Welcome back Tiger!
When I woke up Wednesday morning and checked my phone, I was a bit confused. I thought I was in a time warp when I read that the Washington Capitals had traded for Lars Eller. The steady third line center Lars Eller? The guy who scored the most famous goal in Caps history Lars Eller? What the what? Once I perused the other sites, I saw that it was indeed true. Tiger is back! And I’m elated.
It looks like the Caps are trying to get the band back together from 2017-18, which brought up the obvious question: But why? Center depth was supposed to be one of the Capital’s strengths this year. Hendrix Lapierre was supposed to be the man on the third line. With their other young center Connor McMichael moving to left wing on arguable the Cap’s best line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson, Lapierre had the third line role seemingly locked up. But apparently not. Why the sudden move only 15 games into the season? But this move makes a ton of sense and only bolsters a strength, while also bringing back a DC Hockey hero.
The Caps third line has the wink link in the lineup so far. They haven’t been awful, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Jakub Vrana has shown some life and perhaps is finding his scoring touch again, with five points in 12 games, although his 42.8 CF% isn’t very good. Andrew Mangiapane has fared a bit better, with seven points in 15 games, but has a 48.1 CF%, which is almost seven points under his career number. Those numbers project out to 34 and 41 points, respectively, over a full season, lower than you want from a third line but not that far off, IMO. Which brings us to Hendrix Lapierre.
The Caps hoped Lappy would take the next step in his development after leading Hershey to the Calder Cup last spring. However, Lapierre has only two points in 12 games and a 43.5 CF% at five on five. His face-off winning percentage is a dismal 35.8%. It’s tough for wingers to score when their center is off his game. So, with little center depth in the minors, the Caps made a move. While the other three lines have played very well, the Caps felt the need to address the third line early instead of waiting to let things play out. Bringing in Eller does a few things for Lapierre that should help his development as well as increase the third-line’s production.
Eller is a very good third line center, having scored seven points in 17 games on a not-so-good (yet) Penguins team. He is winning 56% of his faceoffs (which is 20 points better than Lapierre.) Eller is a very good penalty killer and once formed a formidable pairing with Tom Wilson before he was traded to Colorado a year and half ago. He is responsible in his own end and has been through the fire. His experience and leadership will not only help the locker room, but it will help Lapierre learn the ropes. He is an upgrade over Lappy, but I believe there is more to this trade than just numbers.
My brother and I were analyzing the Caps moves in late July and we both agreed that the Caps should trade McMichael and keep Lapierre, who we both thought has more upside. (Shows you what we know. For the record, I no longer think they should trade McMichael.) With McMichael flourishing at left wing on the second line, the team doesn’t want to mess with what’s working. Which means they aren’t as deep at center, so trading for another one makes sense. Eller can take Lapierre under his wing, show him how things are done on the third line, show by example how to win faceoffs, and take some of the pressure off of the kid.
Cap’s bench boss Spencer Carberry said yesterday in his news conference that Lapierre “has a bright future in this league and sometimes it takes a bit longer to develop”into a full time NHLer. The kid obviously has talent and the ability, having pout up 25 points in 51 games last year. His consistency is the issue. Maybe the Caps move Lapierre to the wing for a spell so he can play with Eller and see how a veteran does it. It can only help, and since Eller is a free agent at the end of the season and Lapierre is still under team control, I imagine that Caps are hoping that Lapierre can steady himself, gain back some confidence, and learn from one of the best to ever center the third line in DC.
