It's the halfway point, let's talk turkey (Grade the players)

[SniperHF]

So the team has played 41 games, let's rate how everybody did.

I grade based on my own expectations, you can grade however you like.

A
Max Domi - I expected Max to be a solid contributor. He and a few others basically carried this team for a month.

Louis Domingue - It's still early but his steadiness in net is helping carry this team right now. Work on that shaky glove hand and some decision making improvements that will come with time and we may have a keeper.

Martin Hanzal - Career season offensively. Probably our best player this season.

Jordan Martinook - I think just about everybody wrote this pick off till just recently. Brings it every night and is surprisingly solid in transition for a young bottom 6 player.

Tobias Rieder - No sophomore slump here. Rieder excels in all zones and has elite defensive instincts to boot. Before some of the vets started showing up Rieder was right in that group with Domi carrying the load.


B
Mikkel Boedker - Career season offensively in the totals but doesn't bring the same impact game to game that got Hanzal his A.

Shane Doan - As his physical tools continue to fall off the cliff his transformation into a front net presence specialist is complete. Turns out he's really good at it and perhaps even getting better. Wish he'd stop making as many neutral zone lapses but as one of the only consistent PP contributors this season I continue to appreciate his dedication to the franchise.

Anthony Duclair - Young and inconsistent. Needs some help from Hanzal to maximize his effectiveness. But 23 points from managed minutes is amazing.

Stefan Elliott - Didn't expect anything, his recent play has surprised a bit. Defensively he's a less gaff prone than a certain PMD who used to patrol the blue line here but lacks some of the physical tools that would take his game to the next level. Still he's played much better than I would have thought given that his minutes are crazy limited and his game action inconsistent.



C
Kyle Chipchura - WYSIWYG. Still though, get out.

Brad Richardson - Richardson is basically a rich man's Kyle Chipchura . He's effective in all 3 zones, can play with anybody and in any forward position. Could be a little better on the draw but we have others who can handle that.

Connor Murphy - This is more of an incomplete. Murphy had a really rough start to the season but has come on strong lately. IF he can continue to show the physical side of his game while improving his consistency he might live up to his draft status after all. Still brings less offense than originally advertised but I can live with that.

Nicklas Grossmann - Grossmann is a blunt object. You need something smashed and he'll do it even at the price of positional play. Not the worst thing to have around here considering how soft the team can be.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Just when you think you have him figured out, he throws another curve ball. Last year his defense was abysmal to start and this year his offense took the hit. I am glad to see the resurgence of the more steady defensive OEL as we saw back in 2012-2013. Offense is picking back up lately as the team's PP has gotten in order. All in all basically on par.

Klas Dahlbeck - Reliable guy who won't kill you in spots 4-6. Harder to find than you'd think so glad to have him.

Boyd Gordon - Still the same offensive black hole. Actually maybe even worse. But the PK missed him and the early returns were great. Diminishing now but I don't think it's Boyd's fault.


Viktor Tikhonov - Didn't look entirely out of place for a few games in a top 6 role but when others got healthy he lost the role. Not sure he's the best fit for the 4th line but no one is gonna touch the Richardson line for now.

Zbynek Michalek - Somehow he's even slower but I think the brainfart plays of last season are down. Call it about even.


D
Anders Lindback - I didn't expect great things but I figured he'd be a little better. Outside of 3-4 amazing game's he's been bad. Maybe with more chances he'd round into a more consistent form but with Domingue being a farm product and Smith having the $$$ Lindback is most likely the odd man out baring a flameout from Domingue.

Mike Smith -

Antoine Vermette - Please stop passing to the other team.

Michael Stone - Defensively a disaster to start the season. Improving with time. He has shown a little more of that offensive flair we saw a few years back though which saves him from the F grade.

F
Steve Downie - Clearly not a fit in this system.


Not Rated
Craig Cunningham - Go away.

Dustin Jeffrey - Not a bad fill-in for a few games. More puck skills than I would have thought.

Joe Vitale - His face was broken.

John Scott - Har har

Laurent Dauphin - Not bad for a cup of coffee.

Philip Samuelsson - See above.

Tyler Gaudet - Not ready for the speed of the NHL game.



