We’ll get right to the point on this one: it was a season full of weirdness and inconsistency on the Flyers’ blue line, but Radko Gudas proved to be an exception to this. Indeed, he was one of their most consistent defensemen, if not the most consistent, full stop. He wasn’t always their flashiest player (and we don’t always like him when he is), but Gudas was able to bring a level of stability to the team, and performed well in the role he was given.
By The Numbers
Basic Stats
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM | Shots on Goal | Shooting Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 50 | 132 | 3.03 |
Not a bad stat line here, all in all. We don’t really expect Gudas to be an offensive force, but he was able to kick in a bit of scoring this season, even taking a step forward from his total of 16 points in the previous season. With what seems like a near-Pavlovian response to shoot the puck as soon as he gets it at the blue line, and very often to little success, his shooting percentage is always going to look pretty brutal, but really this is just about par for the course. Nothing to get too fussed about here.
5v5 Individual Stats
| Points/60 | Primary Points/60 | Shot Attempts/60 | Expected Goals/60 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.85 | 0.48 | 14.12 | 0.2 |
5v5 On-Ice Stats
| Score-Adjusted Corsi For% | SA Corsi Relative | Corsi For % RelTM | SA Expected Goals Relative | Goals For % | PDO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.06 | 1.95 | 2.45 | 3.52 | 53.58 | 101.6 |
Gudas did receive some easier assignments this season, relatively speaking, but on the whole, the team performed well in both shot quality and quantity when he was on the ice. They tended to be get the better of the shot share, and also generated more quality chances than they were giving up while Gudas was out there, and this seems a sneaky good accomplishment. Those numbers don’t look positively stellar, but the team wasn’t driving play particularly well for much of the season, so with that considered, they start to look even better. That’s driving positive results, folks! Just look at that positive goals-for differential. Process and results all lining up. That’s the good stuff.
Three Burning Questions
Did this player live up to our expectations for this season?
No, he didn’t. Rather, he seemed to exceed them. Coming into this season, what felt freshest in our minds was how much of a disaster he looked playing alongside Brandon Manning, particularly in the playoffs. We were hoping this wouldn’t be the case, but there certainly seemed to be a group with the (valid) worry that he might just be cooked.
But this wasn’t the case! As we mentioned in the intro, and have worked out through the stats, Gudas had himself a quietly very solid season, better than we might have expected of him, coming into the season. He came in and did his job, and there’s not a whole lot more that we could have asked of him.
What do we expect from this player next season?
Well, about 12 hours ago when I was wrapping this up my answer was “more of the same, we hope!” And maybe that doesn’t change, but either way, Gudas will be doing good or bad things next season with the Washington Capitals. So we no longer have expectations for what he’ll do next season as a Flyer. *sad trombone noise*
What would we like to see this player improve on?
We love to say that it’s never too late for a player to make improvements to his game, but at this stage in Gudas’s career, we aren’t likely to see too much in the way of that. And that’s okay! If we had to pick something, we’d perhaps key in on the discipline issue. He wasn’t hit with a huge suspension like he was two seasons ago, but he did get two games for high-sticking Nikita Kucherov this season, and that’s not great. So let’s maybe try to stop turning our brain off and swinging our stick at dudes’ heads? Just a thought.
All stats via Corsica.Hockey, HockeyDB, and Natural Stat Trick
