{"id":693946,"date":"2026-06-09T18:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693946\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:00:11","slug":"rasmus-sandin-2025-26-season-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693946\/","title":{"rendered":"Rasmus Sandin: 2025-26 season review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rasmus Sandin<\/a> had a difficult season with a nightmare ending.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers<\/p>\n

On-ice percentages<\/p>\n

Isolated Impact \u00a0by HockeyViz<\/p>\n

\"HockeyViz
About this visualization: \u00a0This image by \u00a0Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com<\/a> \u00a0shows how the player has impacted play when on the ice. At the top of the image is the team\u2019s offense (even strength at left, power play at right) and at bottom is the team\u2019s defense (with penalty kill at bottom right). In each case, red\/orange blobs mean teams shoot for more from that location on the ice, and blue\/purple means less. In general, a good player should have red\/orange blobs near the opponent\u2019s net at top, and blue\/purple blobs near their own team\u2019s net at bottom. The distributions in middle show how the player compares to league average at individual finishing, setting up teammates to score, and taking and drawing penalties. The number at center is Synthetic Goals: a catch-all number for the player\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

Player Card \u00a0by Evolving Hockey<\/p>\n

\"Evolving
About this player card: \u00a0This card from Josh and Luke of \u00a0Evolving Hockey<\/a> \u00a0compares the player to league averages based on their impact on on-ice statistics. GAR means \u201cgoals above replacement,\u201d where \u201creplacement\u201d means an average player called up from the AHL. xGAR is the same figure but assuming league-average goaltending. The numbers at top are the player\u2019s percentile ranks overall and then for offense and defense alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Player Overview \u00a0by NHL Edge<\/p>\n

\"NHL
About this visualization: \u00a0The NHL\u2019s advanced statistics program, Edge<\/a>, tracks player and puck movement. The player\u2019s shot speed, skating speed, and skating distance are at top along with percentile rank. At bottom left is a shot location map, and at bottom right is zone time per zone.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Generative Art by Peter<\/p>\n

Using p5.js, the player\u2019s name is a seed that randomizes a bunch of values in an animated canvas with glitchy effects that should be gradual enough not to mess with people with sensory issues. Not AI. Not all that different from Logo, which I learned in like 1992.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s Take<\/p>\n

53<\/p>\n

Percentile among defenders<\/p>\n

Age 26 \u00b7 5\u201911\u201d \u00b7 189 lbs \u00b7 \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddea \u00b7 \u2653\ufe0f<\/p>\n

2025-26 stats<\/p>\n

We start at the end: in April, Sandin suffered an major knee injury<\/a> in a game against Pittsburgh. He got ACL surgery later that month and will be out for 6-9 months<\/a> \u2013 somewhere between November and February.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a devastating ending to a cloudy season for a complicated player. If we ever held out hope for Sandin to provide tertiary scoring, we have stopped. His 29 points is a career high-water mark, and I think that\u2019s the most we\u2019ll ever see. He\u2019s just not that guy.<\/p>\n

That wouldn\u2019t be a problem if Sandin made up for it with great play without the puck, but it\u2019s complicated. Sandin makes exit passes well, but among the non-forward-y defenders his ability to deny zone entries might have been the team\u2019s weakest this season. His pairings with Roy, Fehervary, and Carlson were all underwater in expected goals. He did better in process but worse in results with Van Riemsdyk (an interesting combo), and saw positive goal ratios only with Roy (9 to 8) and in limited but prolific minutes with Chychrun (10 to 6 in just 126 minutes \u2013 wow). Among full-time defenders, his on-ice goal differential was the worst \u2013 just a hair under even at 49 to 51.<\/p>\n

Sandin had injuries in October and January, so I\u2019m keeping an open mind about how those might have colored his season. My gut says he\u2019s better than we saw this season, but I don\u2019t know what good that does us now.<\/p>\n

I remember in March on the RMNB Discord, we were musing about how Sandin might be bound for the trade market this summer. Weeks later his knee exploded, and now he\u2019s a frozen asset through the rest of the calendar year. Sandin will earn $4.6M a year through 2029, during a lot of which he\u2019ll be recuperating from surgery, a process that can take years before the player returns to their old self. And Sandin\u2019s old self? Not great. This whole situation? Not great.<\/p>\n

Sandy on RMNB<\/p>\n

Capitals sing \u2018We want you, baby\u2019 at Spencer Carbery and Rasmus Sandin after beating Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rasmus Sandin undergoes surgery to repair ACL tear in right knee, will be out 6 to 9 months<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Your Turn<\/p>\n

What are the Caps going to do here? They need a replacement in the short-term, but then they need a real plan for when Sandin comes back.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcca<\/p>\n

This story would not be possible without<\/p>\n

Please consider joining us in supporting them.<\/p>\n

Read More Player Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rasmus Sandin had a difficult season with a nightmare ending. By the Numbers On-ice percentages Isolated Impact \u00a0by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-693946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}