All Players list if you want to have a template to copy/paste.
[collapse=crap]
Anders Lindback
Anthony Duclair
Antoine Vermette
Boyd Gordon
Brad Richardson
Connor Murphy
Craig Cunningham
Dustin Jeffrey
Joe Vitale
John Scott
Jordan Martinook
Klas Dahlbeck
Kyle Chipchura
Laurent Dauphin
Louis Domingue
Martin Hanzal
Max Domi
Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Mikkel Boedker
Nicklas Grossmann
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Philip Samuelsson
Shane Doan
Stefan Elliott
Steve Downie
Tobias Rieder
Tyler Gaudet
Viktor Tikhonov
Zbynek Michalek

[/collapse]

Click to read more...

 

[ck26]

Best to worst, roughly:

Domi - This kid is the ****ing truth
Hanzal - Haven't heard anyone call him a third line center in the trade forum in a while ... hmm ...
Rieder - #VGood
OEL - Still God
Ming - Looks like he might be the truth. Fingers crossed.
Duclair - Yandle's my favorite Coyote ever but I love love love this trade.
Boedker - Sign a contract or get on a plane out of town, hurry up.
Murphy - Growing up and filling out and becoming a man. In flashes, he's a poor man's Chris Pronger.
Doan - I'm docking him points for all the FSA slobber fests.
Gordon - I <3 this guy. Current leader to be this year's jersey.
Martinook - #PGood
Richardson - Pleasantly surprised
Grossman - Brought back the snarl that we lost when Morris4Norris retired
Dahlbeck - Like him. not dominant but a solid contributor. great return on the vermette rental.
Vermette - A little disappointing, but still a good signing at a great price
Stone - Good games, bad games. decent enough.
Tikhonov - Pleasantly surprised. looks pretty good next to skilled forwards
Elliott - Didn't expect much, wasn't impressed when I saw him at first, but he's got a little something
Chipchura - #PGood
Smith - Lots of and lots of I hope he comes back healthy and is 2012ish again.
Michalek - Didn't love the signing but he's been OK
Scott - #Allstar #NoButSeriouslyHesNotBad
Lindback - Ugh. Expect him to be gone when Smith is healthy again
Downie - Yeah, he hasn't really worked out.

 

[SniperHF]

Hanzal - Haven't heard anyone call him a third line center in the trade forum in a while ... hmm ...

Might be on to something there.

Doan - I'm docking him points for all the FSA slobber tests.

 

[SpaceCoyote]

Stone has to be the most underrated player on these boards. He won the first pairing spot back from Murphy recently and has been our 2nd highest player in TOI this season for a reason. Has he looked bad at times? Yes, just like every other Dman on this team, however, he also can have flashes of brilliance which basically go unnoticed here. Against the Flames a few days ago he completely shuts down Bennett all game long, get little to no mention.

He's asked almost every night to play above his projected talent, yet every night he does at least a respectable job. If he's not sticking out, he is playing better than we could have hoped given his responsibility.

 

[rt]

I'd move Boedker up a tier. Same with Stone. Elliott I'd move down a tier and Domingue to the "not rated" category.

 

[MIGs Dog]

I appreciate Sniper's ratings, clearly more subjective than objective.

Bods and OEL lead the team in scoring, yet neither get an "A" grade. Bods is also on pace for career high in goals...hopefully he doesn't rupture any more organs.

Hanzal has had the benefit of "resting" for a third of the season. Maybe Doan would bring his beast mode more often if he also took more time off.

Speaking of Doan, on pace for 30 goals (most goals on team)...clearly deserves an "A" rating for that alone.

Love Domi and Rieder...I see them only getting better.

Duclair is still growing, and when the Yotes win the Cup we will look back at the Yandle trade as a major key to the transformation. The Duke also sports the best shooting % in the league!

Smith had a very good Oct/Nov, and only dropped off when he started playing hurt in December. Not an "A" grade, but a solid "B"

Overall the team is outperforming most expectations.

 

[rt]

Good point about Doan. 35g pace at his age, on this team, that's way above expectations and definitely deserves an A.

 

[Bonsai Tree]

I'm not going to grade on talent and stats, but on how well they fulfill their perceived roles.

OEL has turned the corner from some poor play earlier in the season. Perhaps he's excited about the chance at the playoffs. "B"

Doan is playing above and beyond expectations. "A"

Raider, Martinook, Chipchurra, Gordon filling their roles very nicely. "A"

Vermette is up and down. Hanzal, when in terrific but still fragile. "B"

Boedker, Domi terrific. "A plus"

Richardson, actually he's invisible to me. I don't know why. Unable to grade him.

