2009-10 Rink Wrap: Boyd Gordon

Borderline 7 if you count playoff heroics. However, he played as expected. 10 next year? I don’t see it happening in this stage of his career but it would end up having him play 3C and rack up 40ish points.

Not sexy, but the kind of player every team needs.

Would still like it if these level guys (gordon, steckel and bradley) were more uncomfortable to play against

Scoring based on expectations. His back kept him from playing so much that his 5 potential 6, drops to a three.

It’s gotta be tough watching Gordo slip into the realm of the spot starter/sky box sitter.

I thinking between 5 and 6. Probably a 5.

His injuries bring his season down considering how many games he missed. But at the same time he picked up in the playoffs more than I expected from him. Since the regular season is meaningless for the Caps at this point, I’ve been giving the playoffs more weight for players, particularly role players such as Gordon and secondary offense.

I guess keeping that in mind he gets a 6 from me.

He was pretty much where I expected him to be. The higher-than-expected production is tempered by the fact that he missed so many games.

I expected him to be a big contributor on the grind lines. His injuries prevented that. So he gets a 3 from me.

That said, Gordo is a player I enjoy watching, and I hope we get to see him here again next year. And mostly, I hope he centers Brooks Laich for at least a few games so we can take our Muffins jokes to the bakery.

I think Gordo fills the same role as Steckel and that Gordo fills it much better and with more offensive talent. So I’d keep him at Steckel’s expense if forced to choose.

For a 10 next year, he’d need 15 goals, 20 assists, 55% at faceoffs, 70+ games played, plus a PK that goes over 80% finally.

Gave a 5, he played fewer games than I expected, but can’t fault him for the injuries. Tough to figure out the future of Gordo and Stecks. They seem kind of complementary, but there’s a big logjam there at bottom forward spots.

as expected, plus those two mighty playoff goals. there was a point midseason when i thought he was through for the year.

5. As expected, and I’m guessing the back is going to be a persistent issue for him. No brainer to QO. Solid production with a 70 game season would be nice for a 7 or more.

7 but it’s a little generous. He was a little more offensively capable than I had expected. I didn’t think he’d dress everyday, but I didn’t think it would be because of injury either. His good playoff series and impressive rate-production are what get him above the 6.

Calling Gordon a solid, dependable guy does him a bit of disservice, even though those are the words that spring to my mind. He’s an elite face-off guy, even if he didn’t take enough to qualify for the face-off leaders category. I never, ever fear when he’s on the ice, because you just know that he’s going to get the job done. It’s not sexy or flashy, nor does he bleed enough to have his very own cult following, but Gordon does what is asked of him and he does it exceptionally well.

The back injury is throwing a wrench into how I’m grading him. But I figure everyone gets a one-time injury pass, and I would much rather see a team take a cautious approach like they did with Gordon this season (seems to have paid off in the playoffs, no?) than rush him and ruin his back. Related to that, on a lighter note, he gets a +1 for giving the Rink “wonkyback.”

So, a 6, I guess. As always, Gordo is a consistent, calming presence on the ice, who (when healthy) lives up to the unsexy but high expectations I have for him. Truth be told, I’d be pretty upset to see him go. I certainly think he’s quietly a very valuable member of the team.

My favorite Gordo moments from this season: the bank-shot empty-netter in Buffalo, taking the shoot-out vs. Boston as a reward for his grinding service to the team, and going shorty vs. Montreal.

The Vote: Rate Gordon below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1

When he was in the lineup, he was great. When he’s healthy, I think he’s a great option for a 4th line winger or center, and he’s a very solid penalty killer. But I expected him to play more games this season, and that earns him a downgrade from me.

Gordon does some good things for his team, and he does things that the Capitals are otherwise lacking, but are they enough to get him in the lineup every night, especially with David Steckel still on the roster? Is Gordon a legitimate fourth liner, or is he more of a 13th forward? What should the Capitals be willing to offer to retain Gordon’s services for the 2010-2011 season?

Is he redundant with Steckel? Nope. He’s a pretty capable winger on the fourth line, and having a fourth-line winger who can win 60% of his draws is pretty damn helpful for your penalty kill. He’s a right-handed shooter, whereas Steckel is a left-handed shooter, and the coaches can throw Gordon out against lefty centers and hope for some more success than Steckel in the dot.

But that back is an issue and is going to continue being an issue. And, until he can put up 82 games a season, the Caps really need to avoid overpaying. And overpaying in this situation would be a million or more a year – i.e. Steckel money.

Boyd Gordon did what I thought he would do, but he didn’t do it enough due to injury. And while it sucks to rate him lower because of that, he did miss significant time due to his injuries. That the trend seems to be fewer games each year is not good at all.

