Washington Capitals Grades: Justin Schultz 2021 Report Card

We have now reached the report card part of our offseason where we take a look at each individual player performance over the 2021 season. We’ll go by order of jersey number for each Washington Capitals player. First up is Justin Schultz.

The Caps added Justin Schultz to their defense over the offseason signing the former Pittsburgh Penguins blueliner to a two year deal worth four million, an average annual value of two million dollars per season.

Schultz struggled in 2019-20 in his final season with the Penguins where his partner was Jack Johnson. This past season he was mainly on the second pair with Dmitry Orlov.

Schultz had offensive upside and an okay defensive mindset. I belive the pairing with Orlov helped make Orlov better. Offensively he had three goals and 24 assists for 27 points in 46 games.

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The possession metrics can tell a better story. At the beginning of the season his Corsi For percentage started out strong but after his return from injury became inconsistent. His season averaged finished up at a Corsi For percentage of 49.14 percent.

In the playoffs, Schultz’s Corsi For percentage dropped to 44.09 percent. During the regular season, Orlov and Schultz had a combined 49.14 Corsi For percentage. When they weren’t paired the Corsi For percentage dropped by a single decimal point.

In the playoffs their Corsi For percentage increased to 51.61 percent. It dropped to 42.58 when Schultz was without Orlov.

Overall Schultz had his good moments and his bad moments. His most notable good moment came in a game on Jan. 26 against the New York Islanders. In that home contest, Schultz scored the game winning goal with 27 seconds left to give the Caps a 3-2 win over their MassMutual East and Metropolitan Division rivals.

Schultz’s lowest moment came in double overtime in Game 3 against the Boston Bruins. In a miscommunication between him and Ilya Samsonov, Samsonov left the crease and a misplay between them led to the game winning goal to put the Caps in a 2-1 series hole.

Grade B-: Overall, Schultz had a good first season in Washington. His offensive game was stellar as he not only provided a punch but helped on the power play. He needs to work on his defensive game for a better grade next season.