I enjoy this thread and haven't seen it up, might be due to all the depression around here, but I am excepting this topic to be fully negative.
Goalers
Semyon Varlamov: C- He was one of the main reasons why Avs were able to challenge for a playoff spot until the end. But when the games really counted, he coward and wasn't the Avs best player when he needed to be.
Calvin Pickard: B- Looked good and played with a quite a bit of swagger. Don't really have anything bad to say about him, but there are traits he still needs to work on before making that next step. One of them in particular is his lateral movement and letting in big 5 hole goals.
Reto Berra: N/A Berra has the good and bad moments, seems like a good teammate and quality backup, but that is still a brutal trade.
Defensemen
Erik Johnson: C- Ups and downs for Erik, but his stats line was quite disappointing for a player with his talent. I think this season has shown that his intelligence probably won't ever match his physical ability. I think he's still an average to below-average #1, but probably won't ever become anything more.
Tyson Barrie: C- Offencive side he carried the Avs and was quite good on just puck rushing ability by himself. But defensive side, he has never progressed and was too aggressive at times he didn't need to be when Avs were up a goal. One of the main problems as I mentioned before is he's going for body checks, when he should play a puck stealing game via stick skills instead.
Francois Beauchemin: B Form and play fell apart towards the end there, but more to be blamed by the coach than the player. Overall though, it was a quite successful season from him becoming one of the best free agent signings of the past summer. Roy will need to reduce his minutes more next season, but has provided so much thus far.
Nick Holden: D- Deserves an F, but he did have a good first half which should get a quick mention. Sorry, but totally disagree with the people who think he sucked for the whole season. He did play quite good for a two to three month period. He seems like a good guy and teammate, but lack of intelligence and just overall lack of ability makes him one of the worst players this season (and hopefully gone for next).
Nikita Zadorov: C Considering his age, I think C is a fair grade. He's still trying to figure out the defenseman he wants to become and went through growing pains from this. At times, his decision making was just atrocious at the first half of the season. He looked quite arrogant in his abilities, and sending him down made him have an eye opening experience. Since his call him, he has played a much simpler game with an fantastic passing, rushing, and physical elements. Still trying to get more confident when in those prime scoring chances, but IMO they will come with time.
Chris Bigras: B- Played to his strengths and didn't look out of place. You can tell his hockey IQ is quite remarkable and the main reason why he never made a lot of mistakes. But as a lot of Avs, his play fell as the season went along and I was quite disappointed with his pick skills. For a player who had around 70 points in the OHL, some of those mistakes were more brutal than the game against Arizona that made Zadorov get sent down for. Whatever the case, Avs have a good one in Bigras to desperately help this Avs D core for next season.
Zach Redmond: D- Too risky to consistently stay in the line up. Made some good plays and can rush the puck, but horrible in 1v1 battles and decision making. Lets hope he's also gone for next season.
Forwards
Matt Duchene: B- Still beyond too inconsistent showing a weak mental side of the game. Weak in terms of he's a weak person, but weak in the viewing that he gets too down on himself, every player gets down on their selves, but Matt takes it to a new level. On the bright side though, he figured it out and went on a good run getting to thirty goals which Avs haven't had since the mid 2000's with Sakic.
Gabriel Landeskog: C It was a nice bounce back from a horrible start to the season, but that can't go unnoticed for me either. Battles hard as anyone, and is one of the more tough players with the puck, but simple mistakes have been his downfall. One of them is focusing on being too aggressive leaving his man which became a storyline for him throughout the season. He looked like he was trying to do too much out there and overthink a lot of plays, which didn't need to be. He's a proud player and one of the few who looked emotionally pissed considering this season a failure.
Nathan MacKinnon: C- Was still a learning year for MacKinnon, needs to realize that you can score besides trying to snipe it in everytime. Also needs to know what to do when teams adjust to his speed. Too many times did we see him buttonhook the play just giving time to the opposing team gain back positioning for defense. Even Rycroft mentions that a lot of good things happened to MacKinnon when he went into the zone, making the defenders back off, and just shoot the puck. Of course the goaler would save it 9 out of 10 times, but 9 out of those 10 times resulted into at least a rebound for another Avs forward to pounce on it.
