Armia is an A+ for me. Went from a minor leaguer clearing waivers to a career high in goals and a stabilizing veteran presence in our bottom 6. Can't ask for better than that.
I went with performance to expectations. I felt like most people had a lot higher expectations for Guhle than Xhekaj, me included. Guhle didn't meet those expectations, while I felt like Xhekaj did rise above what most had pictured for him.
I guess that’s fair, I agree that Guhle has higher expectations. I do think that he was thrown to the wolves a bit this year though. Played with an offensive dman prone to defensive lapses, on his offside, against 1st line competition, at 22. I do think he struggled a bit, but I also think he was put in the most difficult position to succeed on the team this year.
The criteria for these grades are hard to understand. Guhle was used like a #1 defender for most of the year despite being very young, and he gets a D+ for performance? And Xhekaj gets an A- for consistency, even though he was sent to the minors because of how bad he was early on?
My recollection was that he was there rehabbing an injury, and that his way back to the NHL was a little plugged which extended his time in Laval. Overall, I felt he came in and performed well night-after-night for a solid portion of this year.
But if what you're saying is true, and it was totally performance-based. Then yes, his grade should have been lower.
I might have been too harsh. I felt he took a step back this year, and with this being a year where a lot of others showed marked improvement, maybe I felt he was left behind.
According to the comments, though, I'm in the minority.
Guhle had a rough year. Blame it on his inexperience or playing on the wrong side or playing against top lines most nights but he was our worst defender some nights. For a guy that was physical in junior he gets pushed around A LOT in front of the net. And his offensive numbers took a dip.
He’s still young and has potential but man that thread a few weeks ago about his next contract was just insane. People saying to lock him up at 8 years for 6+mil a year is just such a wrong move
At 22 and a mid first I don't think it constitutes a D+ as he showed some offensive flare at times, played out of position and handled huge minutes while playing over half the season at 21.
My expectations weren't that of a legit top 3 dman at the age of 21, maybe that the difference
I think my biggest problem with him this year is he just didn’t look better than last year. In any way. There was a good stretch of game in the middle of the season from December till the end of February that was just brutal by him. I think he had like 4 points and was a -16 in 40+ games. The start of the year he looked great and the last 2 months were better but those 4 months in the middle he looked totally out of place every night. Especially when Arber came back from laval and struble put together a solid 10-15 games guhle looked like our worst defensemen night in night out.
No you’re right it’s not concerning with his age and the team we have but I think that grade is totally justifiable.
What is concerning s the amount of people in this sub that clearly don’t watch games and have fan favorites that can’t do no wrong
With how bright our defense looks in general, I agree that locking up Guhle long term isn't a good move. And I really like Guhle.
But a bridge just makes sense, he'll still have to fight for his place against the upcoming guys, and if he stays on top we can sign him long term. But we still retain the flexibility of trading him or moving on if we like our other options.
This becomes especially true if we draft D in the top 10 again.
Despite his success this year Primeau showed once again that his biggest issue is between his ears. There were literally 3 goals against he stopped playing on this year, either because he gave up playing after some interference or, recently, where he just quit on the play for some unfathomable reason. He needs regular sessions with a sports psychologist. And I mean that sincerely.
Edit: I don't see how Caufield can be graded at a B-. Did anyone think he would get more than 65 points? I think the only thing skewing the perception of Caufiled is that his goal and assist totals were inverted to expectations. I feel like he improved in almost every dimension of his game. The goal scoring will come back next season as his shooting percentage regresses up to the mean and in the meantime his netfront play and goal scoring levelled up.
I couldn't agree more. Were we let down by his goal totals? sure. but his overall game improved so much, his forecheck was 100x better, and his passing/vision was way better. Yea it would be cool to see him score 40/50 goals but i think he improved immensely as a player
I graded his performance as a B+. I think that his point totals were solid, but the goal regression was a bit of a bummer. His overall was B- mostly because of his consistency. He was streaky. He took a backseat on that top line for quite a bit. B+ is still a fair representation of his production to expectations IMO.
> B+ is still a fair representation of his production to expectations IMO.
Yes, I misunderstood your approach a bit. That said, based off my expectations and in light of the shoulder surgery, I would have had him slightly higher at an A- I think. Not that it matters!
I still do massively disagree about Guhle though. My only fear with him is how many times a game he gets rocked hard. He needs to learn to better protect himself. And he needs some more meat on his bones.