The Caps should offer him his expected qualifying offer (10% over his 2009-10 salary) and Gordon should accept that. No reason to believe he wouldn’t coming off the injuries.

To get a 10… 75 games in 2010-11, and pop his goal total up to about 8 or so… although if he can contribute shorthanded points like he did in the postseason, even better. The big thing for him though is to stay healthy… that would help most of all.

I should probably start typing my comments before voting, because I almost always convince myself that I was off a bit in my “first hunch” vote. In this case, I would have gone for a 5 if I deliberated a bit more and put thoughts on cyber-paper before voting.

His production (post-season included) warranted a 6 or maybe even 7, if he were able to bring it every night. But, he wasn’t and that’s why I knocked him all the way down to a 4 (below expectations). My expectations, rightly or wrongly, were for around 7-10-17 and 70+ games of solid play. He was on pace to hit those numbers if he played a full season, but to only play in 36 games was very disappointing to me.

The Discussion: Gordon does some good things for his team, and he does things that the Capitals are otherwise lacking, but are they enough to get him in the lineup every night, especially with David Steckel still on the roster? Is Gordon a legitimate fourth liner, or is he more of a 13th forward? What should the Capitals be willing to offer to retain Gordon’s services for the 2010-2011 season?

I think when healthy, he is a very legitimate 4th line forward…unfortunately, he’s not healthy all that often. He deserves a QO (10% raise? is that right?) and probably nothing more. So about 850k I guess, and probably once again just a 1 year deal.

71 67 63 36…

I’d be more than a little concerned about this progression. And remembering the end-game for former Cap Mike Ridley (chronic back problems), it is a potential career-shortener. After an 81-game season in his last year with the Caps and 48 in the next (strike-shortened) year, Ridley went 37, 75, and done at age 33.

I’m going to be generous and give him a 7. He exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations on offense. Also was great at the dot and helped out a pretty poor penalty killing unit.

say what you want about gordo, but if he wasn’t playing in the first round, that series wouldn’t have even gone to 7 games – and I don’t mean that the caps would have won sooner.

6 for me. borderline 7 but discounted due to limited games played. he exceedd expectations (other than staying healthy) for the regular season but proved his worth in the post season. and lets face it, with these caps, post season performance should be what all of these guys are rated on. can’t underestimate the value of a solid defensive player w/ good faceoff skills in the playoffs.

he’s not the biggest guy out there, but no shrimp either. would like to see him (along with just about everyone not named ovi) play a more physical forecheck game.

gordon is a solid 4th line center. i expect him to share time w/ stecks. for the sake of his health, i would expect him to share some nacho duty w/ stecks or other extra forwards. this is a guy who is needed in the playoffs so sitting some games during the season seems to make sense.

i think he should get something less than stecks $1.1M. i’d say no more than $1M would be fair compensation given his health history.

I thought he’d play more games, so he loses points there, and I thought he’d play a bigger all-around role, so he loses there. But in the TOI he was given he played very well and in the playoffs was strong.

Gordon does some good things for his team, and he does things that the Capitals are otherwise lacking, but are they enough to get him in the lineup every night, especially with David Steckel still on the roster?

I’d say it should be, and may or may not depending on the roster situation going into September. I think we’ll end up with Steckel-Gordon both on the fourth line since the Steckel 3C experiment wasn’t too successful. He’s really starting to separate himself from Steckel, I think, being a righty C (the only one the Caps have), being better at FOs, better on the PK, and faster, as well as younger (and thus more time to develop an offensive game).

Is Gordon a legitimate fourth liner, or is he more of a 13th forward?

Legit 4th liner, and probably a 3.5C or so. Of course, short term memory here is all positive, so I may be overstating his potential.

What should the Capitals be willing to offer to retain Gordon’s services for the 2010-2011 season?

Right around Steckel, so $1-1.5 million per season (IIRC). With Gordon > Steckel but Steckel more durable than Gordon, I don’t think having both is redundant.

I had low expectations and he’s one of few Caps to not lose a point for the playoffs.

Hard not to cheer for BGord, particularly in light of a solid second season, but I had hoped this was ‘his year’ to show he could do a bit more than PK. I still think he’s got enough skills to compete with Steckel, but it’s getting awful crowded at the bottom 2 pivot spots and if he is seeking anything beyond a cost of living raise, hasta luego.

Gordon was about what I expected. His body is a problem. If he can’t play at least 65 games, his value diminishes considerably. As for the PK, the plan is the problem; I didn’t notice that when goals went in they were because of something Gordon was doing wrong, per se, as much as it was the PK never doing anything right (ie, passivity).
Retain him and package him in a trade, or use him as a healthy scratch to maximize his potential. As for Steckel making him obsolete, no god damn way. Steckel is a giant marshmallow that wins faceoffs. He has no hands, no offensive upside, his ‘big game’ reputation remains at the AHL level, and if we’re judging by clarity, he is NOT a clear upgrade to Gordon.
What do Gordon and Steckel have in common? Both win the majority of faceoffs, both play on the bottom lines in a shut down role, and neither has much offensive upside. Also, neither exhibit any ferocity. They aren’t intimidating anyone, except the guy taking the faceoff against him, and at most, that dude is merely resigned.