Carl Soderberg: B- I thought it was a successful season for Soderberg, hell he posted a career year in overall points. But as good as he was, there were stretches where he disappeared and games where he was soft physically. He's still a solid player to replace the strengths that Stastny brought including deceptive skills like stickhandling and playmaking. But like Stastny before him, there will be times where he goes into ghost mode for a week. Overall good first season and excepting him to have a more consistent year when MacKinnon is healthy again dropping his minutes.
Jarome Iginla: D I appreciate his effort, he's still a pretty talented player regarding on the tiny details, but some of main aspects of hockey, he has totally regressed in. Will always go down as a class act and HOF for me, but it's just time to move on and hope a Cup contender can take him off our hands for next season.
Blake Comeau: C I think a solid mid grade is perfect for Comeau. I am still a Comeau fan, he has cons, but his pros for me outweigh these aspects. One of them I truly admired was his work ethic and how insanely good it was. He is a player you know wants to win, and that desire also contributes to him to hold on the puck a bit too long, which gets him into trouble. Keep his minutes a bit lower next season including off the powerplay, but he was a good signing.
Mikhail Grigorenko: B+ He was one of the few successful seasons for the Avs, so he gets a pretty good grade. His effort and competitiveness has really grown over the 82 game season. I don't think he's quite there yet in evolving his game into a more complex one, but he's getting close. As we also saw, he's one of the smarter players on the Avs where more body mass and power skating will help him in the future. Looking forward to him next season.
John Mitchell: D He has the good side of Malkin and the bad side of Mitchell. He's kind of like the Shane O'Brien of forwards where he thinks he's better than what he is. He was a good player for the club for a long time, but this season he fell back into the dark abyss where he earned his nickname of Malkin. Had his good moments, and looked quite good when Duchene and MacKinnon were injured, but just very frustrating player overall. He's another player I hope is gone for next season, I think I might rather see Hishon/Agozzino there as the 4th line option instead.
Jack Skille: C+ Just amazing effort and desire to do all he can for the club. I wouldn't mind re-signing him to the same amount, but wouldn't be too disappointed if he left. After his injury, it looked like whatever form he was on, just wasn't able to piece again together. Good 4th liner, just nothing more.
Cody McLeod: D+ This might be too harsh on Cody, he wears his heart on his sleeve and was okay on penatly killing. I just think he's a player that all coaches trust a bit too much leading him to play absurd roles like powerplay or even on the first line at times. That's not his fault, but I think he's a very dumb hockey player. As average players think in the two dimension (north to south) and the stars thinking in the three (north to south, but also west to east), McLeod is a very two dimension player. But not only that, I think he's a fairly low two dimension showing the same problems Holden does, late to reaction and normally wrong in puck anticipation. Won't be the reason why Avs win or lose games, which is the reason why he will be back next season (won't be good or bad for me.
Mikkel Boedker: B He is what he is, a complimentary top 6 piece. Though it was nice to see this team go out and grab more hockey intelligent players. He made quite a difference and you could tell that he reads the game at a high rate, even if he has other problems. Being weak physically and not very consistent in defensive ability (better than Jamie McGinn, that's for sure, he was Godawful defensively). Even if Avs don't re-sign, I will still like him as a player and hope his future endeavors work out for him, just don't think he's a player worth gambling Avs future cap space over. Would be a good replacement to bring back if Avs don't land Radulov.
Shawn Matthias: B+ Always a Matthias fan, and he cemented my opinion about him when he was able to play with talented players. Like Boedker, he is complimentary piece, but also like Boedker, give him some good players to play with and he rarely misses the opportunity. Along to go with other players, love the effort, body usage, and how he goes to the dirty areas. Though I thought his defensive game got quite a bit overrated on HFboards by everyone. Definitely a player I would love to see next year in an Avs jersey for the right price.
Andreas Martinsen: D+ I think Martinsen developed over the course of the season, which is a good sign. I think he can progress into something nice with more experience, but lets not forget he was pointless for 50ish games (a big amount). Don't really have anything else to say about him, lets hope he progresses and at least becomes an average bottom 6 player.
