Final Grade: Paul Stastny

You think Kulemin is junk? Dave King coached him in Russia and loved the guy, said he was a very hard worker and responsible defensively. Seems like he’s trending the right way in his career. It’s a good contract at a position where we’re very thin (yeah, he’ll have to be paid at the end of next year, but unlike the Imaginary Awesomeness of TJ Galiardi and others, I’d be happy to pay a performer like Kulemin). Bower Power said it’s a starting point, not a one-for-one swap. Seems to be worth a closer look, to me.

That seems to be the way Leaf fans think

You know, to be honest, I’ve seen a lot of that here too. You know the whole Yip + Cumiskey nonsense.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Your logical approach has no place here

Seriously. Our oldest player is 35. Next oldest? Liles at 30. Younger is not what we need. Top 6 wingers (not prospects, proven) and a top tier goalie (not prospect, proven) is what the Avs need. A 1-2 shut down defenseman (not prospect, proven) would also be of value. If a team cannot offer any of those things, there’s no reason to talk. The prospect depth this team has is ridiculously strong. What it needs is established talent with veteran presence. (And by veteran, remember that we consider Stastny – at 25 – a vet around here. Thus 4+ years in the NHL would be ideal.)

I didn’t mean to flesh out something that’s probably been talked about at length here already. But when your 2/3rds of what I’d suggest is your elite talent (for this case, Duchene, EJ, Stastny) is 3+ years away from physical prime, there’s nothing wrong with planning for that. Now, no one’s going to accuse him of being “old man Stastny,” and a 28 year old Stastny is still a helpful Stastny, but his trade value is pretty high now (yes, even after a relatively down-season for him), and it’d allow for trading from a position of relative strength to address other issues.

So does that make us “Avangelicalists?”

small sample size? Irrelevent? Or, AWESOMENESS!

TJ had success in 09-10 with Stats and CGS as well. I just think he filled his role very well on this team, and despite not being the biggest guy was one of our better down low players and puck hounds.

what does the coaching staff know, after all?

Systems.

I’m with you, on a certain level, on this. When I heard that our plan was to have Gali play first line left wing I thought we were fucked (turns out I was right). Now that I see how well (points wise) that line was playing before the injuries to Gali and Stewart I wonder if mgmt was on to something. Maybe long term it could have been a good line. But Stewart’s gone and Stastny’s bags are packed for Toronto, so what does it matter?

Gali was sent to the minors (and the Corsi, actually, agrees with your eyes). He has a slightly negative Corsi, although his SF/SA is slightly positive. But he starts in his Ozone more often than not, which surprises m because I thought the coaching staff valued him for his defense.

HA!

It’s usually the WOL, the Wheeze Out Loud, which at my advanced age, is actually the norm.

But sometimes it’s the SLBTM, the Silently Laughing Bitterly To Myself (and Shaking My Head in Disbelief). Depends on my mood.

It’s important that you know that, at least for me, this tiff was not meant to be an indictment of your work. I just felt like your complaining about people complaining about the grades was absurd.

The grades are a perfect jump-off point for discussion and if you look at the posts after YYs grade judgement that’s exactly what happened. Yes there are others who gave one sentence indictments of the grade and maybe that’s not helping the discussion. They are well within their rights to post it and sometimes it just feels good to let other people know your opinion.

I hope there’s no knee-jerk reaction to all of this and that this series can continue because I find it enlightening and entertaining.

And, my Mom died of cancer last Memorial Day, so. Yeah.

That wasn’t upset. That was, I give up. And it was because my point wasn’t being heard. Obviously I’m doing a shitty job of making it. Thus the “I give up.”

I think what a lot of us want is to maybe know how a player is graded by you guys. Are they graded against expectation, against the other players on the team, against an average NHLer, against the rest of the NHL at their position, etc

I have clearly stated my position on this more than once. Since you haven’t been here, I will say it again: I’m grading on a curve based on their performance vs. the rest of the team and expectations going into the season, taking into consideration the overall impact injuries had. The overall team performance or individual performance vs. the rest of the league was not considered at all. For me, anyway.

for the record,
I personally have no issue with the debate at all. We grade, you tell us how you think about the grade. then we tell you what we think of you telling us what you think about the grade.

we’ve said this before, but here’s the highly scientific method we use for the grades. First, the 5 of us gave a grade to each player who played 10 games for the Avs last year. Then we averaged those five grades to get a final grade. Most of us were in comparable ballparks (er, ice rinks), but I’m not sure any one player was unanimous. We did NOT discuss how to assign grades. Some might have done on a curve, some might have just thrown a random letter in there.

Then, we collectively do the write-up on each player. Some are more collaborative than others. Some are more thoughtful than others. And that’s how we get the final grades.

Thank you.

Hangover 2 released today ^^