Bobbleheads

Which Caps Bobbleheads Are Coming in 2016-17? A Statistical Breakdown

Last year, we also guessed Mojo.  (Caps Outsider)

Now that the NHL offseason is coming to a close and the Caps don’t look like they are going to add anymore players, it’s time to talk about something very important. Which bobbleheads are going to be handed out at this seasons upcoming Inova Blood Drives?

Let’s first start off by taking a look at who does and does not have a bobblehead of their own.

Players

Those highlighted in green have had bobbleheads of themselves made by either Inova or the Caps themselves while those highlighted in red have not. For the sake of this article, if the player already has a bobblehead, they’re out of the running *cough* Nicklas Backstrom *cough*. This leaves us with Lars Eller, Brett Connolly, Daniel Winnik, Stan Galiev, Nate Schmidt, Philipp Grubauer, and, oh yeah, MARCUS JOHANSSON. We’ll get to our rant on him later but let’s start by taking a statistical look at these players.

StatsNote: Grubauer has 42GP, 32 starts, 15W, 15L, 2.38GAA, and .921 SV%. He just didn’t fit nicely in my little chart. Grubauer does, however, have a bobblehead in Hershey.

These stats clearly show that Johansson, with 78 goals and 154 assists, is overdue for a bobblehead. Now that he has signed an extension, he seems like a prime candidate to get one of the next four Inova bobbleheads to be given out this season. So let’s mark him down as a definite and next year scold ourselves when he get’s beat out by Galiev.

Next up would most likely be Schmidt, given that he is a fan favorite among Caps fans. We even designed one ourselves for the occasion. Unlike the chart above, which lists total games played, Schmidt has the second most (without a bobblehead) among current Caps.

Nate Schmidt bobblehead, which is the best idea on this list.

The next logical choice would be Grubauer, given his increased role with the Caps last season, coming in and stealing some major wins which helped them dominate the regular season. He has built up a small but strong resume and has given fans a reason to love him. He already has a bobblehead from his Hershey days, but at this point there may be room for a Caps one.

This leaves us with one remaining bobblehead, but no clear frontrunner given that the remaining suggestions have played a combined 46 games with the Caps. But wait, who said I have to pick somebody off of the chart? That’s why I’m going to totally ignore the remaining guys up there and pulled a Jakub Vrana out of my hat. With 16 goals and 34 points in 36 games last year with the Hershey Bears, Barry Trotz has enjoyed Vrana’s play as of late and Vrana could seriously compete for a 3rd line spot for this upcoming season. If he can make an immediate impact early on in the season he could be looking at one of the Spring or Summer bobbleheads to be his.

So we at Caps Outsider predict that Marcus Johansson, Nate Schmidt, Philipp Grubauer, and Jakub Vrana will all be turned into bobbleheads never to be seen again given bobbleheads at this years blood drives. Looking back at previous years however *cough* Nicklas Backstrom *cough* it wouldn’t surprise me if somebody like Andre Burakovsky sneaks in there but definitely look for Mojo to break free from the depths of what we all call the Eric Fehr treatment.

Andy Wallace

Bobblehead connoisseur for @CapsOutsider, creator of @CapsBobbles, and @4thLineBobbles mastermind.

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