2019 Report Card: Boo Nieves
Do the Rangers have their fourth line center in Nieves?
Expectations
Expectations were low for Boo Nieves heading into the 2018-19 season. The former second round pick scored his first NHL goal last season on Dec. 5, but he fell out of the lineup due to food poisoning and a hip injury. After recovering from those ailments Nieves spent the rest of the season — from Jan. 19 forward — in the AHL.
Boo Nieves -- a 2nd round pick in 2012 -- gets his first NHL goal. Good story in patience and perseverance from both Nieves and the Rangers. pic.twitter.com/ASCTDqLetu
— Steve Kournianos (@TheDraftAnalyst) December 6, 2017
At the end of the 2017-18 season Nieves had appeared in 28 games with the Rangers. He recorded one goal, eight assists, and 12 PIM. As one might expect, he failed to move the needle much in the shot share when he was on the ice. Nieves had a -1.42 Rel Corsi For percentage (Rel CF%) and a -2.60 Rel Corsi Against per hour (Rel CA/60).
Nieves started the 2018-19 season as a 24-year-old center with a career average of 0.50 points per-game in the AHL. Along with Brett Howden, Lias Andersson, and Peter Holland, he was battling for a spot as the Rangers’ fourth line center.
Performance
Nieves’ big opportunity to impress new head coach David Quinn was spoiled in an exhibition game. He suffered a concussion in the first game of the Rangers’ preseason when he was the recipient of a high hit from Eric Gryba of the New Jersey Devils. It was a brutal start to a pivotal season for the young pivot, who was playing in the final year of his contract.
Nieves heading to the dressing room after this hit from Gryba pic.twitter.com/psqlBcTFyx
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) September 18, 2018
Nieves practiced with the Rangers for the first time after his concussion on Nov. 3 after skating in a few practices with the Wolf Pack. After that practice with the Rangers, Nieves played 12 games in Hartford before his next opportunity to impress Quinn. In that 12-game window, Nieves piled up three goals and four assists.
The Rangers recalled Nieves on Dec. 15, and the fourth-line center picked up two goals and five assists and appeared in 10 games where he saw less than 10 minutes of ice time in that window. Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton sent Nieves back down on Jan. 19th before calling him up again on Jan. 27. From Jan. 29th forward, Nieves stuck with the big club.
The sample sizes of Nieves on special teams are so finite that they hardly warrant mention. He averaged 0:34 shorthanded TOI/GP — which was less than Lias Andersson. However, he did average 0:47 SH TOI/GP after the trade deadline, which suggests that Quinn and the coaching staff either liked what they saw from Nieves or were searching for answers with Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello out of the picture — or maybe both.
In the 18 games that Nieves played after the trade deadline he averaged 9:57 TOI/GP at even strength — or 8:54 TOI/GP at 5v5 per naturalstattrick.com. Nieves averaged 8:30 TOI/GP at 5v5 in the 29 games he played before the deadline. So, he saw a slight increase in ice time, but the real victory for Nieves was that he stayed up with the big club and that he and Steven Fogarty signed one-year extensions on deadline day.
So, what did Nieves do with that ice time?
The Rangers have gone down in a lot of games this season, but credit to them for getting back into a number of them. Strome to Nieves to make this a 3-3 game #NYR pic.twitter.com/I3bKD4M10n
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) February 28, 2019
The forwards that Nieves spent the least amount of 5v5 with this season were Hayes, Zuccarello, and Mika Zibanejad; the forwards he spent the most amount of time with were Jimmy Vesey (99:45), Vladislav Namestnikov (72:52), and Lias Andersson (67:13). Namestnikov and Andersson had a better Rel CF% playing away from Nieves — 3.14 and 1.24, respectively — and Vesey was actually worse in the shot share when he played away from Nieves.
Nieves’ most frequent lines at 5v5
| GP | TOI | CF | CA | C+/- | CF% | Rel CF% | GF | GA | xGF | xGA | xGF% | Rel xGF% | PENT | PEND | PDO | ZSR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 40.17 | 34 | 30 | 4 | 53.12 | 4.64 | 2 | 2 | 1.52 | 1.17 | 56.51 | 6.77 | 0 | 3 | 100 | 37.04 |
| 10 | 33.65 | 21 | 43 | -22 | 32.81 | -11.11 | 1 | 4 | 0.85 | 1.7 | 33.33 | -11.73 | 1 | 0 | 90.95 | 40.91 |
| 9 | 20.47 | 16 | 14 | 2 | 53.33 | 5.71 | 0 | 0 | 0.55 | 0.54 | 50.46 | 0.36 | 3 | 3 | 100 | 33.33 |
| 5 | 15.9 | 15 | 21 | -6 | 41.67 | -2.89 | 1 | 0 | 0.86 | 1.12 | 43.43 | -0.14 | 0 | 1 | 111.11 | 41.67 |
| 2 | 14.87 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 2.74 | 0 | 0 | 0.44 | 0.53 | 45.36 | -8.64 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 33.33 |
Nieves had four goals and six assists in 43 games in the NHL this year. He had a -7.71 Rel CF%, which was the second-worst on the team among Rangers forwards who played in at least 20 games. Nieves also had the highest Relative percentage of defensive zone starts (Rel DZS%) among the Rangers’ forwards who played in at least 20 games by a significant margin — his 4.95 Rel DZS% was a clear cut above Namestnikov’s 3.91 Rel DZS%.
That deployment (and ice time) lines up with the role that Nieves has been working to carve out for himself over the last few seasons. Slowly but surely, he proved to Quinn that he could play in the NHL. He struggled mightily on the faceoff dot (38.8 FO%), but did finish the season ranked fourth among Rangers forwards in penalty differential. For the most part his periphery stats were something of a mixed bag.
Grade: B | Banter Consensus: B-
Considering how low expectations were for Nieves heading into the season, it’s hard to look at the 2018-19 season as anything but a success.
Nieves fought tooth and nail to stick in the Rangers lineup and eventually did. His pursuit of a regular roster spot was put into serious jeopardy by his concussion, but he achieved his goal. There are definitely aspects of Nieves’ game that need polish, but his size and speed make him a compelling option as the team’s fourth line center.
Nieves is signed through July 1, 2020 when he will become a restricted free agent.
All data courtesy of naturalstattrick.com, Corsica.hockey, and ahltracker.com.
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