Limited Viewings
Andrew Bodnarchuk, D
Eric Gelinas, D
Brad Stuart, D
Andrew Agozzino, C
Goalers
Semyon Varlamov: C- He was one of the main reasons why Avs were able to challenge for a playoff spot until the end. But when the games really counted, he coward and wasn't the Avs best player when he needed to be.
Calvin Pickard: B- Looked good and played with a quite a bit of swagger. Don't really have anything bad to say about him, but there are traits he still needs to work on before making that next step. One of them in particular is his lateral movement and letting in big 5 hole goals.
Reto Berra: N/A Berra has the good and bad moments, seems like a good teammate and quality backup, but that is still a brutal trade.
Defensemen
Erik Johnson: C- Ups and downs for Erik, but his stats line was quite disappointing for a player with his talent. I think this season has shown that his intelligence probably won't ever match his physical ability. I think he's still an average to below-average #1, but probably won't ever become anything more.
Tyson Barrie: C- Offencive side he carried the Avs and was quite good on just puck rushing ability by himself. But defensive side, he has never progressed and was too aggressive at times he didn't need to be when Avs were up a goal. One of the main problems as I mentioned before is he's going for body checks, when he should play a puck stealing game via stick skills instead.
Francois Beauchemin: B Form and play fell apart towards the end there, but more to be blamed by the coach than the player. Overall though, it was a quite successful season from him becoming one of the best free agent signings of the past summer. Roy will need to reduce his minutes more next season, but has provided so much thus far.
Nick Holden: D- Deserves an F, but he did have a good first half which should get a quick mention. Sorry, but totally disagree with the people who think he sucked for the whole season. He did play quite good for a two to three month period. He seems like a good guy and teammate, but lack of intelligence and just overall lack of ability makes him one of the worst players this season (and hopefully gone for next).
Nikita Zadorov: C Considering his age, I think C is a fair grade. He's still trying to figure out the defenseman he wants to become and went through growing pains from this. At times, his decision making was just atrocious at the first half of the season. He looked quite arrogant in his abilities, and sending him down made him have an eye opening experience. Since his call him, he has played a much simpler game with an fantastic passing, rushing, and physical elements. Still trying to get more confident when in those prime scoring chances, but IMO they will come with time.
Chris Bigras: B- Played to his strengths and didn't look out of place. You can tell his hockey IQ is quite remarkable and the main reason why he never made a lot of mistakes. But as a lot of Avs, his play fell as the season went along and I was quite disappointed with his pick skills. For a player who had around 70 points in the OHL, some of those mistakes were more brutal than the game against Arizona that made Zadorov get sent down for. Whatever the case, Avs have a good one in Bigras to desperately help this Avs D core for next season.
Zach Redmond: D- Too risky to consistently stay in the line up. Made some good plays and can rush the puck, but horrible in 1v1 battles and decision making. Lets hope he's also gone for next season.
Forwards
Matt Duchene: B- Still beyond too inconsistent showing a weak mental side of the game. Weak in terms of he's a weak person, but weak in the viewing that he gets too down on himself, every player gets down on their selves, but Matt takes it to a new level. On the bright side though, he figured it out and went on a good run getting to thirty goals which Avs haven't had since the mid 2000's with Sakic.
Gabriel Landeskog: C It was a nice bounce back from a horrible start to the season, but that can't go unnoticed for me either. Battles hard as anyone, and is one of the more tough players with the puck, but simple mistakes have been his downfall. One of them is focusing on being too aggressive leaving his man which became a storyline for him throughout the season. He looked like he was trying to do too much out there and overthink a lot of plays, which didn't need to be. He's a proud player and one of the few who looked emotionally pissed considering this season a failure.
Nathan MacKinnon: C- Was still a learning year for MacKinnon, needs to realize that you can score besides trying to snipe it in everytime. Also needs to know what to do when teams adjust to his speed. Too many times did we see him buttonhook the play just giving time to the opposing team gain back positioning for defense. Even Rycroft mentions that a lot of good things happened to MacKinnon when he went into the zone, making the defenders back off, and just shoot the puck. Of course the goaler would save it 9 out of 10 times, but 9 out of those 10 times resulted into at least a rebound for another Avs forward to pounce on it.