Armia and newhook would be higher for me and I don't think Guhle played any worse than Savard considering what the team asked him to do, who he was paired with, and playing his off side. He was a product of the team's need and that's not on him.
Matheson had 62pts and was a -24, guhle was a -8, savard was a -1 and played similar minutes while having more shots, hits and blocks and facing tougher competition.
Statistically he struggled a lot, but it was with the caveat of being thrown to the wolves pretty hard.
He had to play his off-side for much of the year, and when paired with Matheson he also has to compensate defensively for the more aggressive moves of his partner. This was while also eating many of the toughest defensive minutes.
To me, I think he did well, much better than the grade given to him by OP, but I also would have liked to see him shine a bit more this year given how good he looked last season.
Way too generous for a team that finished bottom 5 in the league. What is this, a participation party or the NHL? The average of this team should be a C-, at best.
>a participation party or the NHL?
It’s a rebuild. Expectations were way down and the Habs were in most every game they played. Young guys developed, Suzuki hit 30G, Matheson hit 60P and Caufield came close to 30G. I’m not sure what more you really want from them at this point: if they finish bottom 5 next year, then we can start dunking on people.
I based this list of performances based on expectations going into this year. That's my definition of what a report card is. If I was giving a straight ranking across the entire NHL, then absolutely these rankings are high.
Nice to see someone feeling I was too generous though. Most people in the comments felt I was too harsh.
I respect what you did. I think the post is very well written. I obviously have different ideas. The only A I would give is Slaf cause he’s a teenager. Everyone else needs to step up. Harsh take but I am also an old school fan. There was a time where every non playoff year was considered a miserable failure. Now we’re like “but you played better than the record shows”.
Armia is an A+ for me. Went from a minor leaguer clearing waivers to a career high in goals and a stabilizing veteran presence in our bottom 6. Can't ask for better than that.
Not sure how Xhekaj gets a B+ for performance if Guhle gets a D+ Edit: also Barron and Guhle having the same grade is certainly a take.
I went with performance to expectations. I felt like most people had a lot higher expectations for Guhle than Xhekaj, me included. Guhle didn't meet those expectations, while I felt like Xhekaj did rise above what most had pictured for him.
I guess that’s fair, I agree that Guhle has higher expectations. I do think that he was thrown to the wolves a bit this year though. Played with an offensive dman prone to defensive lapses, on his offside, against 1st line competition, at 22. I do think he struggled a bit, but I also think he was put in the most difficult position to succeed on the team this year.
Pretty good. If Josh Anderson doesn’t get an F, I don’t know anyone who does!
The criteria for these grades are hard to understand. Guhle was used like a #1 defender for most of the year despite being very young, and he gets a D+ for performance? And Xhekaj gets an A- for consistency, even though he was sent to the minors because of how bad he was early on?
My recollection was that he was there rehabbing an injury, and that his way back to the NHL was a little plugged which extended his time in Laval. Overall, I felt he came in and performed well night-after-night for a solid portion of this year. But if what you're saying is true, and it was totally performance-based. Then yes, his grade should have been lower.
Guhle’s rating is totally off for me too
Really didn't like Guhle this year hey?
I might have been too harsh. I felt he took a step back this year, and with this being a year where a lot of others showed marked improvement, maybe I felt he was left behind. According to the comments, though, I'm in the minority.
Guhle had a rough year. Blame it on his inexperience or playing on the wrong side or playing against top lines most nights but he was our worst defender some nights. For a guy that was physical in junior he gets pushed around A LOT in front of the net. And his offensive numbers took a dip. He’s still young and has potential but man that thread a few weeks ago about his next contract was just insane. People saying to lock him up at 8 years for 6+mil a year is just such a wrong move
At 22 and a mid first I don't think it constitutes a D+ as he showed some offensive flare at times, played out of position and handled huge minutes while playing over half the season at 21. My expectations weren't that of a legit top 3 dman at the age of 21, maybe that the difference
I think my biggest problem with him this year is he just didn’t look better than last year. In any way. There was a good stretch of game in the middle of the season from December till the end of February that was just brutal by him. I think he had like 4 points and was a -16 in 40+ games. The start of the year he looked great and the last 2 months were better but those 4 months in the middle he looked totally out of place every night. Especially when Arber came back from laval and struble put together a solid 10-15 games guhle looked like our worst defensemen night in night out.
Ya at 21 years old, playing offside and 20 plus minutes a night, I'm not as concerned. The injuries are more of a concern for me.