Duke is terrific when on, getting better in his own end. I love the growth over the past few games. "A minus"

Scott - Playing at an All Star level, I suppose. "A" for his terrific grass roots campaign to get voted in.

Murphy and Stone, above expectations but there's plenty of work to do in order to fill 1 and 2 D. "B"

 

[Jakey53]

I'm not going to grade on talent and stats, but on how well they fulfill their perceived roles.

OEL has turned the corner from some poor play earlier in the season. Perhaps he's excited about the chance at the playoffs. "B"

Doan is playing above and beyond expectations. "A"

Raider, Martinook, Chipchurra, Gordon filling their roles very nicely. "A"

Vermette is up and down. Hanzal, when in terrific but still fragile. "B"

Boedker, Domi terrific. "A plus"

Richardson, actually he's invisible to me. I don't know why. Unable to grade him.

Duke is terrific when on, getting better in his own end. I love the growth over the past few games. "A minus"

Scott - Playing at an All Star level, I suppose. "A" for his terrific grass roots campaign to get voted in.

Murphy and Stone, above expectations but there's plenty of work to do in order to fill 1 and 2 D. "B"

This is how players should be graded. Richardson started slow, but his line is playing fantastic. I would give him a B. Vermette a C.

 

[Spirit of Lindgren]

Several great analysis.
I would add one grade for one player and the most important....

The valley hockey fan-F

All of them know the importance of picking this franchise up and ending the constant laugh track of the hockey world.
Yet, beginning with the new ownership, through those embarrassing tailgate parties (10-15 fans) the fans have thus far failed to show up and play.
The same for the first half of this year.
2nd half coming up.
The most important student needs to raise their grade.
Heres hoping they will finally wake up.

 

[Mosby]

Glad to see Martinook getting A's across the board. I was sort of expecting, and still am somewhat, him to flame out ala Klinkhammer and McMillan, but it hasn't happened (yet).

 

[samabam]

My grades will seem pretty unfair to certain players but I grade based on expectations, so when Dahlbeck gets the same grade as OEL it doesn't mean that I think they're equally good.

Goalies:

Smith: started the season great but fell off a cliff pretty quickly...still for what we pay for him and how long we are commited to him he deserves no better than a D in my books.

Lindback: I didn't expect much from him, he had ~3 really good games (vs Ottawa, Minnesota and Colorado) and some pretty bad ones. But based on expectations and how much he is paid he's been ok. C-

Domingue: Incomplete as of now, pretty much every goalie had a phase like his current one (anyone remember Brian Bouchers shutout streak or Al Montoyas first few games for us?), we'll see if he can keep it up not rated

Defence:

Dahlbeck: He's doing just fine B-

Ekman-Larsson: My grade for him we'll seem unfair when compared to the other players but I guess I'm grading based on my expectations and I expected just a tad more of him, especially to start the season he gave me the impression that his head wasn't in the game 100% B-

Elliot: based on expectations I'm ok with his play actually a little bit pleasantly surprised C+

Grossman: Based on the scouting reports from Philly Fans before the season I expected David Hale 2.0. In reality he is the best physical presence we've had since Klesla decided to play like crap B+

Michalek: I didn't really want him back he looked done one year ago, but he's been alright so C

Murphy: shaky start to the season but has been getting better as the season went on. B

Stone: is prone to some gaffes but overall I don't think he's been as bad as some people on this board seem to think C+

Offense:

Boedker: he was a desaster at the point on the PP to start the season, but other than that he's still been decent on the defensive side of the game and has a good point output. B-

Chipchura: yeah he's been ok, and doesn't get 2nd line minutes anymore but I want my bottom liners to play with more grit and heart D

Doan: I thought it would all be downhill from last season but boy has he proven me wrong. Watching some clips of the games he seems to be pretty looked up too by our younger players and that can prove to be very valuable for them A-

Domi: awesome (better than expected) to start the year (I thought he deserved the rookie of the month for november as no other rookie has had the impact on the team he had) fell off a little bit but still our most creative player and that as a rookie A

Downie: Instead of physicality we've gotten penalties, whether that is because the refs dont give him a break anymore or because he plays stupid I dont know but he's been a negative impact overall F

