Cam Fowler Scouting Report
Looking for a fit behind Zach Werenski for CBJ's left-side defense
The Player
Quick Hits
Cam Fowler, a 31 year old left-shot defenseman, played for the Anaheim Ducks last year as they finished last in the NHL. Stats from naturalstattrick.com.
He posted 10 goals and 38 assists for 48 points with 6 goals and 20 assists coming at 5 on 5. This was the best total offensive production performance in his career.
At 24 minutes per game (1982 total minutes across 82 games played) he was relied upon in all situations for the Anaheim Ducks.
His possession stats weren’t so rosy, with him posting a 43.71 Corsi%, but the Ducks were getting caved across the ice.
Across his career, Cam Fowler has played 62 Stanley Cup playoff games, most recently in 2016-2017 where he posted 9 points across 13 games. He has never lifted the Stanley Cup.
Diving Deeper
We’ll take the first look at his results in either end. As we can see, Cam Fowler outperformed the rest of the Ducks at 5v5. The team allowed fewer quality shots and took more. He was the teams deserved PP1 QB but couldn’t outperform his team on the PK.
It almost goes without saying, Cam Fowler was the teams best defenseman and he played against all of the top competition. While his possession stats were understandably bad, his season summary can give us a good idea of why those heavy minutes may not have gone his way. He played against top competition and with NHL defense partners who couldn’t really carry their own weight in Dmitry Kulikov and Scott Harrington.
Team Adjusted Data
Cam Fowler did not survive his minutes. He produced close to league average in terms of observed shooting and shot quality but struggled to make a difference in putting pucks in the net or keeping them out of his.
When a total team is this bad, it’s hard to read too much of algorithmically adjusted numbers. Vladislav Gavrikov is the most recent data point to attest to not necessarily believing what the stats tell you. Let’s take a look at some of the hand tracked data and see what we find.
The Microstats
Cam Fowler shakes out as around league average at exiting the zone. There doesn’t appear to be a specific partner assignment as we can see that Fowler’s partners weren’t doing a large share of either retrieving or exiting.
Cam Fowler was the most aggressive defenseman in an otherwise conservative group. The Ducks look, similarly to the Blue Jackets, as a team that is behind the times in terms of defending early and instead preferred to allow entry and hope they could limit chances from there. While Fowler did deny entries at an above NHL average rate his total carry against% was still around league average. The question remains, can this 31 year old defenseman adapt his game to a different role?
The Contract
According to CapFriendly.com, Cam Fowler has 3 more years remaining at a $6.5 million AAV which is attached to a 4 team trade list. His actual salary will outpace that value for the next two years before dipping again in the final year. This ranks him tied for 29th in cap hit among NHL defensemen alongside Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, Torey Krug and Hampus Lindholm.
The Fit
The Checkboxes
Primary Considerations
Aggressive Blueline Protection
Plays Left Side
Better than Team Defense
Cam Fowler checks all of these boxes. While he still has room to shape his game a little more aggressively, it’s not hard to see him making that change when he already showed out in that category while the evidence suggests he wasn’t being asked. He certainly outperformed his team but not to the point of winning his considerable minutes.
Secondary Considerations
Veteran Savvy (bonus to Playoff or Stanley Cup Experience)
Surviving Tough Minutes
Penalty Killing
Short Term Contract Flexibility
Cam Fowler certainly has playoff experience and at age 31 is certainly a veteran. His recent time in Anaheim shows that he can certainly survive tough minutes but he is still bent a little towards offense. Both boxes checked. His penalty killing leaves something to be desired but his coach certainly put him in that situation. It’s hard to say whether he will replace Gavrikov fully in the respect, but it could be worse. His contract is a really good fit. 3 years for a veteran player gives the Blue Jackets the perfect amount of time to determine what they have with Denton Mateychuk and Stanislav Svozil.
Motive to Move
Unfortunately, this is where Cam Fowler starts to fall apart as a potential acquisition target for the Blue Jackets. The conditions of his M-NTC means he selects 4 teams to which he would allow a trade. The Blue Jackets would have to offer both a convincing role and/or a more desirable contention timeline than he has with the Ducks. The Blue Jackets would also have to convince the Ducks to sell the elder statesman of their blue line right before breaking in a burgeoning young D pool that features the 3 CHL Defensemen of the Year (Zellweger, Mintyukov, Hinds).
TL;DR
Cam Fowler likely isn’t coming to the Columbus Blue Jackets but Jarmo Kekalainen should absolutely kick the tires because he would be an excellent fit.