The Washington Capitals have re-signed defenceman, Trevor van Riemsdyk to a three-year contract extension. The Capitals announced the signing via Twitter on Saturday afternoon. Additionally, the one-way contract carries an average annual value of $3 million through the 2025-26 season.
THREE-V-R
The Washington Capitals have re-signed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk to a three-year contract extension. van Riemsdyk's contract will carry an average annual value of $3 million.#ALLCAPS
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 11, 2023
Trevor van Riemsdyk Lands Extension with Washington
Van Riemsdyk is the Capitals’ most available defenceman over the course of season. He’s the only Washington defender to appear in all 66 games. The core has shifted with the departure of Dmitry Orlov and injury to John Carlson. Furthermore, TVR is now playing alongside Rasmus Sandin, logging 26-27 minutes a night on the top-pairing.
Van Riemsdyk joined the Capitals for one-year on October 11, 2020. Then, he extended his time with the club for an additional two seasons. Prior to the half way point of this season, TVR spent his time on the bottom defensive pairing with an offensive experiment for Washington. His partner in 2022 was Justin Schultz and in 2023, Erik Gustafsson.
The Capitals value TVR as a serviceable two-way defenseman. He’s logged the second most minutes only behind Nick Jenson. Additionally, he starts 14.25% of his shifts in the offensive zone and 10.53% of his shifts in the defensive zone. This combined 24.78% ranks first amongst all Capitals defenceman. To put this into context, the Capitals trust TVR in more significant aspects of the game. He’s no longer out there to just eat up minutes on the bottom-pair.
Moreover, TVR isn’t popular for his production offensively. However, he’s eclipsed a new career-high 19 points in 66 games this season, including seven goals. The Capitals drive play better with van Riemsdyk on the ice as opposed to the bench. He’s controlled 52.89% of the expected goals and 56.07% of the high danger corsi.
Impact of the TVR Signing
The Capitals made the right move extending TVR. He’s arguably been there best defenceman over the course of the season and has worked his way up. Van Riemsdyk is very efficient at retrieving pucks and moving them up to the forwards. Better, TVR has skill at creating deflections and rebounds for his forwards creating traffic in front.
Despite the Capitals most likely missing the playoffs in 2023, TVR and Sandin have found some nice chemistry together. This could be a potential pairing going forward for Washington.
Main photo by: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
