From Alexeyev to Wilson, we’re taking a look at and grading the 2023-24 season for every player who laced ‘em up for the Washington Capitals for a significant number of games during the campaign, with an eye towards 2024-25. First up, Alexander Alexeyev.
The Bio:
#27 | Left Defense | Shoots: Left
Height: 6’4” | Weight: 213 | Born: November 15, 1999
Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia | Acquired: Drafted in 2018, 1st round (31st overall)
Cap Hit: $825,000 | Signed Through: 2024-25 | Expiry Status: Restricted Free Agent
The Scouting Report (via CapFriendly):
Report: November 2023 | Rating: 72 | Projection: Third Pair
- Third pairing ‘D’ who takes the majority of his shifts at even strength.
- Big body. Not physical. In the way. Absorbs contact to move pucks out of dangers. Long reach is an asset.
- Adequate distributor. Can’t afford to hold onto the puck too long / doesn’t have the creativity or escape ability to get too cute.
- Good feet for his stature.
- Competes. Recognizes his role. Keeps his game mostly simple. Averages around 11:30 TOI
The Stats:
The Charts:
The Key Stat: After dressing for only 13 of the Caps’ first 55 games, never playing in more than four-straight and averaging 12:46 of ice time in that baker’s dozen of games, Alexeyev was in the lineup for 26 of the Caps’ last 27 games, averaging 14:10 per outing, including topping 21 minutes per night in each of the last four games of the regular season. Alexeyev played all four postseason games, playing 19:13 per night.
The Good: When the Caps selected Alexeyev with the 31st pick in the 2018 Entry Draft (take a second and remind yourself why they had that pick in that draft), he was described as a player with “a real calmness to his game in how he moves the puck … solid defensively, too, using his strength and frame to win battles, and showing good positional play” and “an extremely even-keel approach to the game… [a] good skater for his size [who] has a heads-up approach to skating, and effectively uses his size in transition and along the wall.” Six-and-a-half years (and several leagues) later, those attributes are starting to come together at the NHL level.
Still just 24, Alexeyev responded positively to his increased role after the Caps moved Joel Edmundson at the trade deadline, with his GameScore generally trending more positively with more consistent usage, (though there were certainly bumps along the way):
Alexeyev led all Capitals in 5v5 shot blocking rate (a stat which, as Kent Wilson would note, is like killing rats – it’s preferable to not killing rats, but if you’re killing rats at a high rate, it points to a bigger problem), and barely took any penalties (a “career-high” three, which brings his regular-season NHL total to six in 72 games). Alexeyev is a modern-day defensive defenseman (more positioning and active stick, less clearing the crease with crosschecks to the kidneys), and the Caps were very good, defensively, with him on the ice:
Down the stretch, Alexeyev looked like a solid third-pair defenseman going forward and the potential is there that he could sneak into a top-4 role at some point, depending on his partner, the team’s depth and aspirations. At this point, they’ll certainly take that.
The Bad: At first blush, Alexeyev might seem almost pathologically allergic to shooting the puck – through his first 28 games of 2023-24, he’d registered just 10 shots on goal… which is as many as he tallied in his final 11 games, so more ice time and more normal, consistent deployment, unsurprisingly, led to more shots. But that’s absolutely not his game, as evidenced by his one goal in 76 NHL appearances (including playoffs) and six in 145 at the AHL level. That’s not necessarily “bad,” per se, but it ain’t good.
Alexeyev is the kind of player that, when he’s at his best, is probably going unnoticed, and when he does stand out, it’s probably for something like this:
That’s… not good defense.
Alexeyev did take a couple of minor penalties against the Rangers, so that, like so much of his game at this point, is something to keep an eye on – as his minutes and role scales up, can his game keep pace? Do his shot-suppression numbers hold as he plays more minutes against tougher competition and in less favorable deployments? Can he develop into a reliable penalty killer? And so on.
The Video:
The Discussion: What do you see as Alexeyev’s role going forward? What’s his ceiling? Floor? Is he an everyday NHL player or is the jury still out? And finally, what would it take for you to give Alexeyev a 10 next season?
The Vote: Rate Alexander Alexeyev 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 – so 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.