Duclair: obviously sheltered a little bit, but he's actually producing points and lately has started to create offense for himself B+

Gordon: I cant say how much I missed his steady defensive presence, but he is overpaid by a little B-

Hanzal: He would be an A++ in my books if he didn't seem to be made of glass, but his always good presence on D paired with him putting up a higher amount of points than he's ever had an A

Martinook: as a rookie Tippett relies on him for defensive assignments, that should say everything you need to know. A

Richardson: solid, solid, solid all around B

Rieder: improving on both sides of the ice A+

Vermette: He isn't the steady presence he was when we first acquired him, dating back to 2014-15. Sure he did take a low salary when he came back, but I still think he could do more. D-

Scott, Tikhonov: haven't played a significant amount of time incomplete

 

[cobra427]

I would rate each player based on realistic expectations at the start of the season. Your either exceeding, hitting, or under expectation. I will only talk about the guys over or under "realistic" expectations.

Over-Martinook/Domi/Duclair/Bods/Hanzal(when healthy)/LD/Dahlback/Doan. The rookies are over achieving so far along with the old timer and 1C Hanzal.

Under-Smith/Downie. Maybe Smith's injury effected his play but with his GAA he is under even being an average goalie(what I would realistically expect).

The rest of the guys Z/Stone/Murphy/OEL/Gordon/Chip/Vermette(much better lately), are about as expected.We have way more guys having great years then poor years for sure.

Basically, the rookies, especially LD, are above expectations, and the reason for a great deal of our success. As the season moves along, it will be tougher for the young guys to do much better then they have, and I expect some regression, meaning not another 46 points in the second half. It is a great start to the rebuild though, excited about our future.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

My ratings:

Anders Lindback - C. Mike Smith with a Swedish passport. Extra credit for not being as pricey.

Anthony Duclair - B minus. A+ skill with a C+ head at the moment. Needs seasoning.

Antoine Vermette - C plus. Don't know what he drank after winning the Cup with Chicago but the hangover has taken FOREVER to wear off.

Boyd Gordon - C. He's been invisible, and not in a very good way.

Brad Richardson - B. More than I expected him to be. Great depth.

Connor Murphy - C plus. I like that he's developing an edge, but I don't like how his decision-making has suffered. Needs to course-correct.

Craig Cunningham - F.

Dustin Jeffrey - Incomplete.

Joe Vitale - D. Based on current evidence he might not see the ice as a Coyote again, and while I sympathize with his concussion woes I don't think anyone would notice he's gone.

John Scott - C. He is what he is.

Jordan Martinook - A plus. The only guy I've seen in recent memory who has taken the mantra, "You have to work to keep your spot in this league," fully to heart. Love this guy's ethic and effort.

Klas Dahlbeck - B minus. I think Klas is still trying to figure out how Tippett wants him to play. He's got speed and scoring touch but I don't think the coaching staff wants him to use it - they want him to play shutdown. Still love his skillset, though.

Kyle Chipchura - D. Has the decision-making ability of a limpet. I hear he's a great guy, though.

Laurent Dauphin - B. Think he should be the first called up when the rosters expand.

Louis Domingue - A minus. Really needs to work on his rebound control, but there's a lot to be said for steadiness and reliability.

Martin Hanzal - B minus. Solid A for skill and game-changing effect, but a D for fragility. Beginning to think we're never going to get a full season out of him, but I don't want to trade him because when he's healthy he's invaluable.

Max Domi - B plus. He's settled down to a more predictable rookie performance after basically playing out of his mind the first half of the season. He won't win the Calder but I think he's going to be a great player for us for a long time.

Michael Stone - C minus. Did he forget how to play defense in the off-season? He's gotten better lately but what a rough start to the year. That booming point shot of his, though, really tweaks the curve up for his grade.

Mike Smith - F. A head case with an albatross contract.

Mikkel Boedker - B minus. Ahead of the curve on his point production which boosts his grade; otherwise, he's the same maddeningly inconsistent edge-of-breakout player he's always been. My prediction: his agent won't like Maloney's offers.

Nicklas Grossmann - C. No skill to speak of but one of the few players on the roster capable of playing a "heavy" game in tight corners and in the crease.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - C plus. Low grade due to the fact that he's MUCH better than what he's shown this year in both zones.

