I know there is one more game, and I suppose these grades could massively change if something drastic happens against the Sabres tomorrow, but I figured it was still appropriate enough to give out final grades for the season for players.
Forwards:
Crosby: B. He's had a relatively poor year in terms of 5v5 production, and his saving grace has been that he has gotten a lot of empty net points. But even with that, he's still on pace for around 35 goals and 95 points on the season while being pretty excellent defensively and being one of the only healthy players on the year. I think a B is appropriate for him.
Guentzel: B+. Similar to Crosby, but Guentzel has been more productive at 5v5 than Crosby and has firmly established himself as an elite LWer in hockey.
Rust: C+. He produced at basically his old career normal at 5v5 but has just gotten top line minutes this year. His overall stat line is still good, he's roughly on pace for a 30-30 year per 82 games, but I would have expected him to be producing a little more considering how much ice time he got (and how many empty net points he got). Sullivan has also basically stopped using him on the PK and has started using him as an offensive first winger, which I think doesn't get all you can out of Rust.
I may get pushback on this one because "he's on pace for 60 points!", but I'm honestly tempted to bump him down to a C if anything. I used the post-February 18th for Malkin below, and I just happened to look at where Rust fell at in that window. He has a 1.33 5v5 points/60 in 41 games since February 18th, which is 19th of any player on the Penguins and 17th among players who have played in 10 or more games. That's terrible. His 5v5 points/60 over that window is on par with Lafferty and Angello, both of who are slightly above him. Over that same window, Crosby and Guentzel are almost exactly at 2 5v5 points/60 (2.04 for Crosby, 1.99 for Guentzel).
Malkin: F to start the year, A to end the year. Let me put Malkin's stat before February 18th and after February 18th, and I think you can figure out why this rating is fair:
Pre-February 18th: 7 points in 14 games, 1.53 5v5 points/60, -6.75% xGF%Rel
Post-February 18th: 21 points in 18 games, 3.01 5v5 points/60, +3.69% xGF%Rel
I really think the stats can justify the ratings perfectly. Since February 18th, Malkin has been a downright force. Before then, he was downright horrendous. Luckily the Stanley Cup playoffs don't happen in the first half of the season, so if I had to give him a rating on the year overall, I'd put more weight on post-February 18th than pre-February 18th. Malkin has been elite since that cutoff point that I picked, and I think that really supports the argument that Malkin's slow start was due to COVID messing with his off-season and pre-season routines.
Zucker: C-. I think he's been thoroughly meh throughout the year. His stat line is fine and I think people on here have been way too harsh on him, but I don't think he has passed the eye test that much and his on ice results are pretty blah overall. But luckily, if your worst grade on the year is "meh" (spoiler alert, no regular forwards are below C- for me), your team is in a great spot.
Kapanen: A. He's been the best 5v5 producer for the Penguins this year by a pretty healthy margin, outside of Carter being amazing since he was acquired. That's just a fact. Easy A. If this is the Kapanen the Penguins get going forward, they're going to end up underpaying for him.
McCann: A. He's been one of the best 5v5 producers this year for the Penguins, has shown he can play in a variety of roles while still producing and had a huge part in reigniting the Penguins stagnant powerplay to start they ear. Easy A in my eyes.
As an aside, the performance of McCann and Kapanen this year should probably make Hextall really hesitant on giving Rust an extension. If this is what McCann and Kapanen are going to be going forward, they're both better than Rust and Hextall would be making a bad decision to lose out on one of them to pay Rust.
Carter: A. His small sample size this year as the Penguins 3C has been better than any 3C performance the Penguins have gotten since Staal. And yes, I'm including Bonino with HBK there. And before someone makes a big fuss about that, put this Carter with 2016 Hagelin and Kessel and see how he does there. I bet he does even better than Bonino did.
He has completely replaced the role that Bonino had, while costing about 60% of what Bonino would have cost to retain. The only sad thing to me is that he's old and he's likely leaving after next year, but he's been the solution to the 3C question that the Penguins have had since Bonino left.
Rodrigues: B-. He was an absolute failure while playing with Crosby to start the year, but since getting demoted to the bottom-6, he's been a very effective bottom-6er for the Penguins. I don't think he's been anything special and I don't think a B- is a bad rating, but I think he's been a solid depth guy for the team.
ZAR: B-, and has been dropping since the start of the season. ZAR was absolutely great to start the year. He was producing really well, looked significantly faster and was actually playing like a 3rd liner. But look at his last 20 games, he has 2 goals and 6 points in 20 games while playing 15 minutes a night. That translates to a 5v5 points/60 of 0.94. Sure, the defense is still there and he looks better than what he did last year. And maybe my rating is a little too harsh because of how good ZAR looked to start the year. But he's been steadily getting worse and worse as the season has gone on.
Blueger: B+. On one hand, his production looks awesome this year. Blueger basically playing at a 40 point pace while playing mostly with defensive wingers in an ultra defensive role is great. But if you look under the hood, it really seems like his production is absolutely unsustainable. He's playing better than what he did last year, but his point totals are super inflated because of an unsustainable shooting%. He's been good this year, but he's a big time candidate for a big regression next year.
Tanev: B+. I think you can basically copy and paste the justification for Blueger and change it to Tanev and it would fit perfectly. He's been good, but he's not a 40 point guy going forward.
Extras (not going to spend a ton of time on the justification and not going to look at guys with small sample sizes):
Gaudreau: A. He's proven to be a great versatile bottom-6er that can play in a variety of roles. Considering he was signed as an AHLer, that's a great outcome for him.
Lafferty: D. He's probably not on the team next year. 0 goals and 6 points in 34 games with a ton of stupid penalties? I think he was probably the worst forward who got in a substantial amount of games on the team this year.
Sceviour: C. A disappointment in what he was advertised to be, but he hasn't exactly hurt the Penguins either. He put up roughly a 20 point pace while killing penalties in a 4th line role, I think that's fine. He'll be a decent signing for a team with bad depth for next year IMO.
Angello: C. He had flashes, but that's really about it. He's similar to Sceviour, he was a fine 4th liner but that's really about it.
Jankowski: D-. Jankowksi was so forgettable that I forgot to even include him in this post.
Will do the F and G in another post
