Washington Capitals Grades: Carl Hagelin 2021 Report Card
By CJ Witt
Having an effective fourth line can be an incredible advantage. On more nights than not the Washington Capitals have that advantage. For the past two seasons the Capitals have rolled out a fourth line of Carl Hagelin, Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway. That line brings energy and physicality nearly every night.
It’s a line that is arguably led by Hathaway with his good skating and physicality. He led the team in hits by a large margin this past season having 177 hits. The next highest total was Brenden Dillon at 124. The rest of the line seems to follow in his aggressiveness, using that to pressure opponents and spend more time in the offensive zone.
It’s also a line that generates plenty of offense. This past season that line scored 20 goals while 5v5. It’s not a fluke either. When on the ice this line has the majority of chances. Their scoring chance for percentage was 54.44% and their high danger attempts percentage was 56.67%.
Hagelin definitely plays a large part on one of the best fourth lines the NHL has to offer.
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On top of being on possibly the most consistent line on the Capitals, Hagelin is also a crucial part of the Capitals penalty kill. This past season he played 146:21 of penalty kill time, that was second on the team behind only Zdeno Chara at 148:43. The next highest forwards ice time was 132:31 which was Nic Dowd.
The Capitals had the fifth best penalty kill this season at 84%.
While not the best scorer he puts up some pretty good numbers for playing on a fourth line. Last season in 58 games he scored 8 goals and 25 points. This year his production was down, he scored 6 goals and just 16 points. In fact, on the pace he was on he would have scored just 23 points in 82 games, two points shy of last seasons total in 24 more games.
This fourth line has plenty of offense. If you can get nearly ten goals from every member of the line this line on top of the way they play they have done a tremendous job.
Here is how Hagelin did in the advanced stats departments.
Corsi % – 49.19%
Scoring Chance For % – 53.45%
High Danger Attempts For % – 56.46%
Expected Goals For % – 52.53%
While on the ice 5v5 Hagelin was on the ice for 518 shot attempts for and 535 against. That’s pretty close to 50% so not too big of a deal being under 50% there. All of the other numbers were easily over 50% which is nice to see from your bottom three. Hagelin was also on the ice for 25 goals for and 22 goals against.
For the playoffs there was a member of the fourth line that was doing well. Unfortunately for Hagelin it wasn’t him, it was Nic Dowd. Dowd scored 2 goals in five games vs the Bruins. Hagelin on the other hand had just one point which was an assist. His underlying numbers weren’t anything to write home about either. They looked like this.
Corsi % – 47.86%
Scoring Chance For % – 48.15%
High Danger Attempts % – 42.86%
Expected Goals For % – 37.79%
All of those numbers are obviously below 50% and the high danger number is particularly ugly, leading to and even uglier xGF% number. However, like I’ve been saying for every player, nobody played well in the playoffs for the most part, so to single out Hagelin would be pretty dumb.
light. More. 2021 NHL Draft: Complete First Round Draft Order
Grade B: Hagelin is just a solid player for this team. If you ask me, he didn’t do anything to earn a better or great grade like a B+ or higher would demand, but he also didn’t do anything that would warrant a low grade. Like everyone on the fourth line, he had a good season, that deserves a good grade like a B.