Philip Samuelsson - Incomplete.

Shane Doan - B. Before his mid-season renaissance, Doaner played slow, tired, and disinterested. Whatever lit a fire under his ass, though, has turned him back into a substantial contributor. I hope it lasts the rest of the year.

Stefan Elliott - B minus. First couple of games after we got him, I was afraid we had another Rundblad on our hands, but he seems to have figured a few things out. I'm pleasantly surprised by him.

Steve Downie - F. Not showing any of the stuff we signed him for.

Tobias Rieder - B. Great in all zones, suffering a bit offensively. But he's dependable, skilled, and a great asset.

Tyler Gaudet - Incomplete.

Viktor Tikhonov - B plus. He's playing the game he didn't want to play when we let him go to Russia, and he's turned out to be damn good at it. Glad we got him and hope we keep him.

Zbynek Michalek - C. His heart's there but his body isn't anymore. A diminishing asset.

Several great analysis.
I would add one grade for one player and the most important....

The valley hockey fan-F

Hard to disagree with this, except I'd change it to read "The valley sports fan" because it's not just the Coyotes dealing with these fickle, bloviating doofuses who bleat from couches instead of bleachers.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Hard to disagree with this, except I'd change it to read "The valley sports fan" because it's not just the Coyotes dealing with these fickle, bloviating doofuses who bleat from couches instead of bleachers.

It results from so many valley residents being transplants, or their parents are transplants from other parts of the country. Boston fans have generations of family that have rooted for the Bruins...same with Montreal, Chicago, Detroit, etc.

If the Kings started losing their fans would bail as well.

It will take many decades to develop a loyal fan base that sticks with the team through thick or thin.

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

Grades:

Domi - A - The kid is really good, hockey IQ off the charts and literally kept us from imploding early in the year
Hanzal - B - Can't give him an A because of the injuries, but when he plays he's a force
Rieder - A - The kid keeps getting better, never thought he'd be a top 6 player, but he's proving me wrong
OEL - A - yes he's had struggles early in the season, but I contribute those to trying to do everything resulting from our entire team lack of play and his partner who was playing worse than garbage
Domingue - B - hasn't played enough games to grade out to an A, we will see if his stellar goaltending can continue, another 20 games same as the last 10 and he will have earned his A
Boedker - A(-) - He's been our most consistent forward and leading the team in points and looking to pt out at over 60+

Duclair - B+ - Better than expected, the only thing holding him back is Tippett's distribution of mins and not getting to play with his wonder twin Domi
Murphy - B - Been playing at an A level with OEL last 15 games, but played at C level first 20+ games, so he gets a B
Doan - B - usual Doan, starting to come around right around Xmas time frame.
Martinook - B - Dude has proved me wrong, he's a player, and a fierce competitor, great 3rd liner
Richardson - B - started off slow, but the 3rd line is producing and that is something we've never had

Gordon - C - he's a warrior, but he's got 2pts, not good enough for anything better than a C
Grossman - C - Meh
Stone - C(-) - bad early, now that he's playing against weaker competition, he's looked much better, he's a 4, nothing more
Dahlbeck - C(-) - meh
Vermette - C(-) - he's been bad, but playing better lately
Tikhonov - C(-) - he's been ok, nothing special, saves from moving Chip up which is a bonus
Elliott - C(-) - doesn't play enough to warrant anything more, but he's better than Gormley
Chipchura - C(-) - he is what he is, not a very good hockey player

Smith - D - he's been our worst player
Michalek - D - he's been our 2nd worst player
Lindback - D - he's been our 3rd worst player

Scott - NA not enough games
Downie - NA not enough games

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

Glad to see Martinook getting A's across the board. I was sort of expecting, and still am somewhat, him to flame out ala Klinkhammer and McMillan, but it hasn't happened (yet).

Love Martinook.

He is capable, in one strong shift, of waking up the team when it is sleepskating by chasing the opposing D, working the boards etc.
It looks like he is the sort of guys who can make a major difference in playoffs games by scoring that one goal winner after 3OTs.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Boedker - A(-) - He's been our most consistent forward and leading the team in points and looking to pt out at over 60+

So how much should the team pay him, or is he potential trade bait at the deadline?

The team is 7th in the league in goals scored (some of that from Bods of course), but we are 3rd from the bottom in goals allowed...could be GMDM tries to shore up the D.

