To borrow from an old Alice Cooper classic, School’s Out for our Penguins. No more sticks. No more pucks. No more referees dirty looks.
It’s time for report cards to be passed out and grades to be assigned. In the past, I’ve written brief narratives for each player. However, with my mind already in summer vacation mode I thought I’d try a simpler approach (yes, less writing!) and just do a summary for each grade.
While I’ve loosely tied my grades to 5v5 goals for and goals against, there’s still a large degree of subjectivity involved.
Here goes:
| Grade A | ||||||
| Skater | Grade | GP | GF | GA | GF% | Diff. |
| Sidney Crosby | A | 82 | 67 | 51 | 56.78 | 16 |
| Rickard Rakell | A | 82 | 61 | 54 | 53.04 | 7 |
| Evgeni Malkin | A- | 82 | 53 | 50 | 51.46 | 3 |
| Jason Zucker | A- | 78 | 54 | 56 | 49.09 | -2 |
As a whole, this quartet exceeded all expectations. Notching a team-high 93 points, I thought Sidney Crosby had an amazing season at age 35. Then again, nothing No. 87 does surprises me. A consistent producer from the opening drop of the puck, Rickard Rakell tallied 60 points and blended exceptionally well with Sid and Evgeni Malkin. One year Sid’s senior and not far removed from major knee surgery, a remarkably hale and dynamic Geno played in all 82 games and racked up 83 points. Likewise, Jason Zucker bounced back from two injury-plagued seasons to tally 27 goals. Plain and simple, he was our heart and soul…our fighting spirit.
| Grade B | ||||||
| Skater | Grade | GP | GF | GA | GF% | Diff. |
| Jake Guentzel | B+ | 78 | 59 | 49 | 54.63 | 10 |
| Ty Smith | B | 9 | 6 | 3 | 66.67 | 3 |
| Marcus Pettersson | B | 68 | 56 | 56 | 50.00 | 0 |
| Bryan Rust | B- | 81 | 51 | 42 | 54.84 | 9 |
| Kris Letang | B- | 64 | 52 | 54 | 49.06 | -2 |
Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on Jake Guentzel, who potted a team-best 36 goals (including seven empty-netters). Although it isn’t reflected in his 5v5 numbers, I thought Jake’s defensive play was lax at times. Kris Letang endured a season packed with trial and tribulation but performed both admirably and courageously. Bryan Rust had a bit of a down year, but still managed 20 goals and while playing with his trademark hustle. Marcus Pettersson was solid. Ty Smith impressed in his brief cameo.
| Grade C | ||||||
| Skater | Grade | GP | GF | GA | GF% | Diff. |
| Pierre-Olivier Joseph | C+ | 75 | 53 | 41 | 56.38 | 12 |
| Josh Archibald | C+ | 62 | 21 | 16 | 56.76 | 5 |
| Jeff Petry | C+ | 61 | 51 | 49 | 51.00 | 2 |
| Mark Friedman | C+ | 23 | 12 | 10 | 54.55 | 2 |
| Alex Nylander | C+ | 9 | 5 | 4 | 55.56 | 1 |
| Drew O’Connor | C+ | 46 | 15 | 18 | 45.45 | -3 |
| Jan Rutta | C | 56 | 28 | 32 | 46.67 | -4 |
| Danton Heinen | C | 65 | 25 | 29 | 46.30 | -4 |
| Ryan Poehling | C | 53 | 15 | 19 | 44.12 | -4 |
| Chad Ruhwedel | C- | 47 | 21 | 26 | 44.68 | -5 |
| Brian Dumoulin | C- | 82 | 52 | 70 | 42.62 | -18 |
Being a thoroughly pedestrian team by almost every statistical measure, it’s no great surprise most of our players earned Cs. Jeff Petry wasn’t bad, but didn’t have the overall impact I’d hoped for or expected. Ditto fellow newcomer Jan Rutta. Pierre-Olivier Joseph put up strong 5v5 numbers and flashed some offensive skill and excellent mobility, but his play in the defense zone was checkered at best and shaky at worst. Possibly due to off-season knee surgery, Brian Dumoulin was a train wreck early. To my eye, Dumo improved dramatically in the final weeks to pull his grade out of the tank.
| Grade D | ||||||
| Skater | Grade | GP | GF | GA | GF% | Diff. |
| Mikael Granlund | D+ | 21 | 9 | 8 | 52.94 | 1 |
| Kasperi Kapanen | D+ | 43 | 16 | 24 | 40.00 | -8 |
| Brock McGinn | D+ | 60 | 18 | 27 | 40.00 | -9 |
| Teddy Blueger | D | 45 | 11 | 21 | 34.38 | -10 |
| Jeff Carter | D- | 79 | 24 | 41 | 36.92 | -17 |
As witnessed by his 5v5 numbers, Mikael Granlund didn’t play badly following his arrival. But with five measly points in 21 games, he simply didn’t produce. Having the misfortune of skating on a ‘donut’ line with a badly diminished Jeff Carter, I considered giving Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn each a C- but neither did much to distinguish themselves. Penalty-killing aside, Teddy Blueger’s overall game deteriorated badly. Perhaps as a by-product of advanced age and attrition, Carter was an albatross from Thanksgiving on and sank the third line for much of the season. If not for his remarkable faceoff prowess and the fact that he was repeatedly (and inexplicably) put in a position to fail by Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff, Jeff would’ve been given an F.