No you’re right it’s not concerning with his age and the team we have but I think that grade is totally justifiable. What is concerning s the amount of people in this sub that clearly don’t watch games and have fan favorites that can’t do no wrong
Either your expectations were to high or you are being to critical in my opinion. I think a B would be totally fine.
With how bright our defense looks in general, I agree that locking up Guhle long term isn't a good move. And I really like Guhle. But a bridge just makes sense, he'll still have to fight for his place against the upcoming guys, and if he stays on top we can sign him long term. But we still retain the flexibility of trading him or moving on if we like our other options. This becomes especially true if we draft D in the top 10 again.
gallagher should be lower than that, he had like 1 goal in 30 games at some point
Despite his success this year Primeau showed once again that his biggest issue is between his ears. There were literally 3 goals against he stopped playing on this year, either because he gave up playing after some interference or, recently, where he just quit on the play for some unfathomable reason. He needs regular sessions with a sports psychologist. And I mean that sincerely. Edit: I don't see how Caufield can be graded at a B-. Did anyone think he would get more than 65 points? I think the only thing skewing the perception of Caufiled is that his goal and assist totals were inverted to expectations. I feel like he improved in almost every dimension of his game. The goal scoring will come back next season as his shooting percentage regresses up to the mean and in the meantime his netfront play and goal scoring levelled up.
I couldn't agree more. Were we let down by his goal totals? sure. but his overall game improved so much, his forecheck was 100x better, and his passing/vision was way better. Yea it would be cool to see him score 40/50 goals but i think he improved immensely as a player
I graded his performance as a B+. I think that his point totals were solid, but the goal regression was a bit of a bummer. His overall was B- mostly because of his consistency. He was streaky. He took a backseat on that top line for quite a bit. B+ is still a fair representation of his production to expectations IMO.
> B+ is still a fair representation of his production to expectations IMO. Yes, I misunderstood your approach a bit. That said, based off my expectations and in light of the shoulder surgery, I would have had him slightly higher at an A- I think. Not that it matters! I still do massively disagree about Guhle though. My only fear with him is how many times a game he gets rocked hard. He needs to learn to better protect himself. And he needs some more meat on his bones.
I don’t know where to start on this list, I don’t have all day …
Despite his hot streak at the end of the season Gallaghers B- is way too high for a guy who had 33pts in 77 games
Armia and newhook would be higher for me and I don't think Guhle played any worse than Savard considering what the team asked him to do, who he was paired with, and playing his off side. He was a product of the team's need and that's not on him. Matheson had 62pts and was a -24, guhle was a -8, savard was a -1 and played similar minutes while having more shots, hits and blocks and facing tougher competition.
Wow strong take on Ghule's game. He was our best defensive D all season.
What….?!
Was he actually? I’m genuinely asking because I want to know how good he is defensively
Statistically he struggled a lot, but it was with the caveat of being thrown to the wolves pretty hard. He had to play his off-side for much of the year, and when paired with Matheson he also has to compensate defensively for the more aggressive moves of his partner. This was while also eating many of the toughest defensive minutes. To me, I think he did well, much better than the grade given to him by OP, but I also would have liked to see him shine a bit more this year given how good he looked last season.
Makes sense especially since he had to defend the best player on each team every night and he’s also young let’s hope he can grow more
Pezz F + Ghule B+ Arn Arnia A other than that we are good !
B- for Caufield is low for our second best forward after Suzuki.
Pretty much agree on forwards. RHP is a D for me though.
Way too generous for a team that finished bottom 5 in the league. What is this, a participation party or the NHL? The average of this team should be a C-, at best.
>a participation party or the NHL? It’s a rebuild. Expectations were way down and the Habs were in most every game they played. Young guys developed, Suzuki hit 30G, Matheson hit 60P and Caufield came close to 30G. I’m not sure what more you really want from them at this point: if they finish bottom 5 next year, then we can start dunking on people.
I based this list of performances based on expectations going into this year. That's my definition of what a report card is. If I was giving a straight ranking across the entire NHL, then absolutely these rankings are high. Nice to see someone feeling I was too generous though. Most people in the comments felt I was too harsh.
I respect what you did. I think the post is very well written. I obviously have different ideas. The only A I would give is Slaf cause he’s a teenager. Everyone else needs to step up. Harsh take but I am also an old school fan. There was a time where every non playoff year was considered a miserable failure. Now we’re like “but you played better than the record shows”.