Washington Capitals: 2012-2013 By the Tens -- Forwards: Wojtek Wolski

Wojtek Wolski

“Well, it's all right, riding around in the breeze

Well, it's all right, if you live the life you please

Well, it's all right, even if the sun don't shine

Well, it's all right, we're going to the end of the line”

-- The Traveling Wilburys

Last October, we took note of something Wojtek Wolski said upon his signing with the Washington Capitals as a free agent…

"I still have a lot of life left in me.  I'm at a point in my career where I'm at a crossroads, and I've got to make it work."

What we did not do was finish the quote.  Here is the entire quote…

“I still have a lot of life left in me. I’m at a point in my career where I’m at a crossroads and I’ve got to make it work and I think I’m ready and able. It’s going to be a great year.”

Wolski might have been ready; he played briefly with KH Sanok in the Polish Hockey Superleague during The Great Lockout of 2012-2013.  He might have been able; after all, he did record 95 goals and 257 points in 424 games in a seven-year NHL career.  However, it was not a great year. 

Wolski finished the 2013 season with the Caps 4-5-9, plus-1 in 27 games, almost a point for point reproduction of the “Florida Panthers” portion of his 2011-2012 season where he went 4-5-9, minus-3 in 22 games.

It was a curious season of ice time atrophy for Wolski. He played in each of the Caps’ first 19 games, but managed only a 2-2-4, minus-5 scoring line.  He played in four of the ten games in the third ten-game segment (2-2-4, plus-4), three games in the fourth ten-game segment (0-0-0, plus-1) and finally just one game in the final eight of the 48-game season (0-1-1, plus-1).  His ice time dwindled from a shade under 15 minutes a game in those first 19 games to just over 12 minutes in the four games in the third ten-game segment to seven-and-a-half in the three games in the fourth ten-game segment to 7:15 in his only appearance in the last eight-game segment.

It is a bit of a mystery how Wolski came to be a healthy scratch more often as the season wore on.  Among Caps forwards appearing in at least 20 games he had the best raw Corsi value at 5-on-5, and he was third in Corsi value on-ice relative to the value off-ice (numbers from behindthenet.ca).  From that perspective his possession numbers were certainly adequate. 

His goals scored per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 were middle of the pack among those Caps forwards, as were his primary assists.  His scoring did not appear to be an obvious problem.

But there were numbers that jumped out.  The team save percentage with Wolski on ice was second worst among Caps forwards, contributing to his team-worst PDO value among forwards at 5-on-5.  His team goals-against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 was ninth among forwards (numbers from behindthenet.ca).  He did not suffer a large volume of total goals scored against (12th among all forwards), but his 12 team goals scored against in 27 games was not much different from the 14 goals scored against with Mathieu Perreault on ice.  The difference was that Perreault realized that total in 39 games and almost 100 more minutes of total ice time than Wolski.

Odd Wolski Statistic…  “Three.”  Wolski spent three seconds this season on the penalty kill.  Not three seconds per game… three seconds, total.  It was the lowest such number on the team among all 28 skaters who dressed for the Caps.

Game to Remember… March 7^th vs. Florida.  The March 7^th contest against the Florida Panthers was more or less Wolski’s season.  His goal at 3:10 of the first period giving the Caps a 2-0 lead would prove to be the game-winning goal.  He did a fine job of walking around defenseman Colby Robak at the goal line, collecting the puck off the skirt of the net and stuffing it under goalie Jacob Markstrom.  That being the second goal of the evening on the Caps’ first two shots, Markstrom’s evening was over.  Wolski’s evening was just beginning.  He assisted on a power play goal by Eric Fehr, a sweet pass through the crease to Fehr in the left wing circle setting up the score.  Then he put the cherry on the sundae, setting up Mathieu Perreault with a little spin-o-rama pass at the Florida blue line to spring Perreault in on relief goalie Scott Clemmensen to end the night’s scoring in a 7-1 Caps win.  Wolski finished with a third of his point total for the season, going 1-2-3, plus-2, in 12:15 in ice time.

Game to Forget… April 9^th at Montreal.  In what would be his penultimate game as a Capital, Wolski skated only eight shifts in Bell Centre (his lowest total of the season), only one of those in the third period of what would be 3-2 win for the Caps.  No goals, no assists, no points, no shots.

Post Season… Wolski did not dress for any of the seven games in the opening round series against the New York Rangers.

In the end…

Wolski’s tenure with the Caps is already past tense.  On May 20^th – one week after the Caps were eliminated from the playoffs – Wolski came to terms on an agreement with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.  His was a low risk signing, probably worth it even in retrospect to see if he could recapture the sort of 50-point production he enjoyed in his rookie season.  Truth be told, his scoring line on an 82-game basis (12-15-27) was not far off the prognosto for him last October (15-19-34).  But he just could not find a niche in the lineup and did not do enough to instill confidence in his production on a consistent basis.  What it means is that it is entirely possible that Washington was the end of the line for Wolski in the NHL at the too-soon age of 27.

Grade: C-

Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images North America

Washington Capitals 2012-2013 Previews -- Forwards: Wojtek Wolski

Wojtek Wolski

Theme: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

-- George Eliot

The first round of the 2004 entry draft had its share of players who have had an impact or who have had productive starts to their careers.  Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Andrew Ladd, Travis Zajac.  And that is from the first 20 picks.

