Look at that face. Embrace the lack of concern. That is the face of a man that can waltz through the halls of Hell and not have a bead of sweat sully his brow. If there is a defining characteristic to Nick Perbix, it’s that he is unflappable. He’s also the next one up on our player review series.
The Basics
Name: Nick Perbix
Position: Defense
Counting Stats: 77 Games, 2 Goals, 22 Assists, 17:05 TOI
Extra Stats (5v5): 49.96 CF%, 49.47 SF%, 50 GF%, 47.91 xGF%, 49.88 HDCF%, .902 On-ice Save Percentage, 1.9 iXG
2023-24 Contract: First year of a 2-year, $2.25 million contract
Contract Status: Final year of a 2-year deal with a $1.125 cap hit. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The Charts
The Review
Nick Perbix is better than you remembered him being. Honestly, that’s the takeaway from looking at his 2023-24 season. Was he a Norris contender? No, but he was solid if unspectacular last season. The unassuming Olympian appeared in 77 regular season games and 2 playoff games before an injury to his AC joint ended his season slightly ahead of his teammates. While he might not be winning any individual trophies, he played the type of games that most coaches would be more than willing to take from a third-pairing defenseman.
Perbix is one of those players that, for some reason, provokes wildly emotional responses from the fan base. There are those that love him, and those that wouldn’t mind seeing him on the first flight to Mars. Because he doesn’t excel at any one skill on ice, but does pretty much everything at a replacement level or better, he doesn’t stand out a lot in the positive. However, when he does make a mistake, it tends to be a glaring one, which tends to color one’s performance in a negative light.
Going through the numbers and the underlying stats, Perbix had a solid season. Considering he gave the team second-line pairing minutes on a $1.125 million contract, he provided them with a pretty good value as well. It might be damning him with faint praise, but for a team where the defense isn’t drawing from the deepest well of talent he should have a role on the team in the upcoming season.
If you watched Perbix play last season you noticed that he isn’t a very aggressive defender at his own line. He isn’t up at the blue line denying entries and forcing players to dump the puck or turn it over. However, once they are in the zone he does a very good job of preventing chances, and if he gets his hands on the puck he is better than average at either carrying the puck out of the zone or making a clean pass to remove the danger.
For a third pairing defender, which is the role the 26-year-old is probably the most suited for, that is what coaches are looking for when they are on the ice. His ability to position himself in the zone also allows for his defensive partner to be a little more aggressive. Perbix spent a lot of the early season with Victor Hedman, a defender who does like to attack the blue line and is more than willing to zoom up the ice with puck.
The pairing had its problems, mostly when Hedman was a little too aggressive in the offensive zone and was caught out of position after a turnover. No one is going to confuse Perbix with Apolo Ohno so he would be caught out of position on the ensuing odd-man rushes. After Darren Raddysh moved up to join Hedman midway through the season, Perbix was caught without a consistent partner. He spent some time with Mikhail Sergachev (101 5v5 minutes) and they struggled to the tune of a 37.93% expected goals for percentage.
After Sergachev’s injury, Perbix continued to bounce around a bit, even playing on his offside at the end of the season as the team searched for depth on the left-hand side of the defense. One pairing that did find success was with Emil Lilleberg. The duo played for 233 5v5 minutes and posted positive numbers in attempted shots and scoring chances. They did concede a few more high-danger chances than you’d like to see, but again, for a third-pairing they did a good job of treading water.
Offensively, Perbix is a bit of an enigma. When he shoots, he does a good job of putting quality shots on net, but he just doesn’t shoot. In 1,230 5v5 minutes he had 53 shots on goal and his 7.02 shot attempts/60 was the second lowest on the team with only Erik Cernak taking fewer attempts. He also had a fair share of shots blocked. Based on the numbers from Natural Stat Trick, he had 62 shot attempts blocked, which works out to 43.06%, the third highest number on the team behind Cernak and Calvin de Haan. During the 2022-23 season he only saw 28.57% of his shots blocked.
If those shots are getting blocked down low by the goaltender, it’s not necessarily a bad thing as it can create a little chaos for the opposing goaltender and that’s a good thing. However, if those shots are getting blocked by the first line of defenders, usually forwards, it can act almost like a turnover at the blue line, especially with the way the Lightning like to drive their off-shot defensemen towards the net or along the half-boards. That leaves them exposed to odd-man rushes if they can’t recover the puck.
When he did get his shot on net, it was tricky for goaltenders to handle and Perbix generated more than his fair share of rebounds that turned into assists.It’s a good trait to have, especially on power plays, and it would be interesting to see if he picks up more than 5 minutes of ice time with the extra skater next season, especially if the second unit goes with two defensemen instead of four forwards.
Speaking of penalties, Perbix doesn’t take them. It’s that simple. Maybe he should be in the running for a Lady Byng, because in more than 2,300 minutes of ice time over the last two seasons he’s taken a total of 16 penalties. He isn’t overly physical so he doesn’t take unnecessary roughing penalties and he is a strong positional player so he doesn’t get caught reaching or holding players often either.
Based on the fact that we’ve seen two seasons of Nick Perbix at the NHL level that were extremely similar, there is a good chance that what we’re seeing is what we’re going to get. He’s also at that age where you normally don’t see much improvement from players so there is no reason to expect much difference in his play next year.
That’s not necessarily a negative. He is what he is, a serviceable defenseman who can fulfill a third-pairing role and jump into a few more minutes if needed. Not everyone who suits up is going to be an all-star and most championship teams are filled out with players similar to his skillset.
Is it enough to hold off the next wave of defensemen that will be clamoring for playing time like Lilleberg or Max Crozier? That’s yet to be seen. Could he be an intriguing piece for another team looking to shore up their depth? Possibly. It’s unlikely he’d be the centerpiece in any trade the Lightning make to bring in middle-six offensive help, but he would be a useful addition.
In all likelihood, he’s going to battle for a spot behind Darren Raddysh and Erik Cernak and end up on the Lightning’s 23-player roster. A healthy sense of competition coupled with the fact he’ll be an unrestricted free agent for the first time next summer could be the proper mix of motivation to bring the best out of him. The Bolts will need that if they are hoping to get into the playoffs and make a long run.
Previous Reviews
