The (basically) end of regular season report cards

[HandshakeLine]

You really going to teach kids wrong information!?

I agree, how dare they steal the internet's job!

 

[LOGiK]

I agree, how dare they steal the internet's job!

Well thats a whole different beast haha... but seriously... kids are going to think presidents are dictators and you wonder how stupid starts?

Telling kids if you are president you can create laws.

I see a lot of propaganda etc in schools and usually just shrug it off... not sure why this bothered me so much. President does not write laws!!!
Come on man............

haha

 

[Empoleon8771]

Why are the grades costantly changing and redacting information in the op post?

WTH is going on here? You should be a teacher in my local (hella corrupt) school district... change grades whenever to whatever....

I haven't changed anything in the OP since I added Jankowski to the extras review.

 

[LOGiK]

I haven't changed anything in the OP since I added Jankowski to the extras review.

You're right... I think I just had an out of body experience.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I haven't changed anything in the OP since I added Jankowski to the extras review.

Also, Jankowski doesn't add anything either so it all works out.

 

[LOGiK]

There are also DOC out there and POJ... crazy how much this team has morphed from start to finish.

People come and go rather quickly.

 

[Tom Hanks]

Evolving-Hockey glossary

Goalies

 

[SEALBound]

Tough season to judge as there are two big considerations - expectations vs delivery and first half vs second half.

Forwards
Crosby A - started slow but it's still Sid doing Sid things.
Guentzel A- - overall great but his game has changed a smidge.
Rust - A - I thought we'd see regression but we didn't.
Zucker - C - Good players have down seasons.
Malkin - B - First half bad, second good.
Kapanen - A+ - Incredible pick up. Love him.
McCann - A+ - Really blossomed in a way we all thought he could.
Carter - A+ - Great pick up. Looking forward to seeing his playoffs.
Gaudreau - A+ - What more could you ask for? I am so happy for him!
Sceviour - D - Was expecting Horny-lite got less than that. Would rather have seen other young players instead.
Blueger - A- - Not unexpected necessarily but a welcomed surprise.
Rodrigues - B - After getting into the bottom 6, great bottom 6 player.
ZAR - B - Beginning, great then trailed off. Still a great defensive player.
Tanev - B+ - Production was up, hits like no other, speed and energy for days.
Jankowski - D - Didn't work. Sorry Jank.
Lafferty - D - Didn't work this year. Sorry Laffy.

Defense
Dumoulin - B - First half shaky, second half was the old Dumo.
Letang - A - Great Letang season. Very happy.
Matheson - B+ - Everything we were sold on. A much needed addition.
Ceci - A+ - I hated the signing initially but what more could you possibly ask for? Great signing JR.
Pettersson - C - Down season...but...I dunno. Not great.
Marino - C - Saw regression but I think he'll be fine.
Ruhwedel - A - I thought he played great relative to price and position. I was no longer scared to have him on the ice. Would like to have seen more.
Riikola - B+ - Thought he was great in the games he was in. Wish we could see more.
Friedman - B - Promising. Not sure if he's that much better than Ruddy or Riiko, but time will tell.
POJ - B - Promising. Looking forward to seeing more.

Goalie
Jarry - B+ - Shaky start but rounded into form.
Desmith - A - Everything we could want in a backup.

 

[TKalltheTime]

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

Rust: C+ BAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA…


HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

 

[Peat]

Sceviour - D - Was expecting Horny-lite got less than that. Would rather have seen other young players instead.

From a career 4th liner? I hope the emphasis was on the word lite. I know Florida fans talked up his intensity and how he was a fan favourite but still, career 4th liner.

Right now Sceviour gave us an 18 point pace as a 10 minute a night 4th liner and was arguably our best PKer. Only a -1 at 5v5, which isn't great but isn't awful all things considered. I'm not sure what more should have been expected from a career 4th liner.

 

[SEALBound]

From a career 4th liner? I hope the emphasis was on the word lite. I know Florida fans talked up his intensity and how he was a fan favourite but still, career 4th liner.

