Nic Dowd
“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.”
-- Horace
As replacements go for a bottom-six forward, Nic Dowd did
not do a bad job replacing the well-respected Jay Beagle as the Caps’ fourth
line center last season. He did not play
as many games as did Beagle in 2017-2018 (before he departed for Vancouver as a
free agent), dressing for 64 games versus 79 for Beagle the previous
season. He did outpace Beagle in goals
scored (eight to seven), finished one short of Beagle’s assist total (14 to
15), equaled his point total (22), and finished with a better plus-minus (plus-10
to Beagle’s plus-3 in 2017-2018). It
would have been quite a feat to replace Beagle’s faceoff success (a 56.4
percent win percentage with the Caps in his ten years in DC, 58.5 percent in
his 2017-2018 season), but Dowd was a fine 51.9 percent for the season, best
among all Caps taking at least 100 draws (in fact, the only such Capital over
50 percent).
Dowd’s performance last season was the sort of workmanlike
result one expects from a player in his position, but considering that he was
on a deal paying $650,000 a year, it was cost-efficient, too. That
he got a raise in a three-year deal at $750,000 a year might be considered
something of a bargain, especially compared to the $3.0 million Vancouver will
be paying for Beagle’s services over the next three seasons. It also doesn’t hurt that Dowd is four years
younger.
Odd Dowd Fact…
Boyd played 32 games at home, 32 on the road last season. He was plus-5 at home, plus-5 on the
road. He had seven assists at home,
seven assists on the road. He had ten
penalty minutes at home, ten penalty minutes on the road.
Fearless’ Take…
The Caps did pretty well when Boyd was engaged in the
“grittership” areas of the game. In 14
games in which he recorded a hit, a blocked shot, and won at least 50 percent
of his draws, the Caps were 10-3-1.
Except for a dry patch in January, a month in which he did not record a
point in six games, he was a fairly reliable point-getter. In the five months in which he dressed for at
least ten games, he had at least three points in all of them with a high of eight
(1-7-8) in 11 games in December. His has
not been a long career – only four seasons and 195 games – and he will be 30
years old next spring (May), but if there is something to look for with him it
is that in each of his two full seasons spend with one team (Los Angeles in
2016-2017 and the Caps last season) he finished with 22 points, despite not
playing more than 70 games in either of them.
Cheerless’ Take…
One thing that hurt the Caps as much as anything in the
postseason over the last half dozen years was not getting production out of
bottom six forwards. They got it in good
supply in their 2018 Stanley Cup run, but it dried up in the 2019
postseason. Nic Dowd had one point in
seven games against Carolina, a penalty shot goal in a 6-0 win in Game 5. This was an especially disappointing result
since he did not go more than two games without a point over his last 18 games
of the regular season (3-4-7). A fourth
liner isn’t going to be bearing the scoring load, but it has been an issue with
the Caps in the postseason, and it would help if Dowd could replicate some of
his regular season effort in chipping in.
Potential Milestones:
- 200 career NHL games (he needs five)
- 50 career NHL points (he needs two)
- 100 career penalty minutes (he needs 25)
The Big Question… Is Nic stuck on “22?”
In three full NHL seasons, Nic Dowd has recorded 22 points
twice (only four in 56 games split between Los Angeles and Vancouver in
2017-2018). He is in what might be
thought of as the chronological prime of his career at age 29. He does not have a lot of mileage, and he
plays on a team with enough high end skill and depth on offense to give him
opportunities to chip in some of his own.
He was a solid all-around player within his role for the Caps last
season. With as much competition as
there is likely to be among the wingers in training camp for bottom-six
positions, what emerges might provide Dowd with more and more consistent fourth
line support than he had at times last season.
But Dowd was also a healthy scratch 18 times last season, including a seven-times-in-12-games
stretch from mid-January to mid-February.
If he can get unstuck in terms of playing time, perhaps he can get
unstuck from 22 points as well.
In the end…
Players of Nic Dowd’s sort are not irreplaceable. On the other hand, sometimes they are
bargains. His cap hit is certainly
attractive to a team than needs to shed payroll to get under the salary cap by
the start of the season. His
goals/points per game last season (0.13-0.22-0.34) were actually superior than
those Jay Beagle had over his ten seasons here (0.11-0.14-0.25). It might be a reach to think of Dowd as a
30-point players, but more games at last year’s level of production, and if
that level of production could be enhanced with stronger linemates, and it is
not out of the question. It is the kind
of balance that the Caps rode to success in 2018 and could be a formula to
enjoy that kind of success once more.
Projection: 72 games, 8-16-24, plus-8
Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America