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2023-24 Rink Wrap: Nick Jensen

While this wasn’t Nick Jensen’s finest season as a Cap, he definitely had his moments—relive some of them as we look back on his 2023-2024 campaign.

Jan 13, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba (8) and Washington Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen (3) battle for the puck in the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

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. Next up, Nick Jensen.

The Bio:
#3 | Defense | Shoots: Right
Height: 6’1” | Weight: 205 | Born: September 21, 1990
Birthplace: Rogers, Minnesota | Acquired: Traded to Washington from Detroit, February 22, 2019
Cap Hit: $4,050,000 | Signed Through: 2025-26 | Expiry Status: Unrestricted Free Agent

The Scouting Report (via CapFriendly):
Report: February 2024 | Rating: 81 | Projection: Second Pair

  • Averaged 19:00 TOI through 58GP; Deployed at ES and PK
  • Right – shot – ‘2-way / Leaning Defensive D’
  • Credited with 42 hits and 92 shot blocks
  • More quick than fast. Jumps to space to take away time and space effectively.
  • Willing to bump up against opponents and block shots.
  • Tasked with matching up against top six forwards.
  • Any offense that he generates is a bonus.
  • Head on a swivel / solid spatial awareness
  • Reliable. Plays to his strengths. Competes
via CapFriendly

The Stats:

Regular Season
Playoffs

The Charts:

via JFresh Hockey
via HockeyStatCards
via Evolving-Hockey.com
via Evolving-Hockey.com

The Key Stat: Nick Jensen ranked second on the team this season in blocks with 123, behind John Carlson’s 194.

The Good: Jensen only took five minor penalties through 78 games this season, which is the lowest single-season PIM total of his career. Among skaters who appeared in at least 41 games for the Capitals this season, that was good for fourth-lowest. This is an excellent level of discipline, especially for a defenseman who is often matched up against an opponent’s top-six forwards. The Caps rely on Jensen for the penalty kill (we’ll touch on that later…), so the less time he spends in the box the better. He also drew 13 penalties, giving the Capitals some chances to try and get their power play going (spoiler alert: it did not, in fact, really get going).

Another good thing: Jensen took a brutal and scary hit from Michael Eyssimont on April 13 that resulted in him being stretchered off the ice, but he avoided a trip to the hospital and walked out of the arena on his own that night. He only missed five games, and was able to return to the lineup for Washington’s final game of the year. The hit left him unconscious on the ice for a few moments, so avoiding a serious injury feels like a pretty big win.

The Bad: Nick Jensen’s 216:22 of shorthanded TOI this season was second only to John Carlson, and the two of them co-led the team in shorthanded TOI per game at 2:46. Unfortunately, Washington’s penalty kill was pretty mediocre this year—they finished at 79%, 19th in the league. It was even worse during the playoffs at 62.5%, but Jensen missed three of those four games so that’s not on him. There were 113 defensemen who played at least 100 minutes at 4-on-5 this year, and Jensen was tied for eighth-highest expected goals-against rate at 9.77 xGA/60. His actual goals-against rate (8.11 GA/60) was a little better at 36th-highest, but that’s still not great. He also had the 14th-highest high danger chances-against rate in that group with 30.12 HDCA/60—this makes everyone else’s job, especially the goalie’s, even harder. In case all of these numbers don’t fully convince you, these visuals of Washington’s PK with and without Jensen might help paint the complete picture.

via HockeyViz

Jensen was usually on Washington’s second PK unit, so the fact that these visuals are so shockingly different is even more concerning knowing he was usually up against teams’ second power play units. With his general reputation as a reliable, defensive defenseman, the Caps’ PK with Jensen is much worse than you’d expect.

The Video:

The Discussion: Nick Jensen’s play has been declining since the 2022-2023 season—do you think he can turn that trend around next year? Why do you think he’s struggled so much over the last two seasons? Which defenseman would you like to see Jensen paired with next season? And finally, what would it take for you to give Jensen a 10 next season?

The Vote: Rate Nick Jensen 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.

How would you rank Nick Jensen's 2023-24 season? (Ratings will be revealed after all Rink Wraps have been completed.)

Talking Points