Regular Season / Playoffs:
Arvidsson: A / F
Great production in the regular season hard to ask for more (stay healthy?). Non-existent in the playoffs.
Johansen: B- / D
Decent regular season. Having his wingers out makes a difference for his numbers since he's not the main driver, but I'm still expecting more from him relative to his salary. Playoffs were not strong, not like his previous couple runs.
Forsberg: B / F
Pretty good scoring in the regular season. He missed time too, but I think he could still score more. Another no-show in the playoffs.
Turris: F / F
An attrocious regular season. The numbers don't even begin to tell the story of how ineffectual he was in the regular season. I get that he was injured, but they clear him for play and he didn't really do anything. A few flickers of life in the playoffs which made me think of giving him "D" instead of "F" - but that would only be relative to his regular season.
Granlund: F / F
Showed a few flickers towards the end of the playoff, but overall he was not the guy we thought we were getting in this trade. I'm hopeful he gets things back in order with a fresh start next season. But that doesn't save his grades for this year.
Smith: B+ / B-
He got his 20 goals and I think he plays a reasonably hard middle-lineup role. I don't really find fault with his performance relative to my expectations.
Bonino: B / C
I thought he was pretty effective overall in the regular season. I probably wouldn't have predicted 17 goals and 35 points. He seems like a good glue guy. We paid a premium to put him in that spot, but he's doing ok. A little underwhelming in the playoff.
Jarnkrok: C /C-
He's saved by not really having high expectations on his performance I guess. Becoming increasingly irrelevant to the team.
Grimaldi: B+ / A+
He was pretty good in the regular season, and of course our best forward in the playoffs. That's basically a synopsis of why we're out... if Grimaldi is your best forward in the playoffs, well, good for him, but that's not a good thing at all for the team.
Sissons: A / D
I thought he had a fine regular season and got career highs moving around the lineup. But his playoff contribution was nothing like the last couple years unfortunately.
Watson: B / B-
Kinda hard to grade him with all that went on, but he was on course for career best too in the regular season, and was one of the few guys throwing his body around like we needed in the playoffs.
Boyle: B / B
I don't have any complaints with his game. I'd take him back. We need some vet leadership and he has size and can chip in. We're slow, but I don't think he hurt us in that area, he still does his best work in a way that doesn't really depend on skating.
Simmonds: F / F
Eh, it was worth a try to add him. Didn't work out. Hope he gets a good chance somewhere, always liked him.
Salomaki, Gaudreau, McLeod, Rinaldo: F / F
I don't think we need any of these guys on the roster next year. Not that what the #12/13/14 F should really make much difference. But I didn't feel these guys added anything even in their limited roles. Whoever we have waiting in the wings, whether it's Trenin or Helewka or Pitlick or anybody trying to crack the lineup: play hard, forecheck hard, be fast and strong, we ought to have our auxiliary spots wide open.
Josi: A / B
Solid season. He played alright in the playoffs too, I thought, a lot better than last year. I'd like to see him jumping up in the play even more often, he's really good when he does.
Ellis: C / F
He got his share of points in the regular season. But I think we saw that his size and speed issues were exposed in the playoffs. When he was a relative bargain at $2.5M aav that's one thing. But I just don't see him as a fit for our team playing 25 mins at $6.25M. He can be a decent player somewhere, just overextended here.
Ekholm: A / C
Great regular season, especially first half or two-thirds. Ok in the playoffs... some of his penalties hurt us and it wasn't really his best stretch.
Subban: F / B
Something plagued him in the regular season. That was a big letdown. Whether he was hurt or not, the end result is still an F. He seemed to pick it up in the last couple of weeks and playoffs.
Hamhuis: B- / B
Basically about what I expected. In his best moments he did provide something more reliable than we've had in that 3rd pair slot lately. But you can tell he's not what he was.
Fabbro: B / B+
Showed better than I expected and really surprised they let him play all playoffs. Bodes well for the future.
Irwin: D- / na
Thought he had a bad year even with low expectations.
Weber: C / na
Irwin and Weber are I guess de facto #7/8 again next year, and I suppose one could do worse for spare depth.
Rinne: B / B
It wasn't a Vezina performance again, but all in all I think Pekka had a surprisingly good year. I thought he'd fade a little more than he did. A couple monster games in the playoffs, but end of the day folks will probably remember him getting pulled again.
Saros: B / na
Started a little slow, but by the end I think he was on par with Rinne and would have been ready to shoulder a bigger workload. Maybe he will next year.
Coaches: F / F
End of the day you can't have that PP or the inconsistencies and lack of accountability go on like that for a whole season and then let it torpedo you in the playoffs. The team never adjusted, and it had ample time and ample evidence of the need to do so.
GM: B / na
I liked the moves Poile made when they happened. On paper I thought he put together a real good team with good cap flexibility and the deadline additions of Boyle, Simmonds, and Granlund looked promising. But of course they didn't pan out. I'll pin that on coaching maybe? If Poile doesn't now take action on the coaching breakdown, his grade can drop.
My standard is basically to give a "B" when my expectations are satisfied... so it's subjective and relative to the role I perceive for a player, if that helps. You have to go above and beyond to touch an "A", I'm not an easy marker.
