2021-22 Rink Wrap: Trevor van Riemsdyk

Florida Panthers v Washington Capitals - Game Six — Photo by John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images

From Backstrom to Wilson, we’re taking a look at and grading the 2021-22 season for the players who played a significant role for the Caps during the campaign, with an eye towards 2022-23. Next up, Trevor van Riemsdyk.

The Stats:

Regular Season

Playoffs

The Charts:

The Key Stat: 129. Trevor van Riemsdyk blocked a team-high 129 shots this season, averaging 6.15 per 60 minutes.

The Good: van Riemsdyk is not an offensive defenseman, despite setting a career-high in points this season with 17 (1G, 16A), but the Capitals don’t need him to be. TvR is a quietly successful third-pair defenseman who has settled quite nicely into his role for the Caps, which was very evident this season. He does not throw a ton of hits (just 25 this season), but his speed and agility allow him to be effective in other ways. He was the only Washington blueliner with more takeaways (30) than giveaways (19) this season, averaging 1.43 takeaways per 60 minutes. TvR also led all Capitals defensemen in penalties drawn per 60 with 0.86.

van Riemsdyk was a vital piece of Washington’s penalty kill this season as well. He averaged 2:39 in penalty kill ice time per game, which led the team. He often did anything in his power to stop opposing power plays from scoring, including laying his body on the line; 25 of his shot blocks came on the PK.

The Bad: van Riemsdyk finished this season with a minus-3 rating, which is tied with Michal Kempny for the second-worst among the eight Washington defensemen who played in at least 15 games this season. He was one of three of those eight defensemen to record a sub-50 5v5 GF%, coming in at 47.73%. That puts his 5v5 goal differential at a minus-4, which is not bad but not great either. Additionally, despite not being an offensive defenseman, TvR’s shooting and finishing do leave something to be desired. His shooting percentage this season was 1.3% on 75 shots (with 147 total shot attempts).

The Video:

The Discussion: Should van Riemsdyk stay on the third pair next season? Who would you like to see him paired with? Does he need to work on adding more offense to his game? And finally, what would it take for you to give van Riemsdyk a 10 next season?

The Vote: Rate Trevor van Riemsdyk 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.