Several Washington Capitals suited up this season and we're grading the performances one by one. Next up is Hendrix Lapierre, another young buck.
Lapierre struggled this season to score a goal as he finshed with none in the NHL but had eight assists in 27 games played. He had a plus/minus of -3 and averaged 9:48 minutes of ice time per game.
He spent more time with the Hershey Bears where he had seven goals and 25 assists for 32 points in 32 games. He also had a plus/minus of +8.
Either way it was an underachieving seaosn at the NHL level for Lapierre. He impressed at the end of the previous season. He was pretty much guaranteed third line center going into this past season.
But he didn't find the spark that he had at the end of the 2023-24 season and because of his lack of production he was sent to the Bears. He also struggled defensively.
Lapierre told Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, "I have no idea, honestly (what happened0. I think I was just not playing well... I had a great summer, felt good, worked hard. So it was kind of weird to arrive and have a tough camp."
"When we sent Hendrix down, we had a good, hard talk with him about what the expectations are going down to Hershey and what we're going to be looking for."Chris Patrick
In the Calder Cup Playoffs he added three assists in eight games but the Bears were unable to three peat. After he was sent to Hershey, Lars Eller was manning much of the third line center position. That didn't quite go according to plan.
Grade D: It was a down season for Lapierre but he might get better opportunity this upcoming season.