Regular Season:
Playoffs:
Key Stat: 49.44 xGF% – Gudas was one of only two Capitals blueliners whose most probable outcome, according to Natural Stat Trick’s model, based on shooting events while he was on the ice, was to be on ice for more goals against than goals for. The other such player was Michael Kempny, who’s mark was negligibly better at 49.54%.
The Good: Radko Gudas was surprisingly productive in 5v5 situations. In fact, his total points rate came in at 0.91 points/60, which was good enough for third among Caps blueliners, and even beat out Dmitry Orlov’s 0.85 points/60. Tough to imagine betting on that outcome when Gudas came over from the Flyers last summer. Not immediately evident is the fact that Gudas’s numbers were propped up significantly by a high secondary assist rate compared to the rest of his blueline brethren.
The Bad: If you look at Gudas’s relative numbers at 5v5, it’s a pretty long string of negatives. When he was on the ice, the Caps generated fewer shot attempts than when he was off, took a smaller share of shots compared to when he was off, and were significantly handicapped in scoring chance share and generation compared to when he was off. Gudas was brought in to nominally replace the man he was exchanged for – Matt Niskanen – and at the time it seemed like just maybe those two defenseman’s trajectories were diverging, and Gudas has cut his teeth to the point where he deserved a look in some more meaningful minutes. Ultimately he failed to deliver on that, ultimately losing his spot as an every-night guy, and failing to earn a sweater for the first two games in the Islanders series. Not exactly the desired outcome for a contract season.
The Video:
The Charts:
The Discussion: Radko Gudas spent the majority of the season in the lineup, but when the dust settled, it was in evidence that his roster spot is a fringe one. Is his veteran presence, grit, and experience worth another small contract, or is it to the detriment of the development of some younger blueliners, like Jonas Siegenthaler, Martin Fehervary, and Alexey Alexiev?
Other Gudas Season Reviews: Coming soon!
The Vote: Rate Gudas 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.