teams in the National Hockey League. With the team’s record of 12-4-1, and underlying numbers that support a resurgence, the Capitals have flipped the switch to playoff mode once again.

And a big part of the resurgence over the last month-plus has been the newest additions to the Washington Capitals. Just before the deadline, the Capitals acquired forward Carl Hagelin from the L.A. Kings and defenseman Nick Jensen from the Detroit Red Wings. At the time, the moves went seemingly unnoticed and with good reason: Hagelin had just one goal and four assists in LA and Jensen was an under-appreciated defender for one of the NHL’s worst teams. But their impacts have been undeniable thus far, both helping shore up weaknesses and add depth. The most notable one to have an impact has been Hagelin, as his play has noticeably improved the Capitals.

And after a few games on the fourth line, his rise to the third has given the Caps an outstanding and dominant trio. In just 18 games, Hagelin has three goals and seven assists for the Capitals. There’s not particularly reason to believe his scoring will cool off, either. He’s shooting 10.3 percent, a total pretty much in line with the rest of the team, which is shooting 11.2 percent.

His outburst has been surprising as it’s been sudden, as Hagelin scored just one goal in both Pittsburgh and LA this season and only had eight total points in the 38 games between both teams. He’s already surpassed both of those totals in Washington. He was renowned for his penalty killing, which has aided a unit that was struggling mightily and turned it into one that can score short-handed at any moment’s notice with Hagelin’s speed.

More from Capitals News

• Breaking down the Rookie Camp roster
• Hear what Magic Johnson said about Alex Ovechkin
• Capitals announce Rookie Camp schedule
• Breaking down the 2023-24 Capitals national TV schedule
• Capitals Alumni Weekend is coming back

Looking at the advanced numbers, he’s been even more dominant. In just over 101 minutes of ice time together, the trio of Hagelin, Lars Eller and Brett Connolly has Corsi For percentage (referenced as CF) of 60.54. They own 63.39 percent of the scoring chances when on the ice, 60 percent of the High-Danger chances and have outscored their opponents 8-3 in that time frame. After a brief stint with Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie on the second line, Hagelin returned to his spot on the third line. Hagelin’s trade, while small, has had one the largest impacts of any acquisition in the Eastern Conference.

Jensen’s impact, while good, has been tougher to see. He has zero goals and two assists in 18 games, so his stats don’t exactly jump off the page. He’s also only on the ice for an average of just over 16 minutes, down over four minutes per game from his time in Detroit this season. Known as a shot suppression monster, Jensen has been mostly paired with Brooks Orpik on the third-pairing in the last few games. And now with Michal Kempny’s hamstring injury which will sideline him for the rest of the season, Jensen’s impact will be that much more important.

Jensen and Orpik have actually been, which might surprise some, above water as a pair, with a CF of 52.51 percent. High-Danger chances aren’t as strong, at 47.76 percent. With Kempny out for a season-ending injury, the bottom-pair has to stay respectable, and there’s reason to believe Jensen has been a big part of that success thus far. Orpik’s CF without Jensen is 46.43, with High-Danger chances at 48.31 percent, meaning there’s evidence that Jensen has been pulling up Orpik and has been a net positive to the Capitals.

As of Wednesday morning, however, Jensen was paired with John Carlson.

While it’s still early, in just 18:48 of ice time the pair owns a CF percentage of 32.56. While that will almost assuredly improve in a hurry, it’s difficult to tell how much, especially with the playoffs coming up. But overall, the two deadline acquisitions have been stellar additions for the Capitals down the stretch. The unforeseen and unfortunate Kempny injury will throw a wrench in the plans of the Capitals blue-liners and will no doubt leave them scrambling a bit to find just the right pairings before the playoffs begin next week.

Still, the added depth of Jensen and Hagelin has immensely solidified the Capitals top nine and added depth to the back-end, which until recently wasn’t known as so dire. Although hindsight of the Capitals playoff run will affect the perception of these two deals, the proof is there that General Manager Brian Maclellan pulled two more shrewd moves at the deadline.

*All statistics are as of April 4, and courtesy of the lovely Natural Stat Trick*