Pens First Half Grades
Mike Adams | Report Cards
Jan 8, 10:50 AM | Hype this story!
We have reached the end of the first half of the season, so it’s time to evaluate how each Penguin player has performed thus far. These grades are done against expectations so that we’re not rating, say, Eric Godard on the same scale as Sidney Crosby. Sidney Crosby is graded against my expectations for him, meaning it’s pretty difficult for him to get above a C. Players are listed in alphabetical order, by position.
A=Greatly exceeded expectations
B=Exceeded expectations
C=Met expectations
D=Failed to meet expectations
F=Greatly failed to meet expectations
Forwards
Paul Bissonnette: C
Never really got a chance to show what he can do. But his toughness might come in handy on the fourth line later in the season.
Matt Cooke: B+
He’s been a pleasant surprise. He hits more than I knew and has shown a bit of a scoring touch. But he needs to cut out the stupid penalties.
Sidney Crosby: C-
While he’s had stretches of poor play, he is still near the league scoring lead. But something’s been missing from his game on many nights.
Pascal Dupuis: B
Has scored a few goals on slappers and has killed penalties, but is miscast as a top line winger.
Ruslan Fedotenko: A-
Has been a pleasant surprise after he got off to a poor start. Has been one of the few Pens scoring consistently during the losing streak.
Eric Godard: C
He has done what I expected him to do: contribute zero offense but fight when needed.
Connor James: Incomplete
AHL level talent.
Dustin Jeffrey: Incomplete
But I like what I’ve seen so far.
Tyler Kennedy: B
Scoring at about the pace I expected, but always plays with great energy.
Evgeni Malkin: B
This would have been an A until his recent drought. He has on many nights been just dominant. Maybe he’ll start scoring more now that he’s off the point on the power play.
Chris Minard: F
Given his scoring prowess in the AHL, I thought he’d at least show a bit of offense in the bigs. Didn’t happen.
Janne Pesonen: Invisible
The stat sheet says he played in six games. Really?
Miroslav Satan: D
He is exactly what I thought he was—a streaky, soft, lazy, one-dimensional player. But I expected him to prosper with Crosby and that hasn’t happened.
Jordan Staal: F
His development has stalled. The shorties are no longer part of his repertoire, and he seems lost on the ice most games.
Ryan Stone: Incomplete
But showed squat while he was up.
Petr Sykora: C
Just like Satan, a streaky scorer. But at least he tries to go to the net on occasion.
Jeff Taffe: D
Didn’t contribute as much as he did last year while he was up.
Max Talbot: F
Hasn’t shown either the energy or the scoring touch he did last year. Something’s been missing.
Bill Thomas: Incomplete
As a winger, the fact he hasn’t been called up tells you he just isn’t very good.
Tim Wallace: A
He has greatly surpassed expectations with his energy and hitting.
Mike Zigomanis: A
I figured he’d be just another spare part, but he became an important cog thanks to his faceoff prowess.
Defensemen
Philippe Boucher: D
Has been a disappointment since coming over. He probably shouldn’t have been, given that they only traded Darryl Sydor for him. But he’s looked slow and seems to rarely get his booming shot on the net.
Mark Eaton: F
By far, the most disappointing Penguin. That $2 mil a year contract Shero gave him is looking like an albatross right now. Look for him to be dealt near the deadline.
Hal Gill: D
For the most part, he has been awful. About the only time he’s successful is in the playoffs when play slows down and fewer penalties are called.
Alex Goligoski: A
He’s wildly exceeded my expectations by playing a regular shift until very recently. Great on the power play, and not bad in his own end.
Kris Letang: D
Has basically been a bust on the power play for whatever reason, though his defensive play has been fine. I just expected more offense from him.
Ben Lovejoy: Incomplete
Again, though, I liked what I saw in his brief call-up.
Brooks Orpik: D
He started off well, but has really tailed off recently. Expectations were high after last year’s playoffs, but he is not yet meeting that standard.
Rob Scuderi: B
Reliable Rob has been just that. His greatest value is on the penalty kill.
Ryan Whitney: Incomplete
He is still rounding into shape, so it’s not really fair to grade him yet.
Goalies
John Curry: Incomplete
Not sure that he’ll be an NHL caliber goalie based on what I saw. Is small, but not technically sound. That’s not a good combination.
Marc-Andre Fleury: F
Has not even come close to the level of play he showed late last year and is a major reason for the team’s recent struggles.
Dany Sabourin: C
Exactly what he’s always been—a guy you can throw in there for a one-game emergency, but that’s about it.
Coaching: F
The power play and penalty kill have been brutal lately. There seems to be no cohesion on the ice. It sure looks like Therrien’s act is wearing thin.
