Phillip Di Giuseppe spent a whopping two weeks with Nashville after being claimed off waivers on New Year’s Day from Carolina. He saw 34 minutes total in just 3 appearances with the Predators before being waived and sent to Milwaukee.
The Report Card
The above visualization includes his time with Carolina. In Nashville, he had 0 points, 8 Corsi attempts and 4 shots on goal, with a -1 +/-. He averaged 11 minutes appearing in losses against Detroit and Carolina, and a victory against Montreal, completely in 4th line minutes. And to be fair, the goal was given up in the 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes—a game in which pretty much everyone did badly.
I imagine Nashville acquired him with the AHL in mind, but wanted to see if anything stood out. That was not the case. After a very promising NCAA career, Di Giuseppe has been the very definition of “Replacement Level”:
2019-2020 Outlook
Di Giuseppe signed with the Rangers this offseason, and with the salary cap crunch they find themselves in after signing Artemi Panarin, they’ll need cheap, healthy bodies on the 23-man roster. Hopefully, he catches on and gets significant time and improves—I really do like the kid and wish him well—but he’ll likely be a career AHL-type player.
Final Grade
D. There’s not much to evaluate: he was sheltered in three overall games, and kept things mostly even. Still, with players like Gaudreau, Pitlick, Salomaki and others seeing fourth-line minutes, Di Giuseppe couldn’t manage to stand out among mediocre competition.
Fan Grade
How would you grade Phillip Di Giuseppe’s season in Nashville?
| A | 4 |
| B | 1 |
| C | 9 |
| D | 28 |
| F | 16 |