(P.S. I know this is off topic, but I've got trade deadline on my brain)

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

So how much should the team pay him, or is he potential trade bait at the deadline?

The team is 7th in the league in goals scored (some of that from Bods of course), but we are 3rd from the bottom in goals allowed...could be GMDM tries to shore up the D.

(P.S. I know this is off topic, but I've got trade deadline on my brain)

Boedker should get 5yrs $5.5 or less, which means the last 2 yrs of his contract he'll be making $6m, which is fine, he's now a $60pt player so he should get around $5.5

100pt + players should be $10m+
90pt players should be making $9m
80pt players or PPG players should be making $8m, (+/- 500k)
70pt players should be making $7m, (+/- 500k)
60pt players should be making $6m (+/- 500k)
50pt players should be making $5m (+/- 500k)
...and so on

Boedker will have hit 60pts only once, so he should take the escalating contract that reaches $6m or $6.5m at the end of 5 yrs. He's taking a risk by taking $50pt money but the team is taking a bigger risk that he's not going to revert to his old pt production

 

[MIGs Dog]

100pt + players should be $10m+
90pt players should be making $9m
80pt players or PPG players should be making $8m, (+/- 500k)
70pt players should be making $7m, (+/- 500k)
60pt players should be making $6m (+/- 500k)
50pt players should be making $5m (+/- 500k)
...and so on

Gretzky would LOVE this system...200 pts = CHA-CHING!

 

[Bonsai Tree]

Several great analysis.
I would add one grade for one player and the most important....

The valley hockey fan-F

All of them know the importance of picking this franchise up and ending the constant laugh track of the hockey world.
Yet, beginning with the new ownership, through those embarrassing tailgate parties (10-15 fans) the fans have thus far failed to show up and play.
The same for the first half of this year.
2nd half coming up.
The most important student needs to raise their grade.
Heres hoping they will finally wake up.

Not everyone can take off from work a half hour early on weekday games as I do in order to fight the traffic to the arena.

 

[Ebb]

"Bell" Curve approach

I will grade using a bell curve (based on overall team performance) using the currently listed roster (25 players) on the Coyotes website, which means roughly the following: A (2-3 players), B (5 players), C (10 players), D (5 players), and F (2-3 players). Note: I will list players for each level alphabetically.

"A" level players:
Boedker - Has done exceptionally well this season
Domi - Exceeded expectations quite a bit
Rieder - Shown that he can play both offense and defense well

"B" level players
Doan - Better than expected, but it took him a while to get there
Domingue - While I see him as a current A level player, but he hasn't played enough to earn that grade, yet
Duclair - Has done well, but does mess up every once in a while
OEL - Has been good, but he has also struggled a bit at times keeping him from the A
Martinook - A surprise to me, but has played his role well and earned himself continued starts

"C" level players:
Chipchura - Has played as expected
Dahlbeck - While he has improved, he tends to be somewhat invisible from my perspective
Elliott - Has done better than I expected, but still makes a fair amount of mistakes
Gordon - He plays his role decently, but I wouldn't mind seeing him do more than win faceoffs to earn an above average grade
Grossmann - Another surprise to me. I kind of see him as a C+ player this season
Hanzal - While he has done well recently, he was out for a bit (as expected). I could easily see him move up in the grades if he can stay healthy.
Murphy - Has done well recently, but it took him a while to get there. He could possibly move up as well
Richardson - Has played slightly better than I expected, but hasn't quite stood out
Smith - I know some grade him lower, but he has done okay when healthy. As an inconsistent player, the C is about right (if not a C- )
Stone - Does okay, but has way too many lapses in his defensive play.

"D" level players:
Downie - Pretty disappointing this season. He has done okay, but is often scratched. More specifically, I'd give him a D- (close to failing, but doing the bare minimum)
Lindback - While he has not done well, he shows a spark of skill to his game
Michalek - Has slowed down quite a bit and been injured a few times
Vermette - Although he has improved a bit, I still see him as underwhelming (especially for his pricetag); I kind of wish DT would scratch him for a game or two
Tikhonov - Has done decently for his role, but hasn't been able to truly find his niche. This was kind of a tough decision (I see him more as a C level player at the moment), but he's only played 14 games for us (and 11 for Chicago) this season, so I have to grade him down a bit.