Management: F
Ray Shero is as culpable as anyone for what’s going on. He didn’t find Sid a legitimate winger. He didn’t put together a team that’s hard to play against. He has held onto his only tradable asset in Staal so long that his value just keeps declining.
Overall: D
The team certainly isn’t playing up to expectations. Their only hope is that they’ve been a second half team under Therrien. Maybe they can still get it together. But they need to start soon, or it will be too late.
Comments
Ben Schmidt
Jan 8, 12:33 PM
I really think that people have set their expectations far too high for Jordan Staal, this early in his career. It seems like everyone expects him to already be in his prime, when, realistically, he should have been having his rookie season in the AHL this year.
Yes, Staal had a ton of goals his rookie season – on a team that was constantly underestimated, since everyone was expecting to play the team that earned the #2 overall draft pick, rather than the budding powerhouse-to-come that they were encountering. Staal had a lot more room on the ice, and got a lot less attention from opposing players in his rookie year than he’s had since. He can no longer sneak under the radar of opposing forwards, and as a result, he’s having to adjust. Honestly, he hasn’t been doing nearly as bad of a job at adjusting as people seem to think.
Right now, Staal has only one less goal than he had all of last season, and only 6 less assists than he had all of last season. His current pace puts him at 22 goals and 20 assists for the season – which would be a career high in assists, and only a few goals short of his amazing rookie total. That goal pace is especially heartening, since he’s doing that on the third line, unlike his rookie year when he was playing on Malkin’s wing.
If last season had been his rookie season, and this his sophomore season, we’d all be quite pleased with his development. Instead, we got an unusually productive rookie season out of an 18-year-old Jordan Staal that seems to have set highly unrealistic expectations for the kid. If his career continues to develop (and there’s no reason to think it won’t, at this point), he should be able to get to 30+ goal seasons.
The main area of concern to me is the lack of shorthanded goals, but I attribute some amount of that to opposing teams playing harder against him when he’s got the puck shorthanded, and the rest to confidence: when he’s playing with confidence, he gets the puck on the net, when he isn’t, he tends to miss the net, or whiff on the puck.
I really do think that a lot of Staal’s success as a rookie was due to him taking the League by surprise – he wasn’t supposed to be that good that quickly. Once he was no longer able to take anyone by surprise anymore, his confidence waned, because what worked before was no longer working so well. The main thing Staal needs to learn is how to relax with the puck, and not try to press so hard at times.
I’d be really surprised if Staal’s trade value had gotten worse this season at all. It’s likely not as high as it would have been right after his rookie year, but I’d bet it’s higher now than it was last season.
There are certainly plenty of GMs out there that would love to get Staal off Shero’s hands – and right now, they’re probably hoping for a bargain price. The longer Shero waits, the more desperate some of those teams will get. That will drive the price up, not down.
Nathan
Jan 8, 01:01 PM
Good post Ben, I agree with all of it.
He’s 20 years old, he’s not close to his prime-playing age, and he’ll only continue to learn the game. I’m real excited to see his progress in 1, 2, 3 years.
Matt Bodenschatz
Jan 8, 01:05 PM
Ben, I agree whole-heartedly with your assessment. Anyone who suggests Staal’s trade value at age 20 is declining is clearly talking out of frustration and nothing more.
To further prove your development point…
PLAYER A
Season 1, age 18: 82 GP, 13 G, 15 A, 28 Pts, -19
Season 2, age 19: 80 GP, 25 G, 42 A, 67 Pts, -25
Season 3, age 20: 68 GP, 23 G, 28 A, 51 Pts, -26
First 29-goal season: year 5, age 22
PLAYER B
Season 1, age 18: 55 GP, 3 G, 4 A, 7 Pts, -6
Season 2, age 19: 81 GP, 16 G, 25 A, 41 Pts, +3
Season 3, age 20: 81 GP, 23 G, 37 A, 60 Pts, -5
First 29-goal season: year 4, age 21
STAAL
Season 1, age 18: 81 GP, 29 G, 13 A, 42 Pts, +16
Season 2, age 19: 82 GP, 12 G, 16 A, 28 Pts, -5
Season 3, age 20: 41 GP, 11 G, 10 A, 21 Pts, -5
Player A is Vinny Lacavalier. Player B is Joe Thornton. Is Staal really that far behind? No.
And, considering that Lecavalier and Thornton were drafted to be generational stars who lead their teams right away and that Staal was drafted as more of a project to compliment his two generational star teammates, I think he’s done quite well to start his career.
Quite obviously, we were spoiled by his rookie season, but as a 20-year-old, he’s so much further ahead of the curve than 95% of players at his age.
Albert
Jan 9, 10:41 PM
Nice post Tom.
Otherwise, I agreed w/ most of the grades, but not the one on Letang.
Letang—and not Whitney, Orpik, or Goligoski—should be our #1 priority on the blueline.
Mark my words, he’ll be a superstar for many years.
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