| Grade Incomplete | ||||||
| Skater | Grade | GP | GF | GA | GF% | Diff. |
| Nick Bonino | Inc. | 3 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 | 1 |
| Taylor Fedun | Inc. | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.00 | 0 |
| Drake Caggiula | Inc. | 4 | 1 | 2 | 33.33 | -1 |
| Dmitry Kulikov | Inc. | 6 | 1 | 3 | 25.00 | -2 |
| Sam Poulin | Inc. | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 | -3 |
| Jonathan Gruden | Inc. | 3 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
| Filip Hallander | Inc. | 2 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
This bunch didn’t play enough to merit a grade. In particular, I would like to have seen what kind of impact Nick Bonino might have had. We could’ve used his smarts, grit and leadership down the stretch. Not to mention his presence on the penalty kill.
| Goalies | Grade | GP | GA | SH | GAA | SV% |
| Casey DeSmith | B- | 33 | 109 | 0 | 3.17 | .905 |
| Tristan Jarry | C+ | 47 | 128 | 2 | 2.90 | .909 |
I chose not to be too harsh on our goalies. Fueled in part by a system that didn’t fit the talent on hand, our team defense, to be kind, left a lot to be desired. Casey DeSmith filled an expanded 1A role to the best of his abilities and improved as the season went on, posting a .910 save percentage in 16 appearances following the All-Star break despite facing down a ton of high-danger rubber. Better protected, Tristan Jarry performed well enough until injuries kiboshed his second half.
Front Office and Coaching
I’ll throw in one last set of grades. The front office gets a D and so does Sullivan and his staff. The Pens were poorly constructed and poorly coached.
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Hey Rick,
As you know I was working on my final grades but you beat me to the punch so I will just put it right here and save space.
1st, on a team that only finished 19th in the league, I would not hand out too many A s or even B s and would nearly balance those positive grades with equally negative grades, else the team could not possibly finish that low (19th).
I base my grades on the Players 5on5, PP, PK, and Within 1 Goal stats vs the League mean of qualified players for Forwards, and Defense and Goalies.
A+: None
A: Crosby and Guentzel - These 2 consistently scored significantly above the mean pretty much every where except PK (they didn't play enough PK for qualification). On PP their numbers were inconsistent but still good.
A-: None
B+: Malkin - Despite some peoples dislike of Malkin, like Crosby and Guentzel he consistently scored significantly above the mean in most categories just like Crosby and Guentzel. He only drops a little below the Captain and his wing man when the games where within 1 G in the area of TGA/60. Not going to get into speculating reasons at the moment.
B: Rakell, Zucker, and Pettersson - I am sorry Rick, Rakell and Zucker played well but their numbers do not rate an A. If those 2 did rate an A, maybe we would still be following Penguins hockey rather than watching the first Penguinless playoffs in 16 years. Also, I still don't like Pettersson, he is way too light for me and I would trade him if I could. He would need to be picked up with a blotter playing playoff hockey. However, his regular season numbers are what they are. I don't let my personal opinions influence my grades.
B-: Letang, Kapanen, and Petry - Letang may have earned a higher grade had he not struggled at the beginning of the season. Petry had some problems but also had some good points. His special teams numbers were pretty solid. And like Malkin, people can hate on Kapanen all they want and I won't argue that he may be a bit lazy at times, but even his Penguins' numbers still rate well against the league. However, as long as the millstone that is Sullivan is tied around this teams neck, it was best to get rid of him, if for nothing else his own sake.
C+: None
C: Archibald, Rust, Heinen, Friedman, and DeSmith - I still may not have signed Archibald this past off-season. Promoting from within has far more benefit when possible, however, Archibald really did earn his keep when he played. He typically hit the average and actually above the average on the PK. Heinen wasn't given much TOI but he did manage to play at the mean while toiling in the wrong roles. Friedman didn't get much love from Sullivan but Friedman's numbers were much better than a lot of Sully's favorites. DeSmith may not of won as many games as Jarry but he didn't get the G support Jarry got. DeSmith may not have been more consistent than Jarry but he was less fragile and he edged Jarry when looking at Sv% with respect to High Danger, Medium Danger, and Low Danger chances.
C-: Blueger, O'Connor, POJ, Jarry - Blueger stunk 5-on-5 but was very strong on the PK. O'Connor certainly wasn't the worst player on the team but he really didn't rate too high vs the mean. His numbers were slightly below the mean. POJ started strong and I did give him a good grade at the midterm but he slipped, like many players on this team during the stretch run. As for Jarry, I don't care what excuses are made for him, he more than any other player was responsible for this teams absents from the playoffs. He pretty much phoned in the last two lasses against the 2nd and 3rd worst team in the league.
D+: Dumoulin - Had a brief upturn but in the end, Dumo had a severely bad year.
D: Poehling and McGinn - Poehling may have speed and youth but he really didn't use it for much gain. Let's face it, Montreal was not a powerhouse with Poehling on it.
D-: Ruhwedel - There were years when Ruhwedel may have been a servicable 7th or 8th but this year was not one of them, and he is 32 years old.
F: Carter - It may not have been all his fault, after all he wasn't the one that kept choosing to go out there, it was Sullivan that kept putting him a position of failure. However, in the end his numbers fell well below the mean except on the PP but he got very little time there.
Coaches and front office - I think everyone knows how I feel about them.
So there you have it Rick and all Penguin Poopers, my Grades
Sorry missed Rutta he was a D.
Also, anyone else not listed here gets an Incomplete from me.