Been kinda putting this off but I'm gonna do my annual grading of our players.
Thornton: A. Dude is still amazing and drives our offense. Had a good season despite all the offseason bullshit. He should have never lost the C.
Marleau: C. His worst season in a long time. Didn't even get to 20 goals and was questionable defensively all season which is crazy. Has been our most consistent defensive forward for years but he took a step back this year. Him bouncing back next season would be huge for us.
Couture: B+. Juicy had a good season, was second in scoring on the team. His defensive game also took a step back but not as severely as Marleau's.
Pavelski: A+. Our most consistent forward this season. Almost got to 40 goals, a PP monster. Really stepped into a more visible leadership role this season too, I love this guy.
Burns: B-. He got moved back to the blue line this season to mixed results. While he was one of the highest scoring dmen in the league his defensive game was mixed to say the least. I figured he would have rough start, and he did, but it never really got much better after that. There's an inherent risk with the type of game he plays but he's just not smart enough defensively to go against top lines, as he was doing for a lot of the season. Was better on the second pairing. Still, he provides more offense from the back end than most of our dmen combined. That's something we need going forward, I just hope we can find it elsewhere and that he can get back up to forward.
Wingels: A-. Wingels continues his upward trajectory, he's our best bottom six forward by a mile. He's fast, physical, and has some damn good hands. Hope he's on this team for a long time to come.
Hertl: C. Well here's the biggest disappointment of the season. Hertl just never really found his game. He was shuffled up and down lines all season, even centering our fourth line for a time. As the season progressed he got better and better but never really found the scoring touch. Big reason for that? Not playing with Thornton and Burns. Him with Pavs and Thronton just never really worked, Burns made that line run in a big way. Hertl looked most at home at center and part of the reason for trading Sheppard was that DW wanted to give Hertl a shot there. That never really materialized with the emergence of Tierney and I don't know how that situation will play out in the future. It will be interesting at least.
Nieto: B+. Nieto was super solid all season long. He wasn't getting rewarded with points but he was one of our best possession players. Works really well on the second line with Couture and Marleau. Later in the season he started getting some goals which was great, he deserved those. Really looking forward to him developing more.
Best Karlsson: A. Best surprise of the season right here. Melker fit in right away with us and was our most impressive rookie. He's not the best solution on Thornton's line but outside of Burns he has fit in there the best of anyone is years past. He's just a fucking buzz saw on the forecheck. Super glad we have him.
Vlasic: A. Steady as she goes for Pickles. Still by far our best dman and his offensive game keeps improving. He's never going to be a dynamic offensive player but he's just getting more well rounded. Doesn't look so out of place jumping into the rush anymore.
Braun: B. Braun struggled a bit this year after how amazing he was last year. Still a solid season though. I hope they don't split him and Vlasic up ever again, they play really well together.
Tierney: A. Another super impressive rookie this year. He started the season with the team, got sent down, and came back WAY better. Not sure what it was but that AHL stint really got him going. Seems like he's poised to be our new 3C. He's defensively responsible and crafty as fuck offensively, was the best part about the later half of the season. Reminds me of a harder working, more talented Wellwood.
Irwin: B. Irwin really stepped up nicely this year. His skating has improved and his shot is powerful, something we really need because Burns is really the only other dman who has a great shot. Would definitely like to keep him around as bottom pairing/extra.
Goodrow: C+. Goodrow is inconsistent but hey, he jumped straight from Junior to the NHL so that's to be expected. He has talent and skates fucking hard, I think he'll develop into a great 4th liner for us.
Dillon: B. Dillon is a great young dman. He's top four already and is only going to get better. His offensive game is basically non-existant which sucks but he adds physicality, speed, and puck movement to our blueline. Hope we re-sign him and keep him around for a while.
Tennyson: C. This guy is okay. Fit in well enough without fucking up but he'll never be good enough to crack the top four here. In the few games that Fedun played he was way better than Tennyson so hopefully Fedun gets a real shot here next year. That he wasn't called up earlier was totally baffling to me.
Hannan: F. Retire already.
Smith: C. He seems decent enough. Don't like that we gave up Desi for him though.
Scott: D. lmao
Mueller: B-. He's one of the top d prospects out there and for the most part I think he looked good if a bit green to actually play full time in the NHL. He was routinely scratched in favor of Scott Hannan which was fucking hilarious. Thumbs up TMac. He's going to be very good.
Brown: F. Fuck you dude.
Niemi: B. Nemo did well given how the players in front of him played. Wouldn't mind him coming back on a one or two year contract if it was cheap.
Stalock: D. Stalock regressed from last year back down to numbers that look more like his career AHL numbers ie mediocre. He'll be around next year so I guess we'll see what he can do.
Overall, outside of a few players, everything either plateaued or played worse this year. Player usage was questionable and performance was inconsistent across the board. This team is in a really interesting position going forward. We have good players and just need a good coach. If our underperforming forwards and dmen bounce back next year I think we'll be back in the playoffs. Of course, if guys are just running out of gas then we're fucked. We don't have the top end talent to replace guys like Thornton and Marleau so the best we can hope for is a bounce back season.
Pipe dream: We get a dman to replace Burns so he can go back to forward.