Gordon was pretty much what I would expect from him this season. 4th line grinder, PK guy, great faceoffs, a little scoring. That puts him in the 5-6 range. His scoring was up a touch, but his injuries also kept him off the ice more than we’d like to see. So, I’d probably have to settle on a 5. If he had stayed healthy, he probably gets a 6.

Gordon would definately be worth keeping around as a 4th line grinder/PK type. He does what he does well enough to be valuable to the team, and he should come cheap. Something in the 700k-800k he’s been making should suffice. Anything more than that, and he’d have to walk.

First and foremost, I expected a full season from him and got less than half that. When he was out there during the regular season he was OK and much better in the playoffs which is why I bumped him from a 3 to a 4. Boyd is everything you’d want in a player in terms of work ethic and a guy you want to root for, but you can’t ignore the fact that he’s been available for fewer games in each of the last three seasons. Whether it’s in a Caps uniform or not, I just hope Boyd can shake this injury bug and have a nice, long NHL career.

He did more or less what I expected, so his actual performance would be a 5. But he did it in about half the games-played that I expected, so I knocked that down to a 2.5. I bump him up for the shorties in the playoffs. Could have gone 4.

always overshadowed. even had his rink wrap devastated by the backstrom/mackan news. 33 comments?

Did not meet expectations because he wasn’t healthy.

for the healthy/unhealthy debate:

haven’t we been trumpeting how the regular season means dick for a long, long time now? the caps were able to have gordon ready to go on game 1 of the playoffs, and he produced. for all we know, he was kept out a little longer because of the caps’ place in the standings, and because the caps wanted him fully healthy for the postseason. going forward, i’m not going to be bothered by a player that misses a chunk of games during the regular season. losing one or two guys will not keep the caps out of the playoffs. if those players are fully healthy entering round 1, and put up impressive per game numbers during the regular season and postseason, they’ll still be eligible for a 10 from me.

When he played, he played well with his job. When he came back to the squad it seemed like the PK improved as did the pressure of the 4rth line. But playing 1/3 of the season is hard to meet expectations. Next season I want to see him play 50-60 games, his stats were pretty decent this year so he could show off why he was Jagr’s linemate projected 10g 12a 22points for 82 games pretty much Brads production.

I was hoping he’d add more offense, but he didn’t really add more to his game this year than he was providing last year. He had two great shifts in the playoffs that lead to PK goals, and…that’s about it.

I don’t expect much more out of my 4th line center/right wing, unless I want him to drop the gloves a little more, and that’s not really Gordo’s game. He is what he is, and he’s not a bad player for his salary.

He really came through in the post season and that’s what counts. His numbers suggest an increased role next season. As far as comparisons with Steckel, Gordo is the clear winner. Steckel skates like a slog. He finishes last in all skating drills in practice which also suggests lazyness and by extension, a bad influence on his peers. Outside of his face off skills, he is a liability, whereas Gordo is a solid all around contributor. Who knows, maybe his offensive skills are ready to break out. Give him some time with better players and see what happens.

In the regular season he had 10 SOG, had a 10% shooting percentage, and 4 goals?

Must be that new math… :)

like what kind of an increased role? he already plays big PK minutes. and i don’t think he climbs above the 4th line, given the production the caps have come to expect from the 3rd line

Just on basis of his even strength and 5 on 5 goals and points per minutes played he has earned a chance at 3rd line not to mention the 2.01 GOAN/60 at 5 on 5, 3 giveaways all season!

like what kind of an increased role? he already plays big PK minutes. and i don’t think he climbs above the 4th line, given the production the caps have come to expect from the 3rd line.

Just on basis of his even strength and 5 on 5 goals and points per minutes played he has earned a chance at 3rd line not to mention the 2.01 GOAN/60 at 5 on 5, 3 giveaways all season!

In the regular season he had 10 SOG, had a 10% shooting percentage, and 4 goals?

Must be that new math… :)

See above

Guess I should say increased 5 on 5 minutes as well.

5 – I thought Gordon was solid, when he played during the regular season. Strong 4C and good penalty killer. He missed nearly half the season and based upon that I would have probably given him a 2 or 3. But a remarkable playoffs earned him a 5. I’m in favor of pursuing a contract for Boyd, but there needs some level of comfort his back isn’t still wonky. We need more regular season games from him (master of the obvious here) for it to be worthwhile.