Right now Sceviour gave us an 18 point pace as a 10 minute a night 4th liner and was arguably our best PKer. Only a -1 at 5v5, which isn't great but isn't awful all things considered. I'm not sure what more should have been expected from a career 4th liner.

He exists and misses a lot of opportunities. I would rather have seen other young players like Big Z and Angello and certainly GOAT. So sue me.

Would you advocate resigning him at $1.2mil?

 

[Peat]

He exists and misses a lot of opportunities. I would rather have seen other young players like Big Z and Angello and certainly GOAT. So sue me.

Would you advocate resigning him at $1.2mil?

I wouldn't advocate resigning him, but that doesn't make him a disappointment. Neither does missing a lot of opportunities unless you had some real high expectations for a guy who's not hit a 10% shooting percentage at 5v5 in any of the six preceding seasons before he got here. If anything the fact he's done so this season (for now) should count as a nice surprise.

And as for the other players - I don't really want Radio Zoho playing 8 minutes a night of tough minutes, I don't think that's good for him so I don't care if Sceviour got those opportunities, and Freddie Hockey's already marched above him in the pecking order so they can clearly co-exist. Angello's the only guy who's really in competition there and, eh, maybe I'd have preferred him to get the minutes instead, but I can't bring myself to care too much that we went for the established 4th liner rather than the probable 4th liner.

And I don't think the guys behind him should factor into whether he was a disappointment or not anyway.

 

[Tom Hanks]

 

[vodeni]

this one I got it right

 

[ColePens]

I'll keep it simple:

- I don't think you can give anyone on that defense less than a B-. Even if Pets, IMO, wasn't great, he was no worse than a B-. I thought he at least played his part. I think for expectations prior to the season, every dman played up to their expectations at the bare minimum and most of them played far beyond it.

- How anyone on this earth could give Rusty anything less than an A is ridiculous. That is borderline absurd.

- I couldn't ever give a guy like Sceviour, AA, or Zohorna a grade less than a B because expectations were nil. Sceviour has been a guy who at least shows up and works hard when given a shift. It's not like a complete and utter waste of time. The only forward I would drop lower than a C is probably Jank. He was a massive disappointment.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

I found this tweet to be interesting. I guess it can go here:

 

[Peat]

I'll keep it simple:

- I don't think you can give anyone on that defense less than a B-. Even if Pets, IMO, wasn't great, he was no worse than a B-. I thought he at least played his part. I think for expectations prior to the season, every dman played up to their expectations at the bare minimum and most of them played far beyond it.

You think Marino played up to expectations?

- How anyone on this earth could give Rusty anything less than an A is ridiculous. That is borderline absurd.

His 5v5 production was really bad. I know he made up for it elsewhere but I struggle to give an A to someone who gets a full season with Sid and doesn't put up better 5v5 numbers.

I couldn't ever give a guy like Sceviour, AA, or Zohorna a grade less than a B because expectations were nil. Sceviour has been a guy who at least shows up and works hard when given a shift. It's not like a complete and utter waste of time. The only forward I would drop lower than a C is probably Jank. He was a massive disappointment.

Lafferty?

 

[Peat]

I found this tweet to be interesting. I guess it can go here:

I'm pretty sure that's because WAR measures McCann against 3rd liners (2nd liners tops), but even so, the ridiculousness of his season is hard to overstate.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

People forget that forwards are part of the defense just as defensemen are a huge part of a great offense.

The forwards getting their act together matter as much to the improvement over the year.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Lafferty?

He gave us the short lived Live, Laugherty, Love meme, though.

 

[Peat]

He gave us the short lived Live, Laugherty, Love meme, though.

So short lived I'm not sure I ever saw it.

 

[HandshakeLine]

So short lived I'm not sure I ever saw it.

Like Laughtery's flashes of brilliance, like a fish pissing into the sea.

 

[Tom Hanks]

 

[HandshakeLine]

Friends don't let friends Lafferty.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Sceviour is a a C to me. Like he kinda sucked as far as being an energizing, impactful player shift to shift in the gritty way you’d like a 4th liner to be. But he scored pretty damn well and was ok on a bad PK.

All washes out to a normal year for a C student, so I give him a C.