Japers’ Rink Player Card (click for a hi-res version, and a glossary of terms used in this post can be found here; data via NHL.com, war-on-ice.com, General Fanager and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com):
Carlson’s Season, Game-by-Game (via HockeyViz, explained here):
Carlson’s HERO Chart (via Own The Puck):
Carlson and His Defensive Partners:
Carlson’s 5v5 Teammates and Competition (via HockeyViz, explained here):
Carlson’s 5v5 Usage:
Carlson’s With-or-Without You (via HockeyViz, explained here):
Carlson’s Rolling Shot-Attempt (Corsi) -For Percentage:
Carlson’s Seven Seasons (via Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com):
Key Stat: Of NHL blueliners who played at least 750 five-on-five minutes in 2015-16, John Carlson was third in points/60, behind only Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns.
Interesting Stat: And those stats weren’t often inflated by statistically noisy secondary assists — John Carlson’s five-on-five primary assist/60 rate was second only to Andrei Markov amongst defensemen.
The Good: It was a pretty productive year for John Carlson, whose 39 points marked the second best output of his career despite missing 26 games to injury. Carlson was on the ice for a greater percentage of goals at five on five for the Capitals than any of his contemporaries, had a shot-for rate second only to his most common partner, and fired the puck towards the net at a higher rate than any of the Caps’ blueliners. Carlson’s 168 five-on-five shot attempts from the blueline were only one less than Karl Alzner’s mark, who played in all 82 regular season games.
Oh yeah, and his 12 points in the playoffs paced the entire team, and matched his combined playoff offensive output from his previous 35 postseason outings.
The Bad: John Carlson’s possession numbers weren’t anything of note, and that’s despite Karl Alzner and Matt Niskanen eating the lion’s share of the toughest minutes; he was one of three Caps’ defensemen whose possession numbers were negative relative to when they were off the ice.
Probably the worst part of John Carlson’s season, however, was that it marked the end of an incredible run of durability. Since becoming an everyday man on the blueline back in 2011-12, John Carlson hadn’t missed a single game until this season, when he sat out about a quarter of the year. When Carlson did come back from his original injury, it was apparent that he wasn’t 100%, and found himself back on the shelf shortly after. The days of expecting 100% game participation from Carlson may be over, which is something to consider given the fact that issues with depth on the blueline became apparent when the season mattered most.
The GIF/Video:
Carlson opens the scoring for the Caps in the 2015-16 playoffs.
Carlson puts the #Caps on the board first late in the 1st #CapsFlyers 1-0 with 5 mins left in the 1st pic.twitter.com/3CjPrBAjY9
— CAPITALS HILL (@CapitalsHill) April 16, 2016
The Vote: Rate Carlson 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.
The Discussion: Is John Carlson a top 10 defenseman in the NHL? If not, what do you need to see from him next way to earn him that distinction? What would it take for you to give him a “10” next year?