"F" level players:
Scott - Unfortunately, in a curve you have to have 10% receive an F. Scott has been okay when playing, but he is pretty one-dimensional and has only played 11 games (and scored 1 point)
Vitale - He's only played one game, so I can't see assigning him a grade; however, it's kind of like a student who shows up to the first day of class but then disappears (ending up with an F). If I did eliminate him from the assigning of grades, I'd move Downie to the F, Smith to a D, Duclair to a C, and Domi to a B (based on his mid-season scoring slump)

 

[kihekah19*]

Not everyone can take off from work a half hour early on weekday games as I do in order to fight the traffic to the arena.

Then they have their priorities out of whack - time to find a new job!

 

[CC96]

Rieder - A+ - His positioning is absolutely impeccable on both sides of the puck, and considering he's on pace for 50+ points, his play is legitimately starting to resemble Jere Lehtinen.

Domingue - A+ - Sample size is probably too small, but he's undefeated in every start this season. Can't ask for much more than that.

Domi - A - Kid's been pure fire this year. He's tailed off in production the last 15 games, but still looks dangerous. Seems snakebitten more than anything else lately.

Martinook - A - Plays every shift like it's his last, and has exceeded literally everyone's expectations. Somewhere out in the cosmo's, Rick Knickle is smiling, since he's been redeemed.

Hanzal - A(-) - He's been really fragile as usual, but when he's healthy, his play has been absolutely stellar.

Duclair - A(-) - Duke's trailed off a little lately, but he's ridiculously skilled and still on pace for 20+ goals with little ice-time. Also, shoutout to him scoring like Forsberg.



Boedker - B+ - On pace for 60 points and looks great on offense this year, but he's been poor defensively and prone to turnovers on the power play.

Doan - B+ - Started off slow, but lately he looks straight outta 2004 and is on pace for 30+ goals.

Ekman-Larsson - B+ - Inconsistent defensively at times, but he's on pace for 20+ goals and 50+ points and that's even after you factor in that he's about 8 posts this season. If Oliver Ekman-Larsson didn't hit the post so much, he would win the Rocket every year.

Richardson - B - Very good utility player, who can play up & down the line-up in all situations. Tippett has a Chipchura/Moss tier crush on him, but Richardson's competent, so I tolerate it.

Murphy - B(-) - Played like crap at the beginning of the year, but he's really turned it on, since he was scratched for a few games in December.

Grossman - B(-) - Not a great player by any means, but he brings an element of physicality that we've desperately needed, since we lost our heavyweight D-men after the WCF run.



Gordon - C - Gives us needed depth at center, but completely invisible on offense. Not the beast he was four years ago, but still a serviceable player.

Dahlbeck - C - He's done alright. Nothing great, nothing horrible.

Tikhonov - C - Looks real solid wherever you put him throughout the line-up.

Stone - C(-) - Looked like he'd been lobotomized early this season, but he's picked up his play, since he's been moved off the top-pairing.

Elliott - C(-) - Good skating ability, occasionally flashy on offense, but prone to dumb mistakes

Downie - C(-) - Takes stupid penalties (his reputation doesn't help), but he's got underrated scoring ability and I love his piss and vinegar, after watching last year's coward brigade.



Vermette - D - He's played much better recently, but for almost the whole season, it seems like his head is still in La-La Land after winning the cup.

Michalek - D - Still tries to block shots like a warrior, and he's more mobile than last year, but he just doesn't have much left in the tank. Not too bad on the 3rd. pairing though.



Smith - F - Horrible goalie.

Lindback - F - Somehow, an even arguably worse goalie. It's really almost impressive.

Chipchura - F - Surprise, surprise, I gave Chip an F. Was an unmitigated disaster when receiving top-9 minutes early this year. Plays with no fire like last year's driftwood brigade, now that he's on the bottom line. With 9 minutes a night, he doesn't really have the chance to actively hurt the team anymore, but there's no reason a guy like Laurent Dauphin couldn't easily outperform him in his current role. Completely expendable player.

John Scott - A+ - #1 on the ice, and #1 in my heart. His resume speaks for itself, and it's great having an all-star captain on our team.

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

Laurent Dauphin couldn't easily outperform him in his current role. Completely expendable player..

This...Dauphin was better in the 2-games at doing what we want from Chipchura.