Carl Soderberg: B- I thought it was a successful season for Soderberg, hell he posted a career year in overall points. But as good as he was, there were stretches where he disappeared and games where he was soft physically. He's still a solid player to replace the strengths that Stastny brought including deceptive skills like stickhandling and playmaking. But like Stastny before him, there will be times where he goes into ghost mode for a week. Overall good first season and excepting him to have a more consistent year when MacKinnon is healthy again dropping his minutes.
Jarome Iginla: D I appreciate his effort, he's still a pretty talented player regarding on the tiny details, but some of main aspects of hockey, he has totally regressed in. Will always go down as a class act and HOF for me, but it's just time to move on and hope a Cup contender can take him off our hands for next season.
Blake Comeau: C I think a solid mid grade is perfect for Comeau. I am still a Comeau fan, he has cons, but his pros for me outweigh these aspects. One of them I truly admired was his work ethic and how insanely good it was. He is a player you know wants to win, and that desire also contributes to him to hold on the puck a bit too long, which gets him into trouble. Keep his minutes a bit lower next season including off the powerplay, but he was a good signing.
Mikhail Grigorenko: B+ He was one of the few successful seasons for the Avs, so he gets a pretty good grade. His effort and competitiveness has really grown over the 82 game season. I don't think he's quite there yet in evolving his game into a more complex one, but he's getting close. As we also saw, he's one of the smarter players on the Avs where more body mass and power skating will help him in the future. Looking forward to him next season.
John Mitchell: D He has the good side of Malkin and the bad side of Mitchell. He's kind of like the Shane O'Brien of forwards where he thinks he's better than what he is. He was a good player for the club for a long time, but this season he fell back into the dark abyss where he earned his nickname of Malkin. Had his good moments, and looked quite good when Duchene and MacKinnon were injured, but just very frustrating player overall. He's another player I hope is gone for next season, I think I might rather see Hishon/Agozzino there as the 4th line option instead.
Jack Skille: C+ Just amazing effort and desire to do all he can for the club. I wouldn't mind re-signing him to the same amount, but wouldn't be too disappointed if he left. After his injury, it looked like whatever form he was on, just wasn't able to piece again together. Good 4th liner, just nothing more.
Cody McLeod: D+ This might be too harsh on Cody, he wears his heart on his sleeve and was okay on penatly killing. I just think he's a player that all coaches trust a bit too much leading him to play absurd roles like powerplay or even on the first line at times. That's not his fault, but I think he's a very dumb hockey player. As average players think in the two dimension (north to south) and the stars thinking in the three (north to south, but also west to east), McLeod is a very two dimension player. But not only that, I think he's a fairly low two dimension showing the same problems Holden does, late to reaction and normally wrong in puck anticipation. Won't be the reason why Avs win or lose games, which is the reason why he will be back next season (won't be good or bad for me.
Mikkel Boedker: B He is what he is, a complimentary top 6 piece. Though it was nice to see this team go out and grab more hockey intelligent players. He made quite a difference and you could tell that he reads the game at a high rate, even if he has other problems. Being weak physically and not very consistent in defensive ability (better than Jamie McGinn, that's for sure, he was Godawful defensively). Even if Avs don't re-sign, I will still like him as a player and hope his future endeavors work out for him, just don't think he's a player worth gambling Avs future cap space over. Would be a good replacement to bring back if Avs don't land Radulov.
Shawn Matthias: B+ Always a Matthias fan, and he cemented my opinion about him when he was able to play with talented players. Like Boedker, he is complimentary piece, but also like Boedker, give him some good players to play with and he rarely misses the opportunity. Along to go with other players, love the effort, body usage, and how he goes to the dirty areas. Though I thought his defensive game got quite a bit overrated on HFboards by everyone. Definitely a player I would love to see next year in an Avs jersey for the right price.
Andreas Martinsen: D+ I think Martinsen developed over the course of the season, which is a good sign. I think he can progress into something nice with more experience, but lets not forget he was pointless for 50ish games (a big amount). Don't really have anything else to say about him, lets hope he progresses and at least becomes an average bottom 6 player.
Limited Viewings
Andrew Bodnarchuk, D
Eric Gelinas, D
Brad Stuart, D
Andrew Agozzino, C
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