That brings us to the 21st pick in that draft – Wojtek Wolski.  The Brampton Battalion forward was taken by the Colorado Avalanche on the heels of two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League in which he posted 54 goals and 127 points in 130 games.  And being a first round pick did not diminish his production, which improved to 29-44-73 in 67 games with Brampton in 2004-2005 and 47-81-128 in 56 games with the Battalion in 2005-2006.  He earned a cup of coffee with the Avalanche in 2005-2006 in which he went 2-4-6 in nine games.

It was all preparation for a rookie season in 2006-2007 in which Wolski finished fourth among rookies in points, fifth in goals, fifth in assists, tied for fifth in power play goals, and tied for 11th in game-winning goals.  It was not quite good enough to win nomination as a finalist for the Calder Trophy to be awarded to the league’s top rookie, perhaps because he did not have the best rookie numbers on his own team.  Paul Stastny ranked higher in each of those statistical categories and captured one of the nominations as a Calder finalist (Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin won the award).

It was the beginning of a “not quite good enough” phase of Wolski’s career.  He put up decent numbers with the Avalanche over the next two seasons, recording 32 goals and 90 points in 155 games.  But ranking fourth in points in 2007-2008 and third in 2008-2009 might not have seemed like enough improvement, especially for a player who was getting a reputation for a lack of physical play and low power play production (6-10-16 in those 145 games).  In 2009-2010 Wolski picked up the pace of his overall production – 17-30-47 in 62 games, a pace that put him on track for career highs in goals and points.  But his power play production did not improve (2-7-9), and Colorado seemed to be tiring of waiting for him to improve.  He was traded to Phoenix at the 2010 trading deadline for forwards Peter Mueller and 2008 Hobey Baker Award winner Kevin Porter.

The 2009-2010 season marked the first of three seasons in which Wolski would finish a season with a team different from the one with which he started.  In 2010-2011 Wolski played 36 games with the Coyotes, but was dealt to the New York Rangers for Michal Roszival at mid-season.  Wolski did not impress in New York, putting up middling numbers (6-13-19 in 37 games to close the 2010-2011 season, then no goals in six games to open the 2011-2012 season followed by a substantial number of games missed to healthy scratches and a groin injury).  He was traded to Florida in February for Michael Vernace and a 2013 third round draft pick.  After 22 regular season games in Florida in which he recorded a scoring line of 4-5-9 in 22 games and a total of 21 minutes of playoff action without a point, he was a free agent.  On July 11th that free agent became a Washington Capital, hoping to fulfill the promise of a former first round pick.

Fearless’ Take...

Despite all the moving around, Wolski has averaged 18 goals per 82 games over his career.  Even if you look at his post-Colorado career he is averaging 15 goals per 82 games.  And as to the matter of his iffy power play production (18 power play goals in 424 career games), he played with some teams that seemed to have bigger problems on the power play than Wolski.  After his rookie season he played on only one team that finished in the top-half of the power play rankings, that when he started the 2009-2010 season for a Colorado team that finished 15th (Florida finished last season seventh, but Wolski was only seventh among forwards in average power play ice time over his 22 games played with the Panthers).  It also might interest you to know that Wolski has more goals scored (95 in 424 games) than 2004 draft classmates Travis Zajac (91/423), Blake Wheeler (74/324), or Lauri Korpikoski (47/300), all drafted ahead of him.

Cheerless’ Take…

Sounds like that 2004 class might not be so great there, cuz.  I mean, Alexandre Picard, Lauri Tukonen, and Kyle Chipchura were drafted ahead of Wolski, too, and that trio of forwards has a combined 13 goals among them (all by Chipchura) in 288 NHL games.  Here is your fun fact for Wolski.  In 424 career games he has a total of 266 hits recorded.  Troy Brouwer had 247 in 82 games last season for the Caps.  And here’s another one…based on last season, sit him on Thursdays (1-0-1, minus-5 in eight games) and put him on the top line on Saturdays (2-3-5, plus-3 in six games).  Okay…small sample size.

The Big Question… Is Wojtek Wolski a contender or a pretender to be a top-six winger with the Caps?

Let’s face it.  If you are paying a former first round draft choice $600,000 on a one-year deal, you’re hoping for, not expecting big things.  This what is called a low-risk signing.  But if Wolski can score goals at something approaching his career pace per 82 games (18) and perhaps chip in a couple of extra goals with some power play time under the tutelage of Adam Oates, that just about replaces Alexander Semin’s production last season (21 goals) at less than a tenth of the cost.  And if he doesn’t, well, you still have the $6.1 million you’re not paying Semin this season (net of the $6.7 million cap hit last year) to do other things.  What is unnerving about Wolski is the idea that he has been traded as many times as he has in so few seasons and that he has gone from a team’s “topline to its fourth line to a healthy scratch to a salary dump.”  This is not the sort of career arc that one should feel comfortable thinking is that of a potential top-six forward.

In the end…

Wolski can speak for himself… "I still have a lot of life left in me.  I'm at a point in my career where I'm at a crossroads, and I've got to make it work."  He should get an opportunity in Washington, where dependable scoring wingers are at a premium after Alex Ovechkin.  But of those wingers not named “Ovechkin,” Wolski might bring the most uncertainty.  He could be a 20-goal scorer for this team as a second line left wing who gets some time on the second power play unit.  He also could be a fourth liner who gets ten minutes a night, scores half a dozen goals, and finds himself in the press box when the games matter most.  That, dear reader, is a decent working description of “crossroads.”  It is an opportunity to be what he could have been as a first round draft pick.

Projection:  63 games, 12-15-27, minus-2