Final Grades: The Recap

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jun 24, 2011 7:00 AM MDT in Final Grades 2011

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photo courtesy Darren McCollester / Getty Images

The grades are complete, but, before we say goodbye to them for the year, we thought it would be a good idea to ~~milk this one more time~~ recap the grades. There was a bit of contention about the grades this year - perhaps too much. Rest assured, the crack, oversized staff here at MHH will do everything we can to ~~put~~ ~~even less thought and effort~~ tweak things for next year. That's a long way away, though, so here's your final chance to weigh in on this year's grades:

Staff:

Greg Sherman: B. A solid grade for the Avalanche GM
Joe Sacco: C-. Opinions were decidedly split in the poll 53% to 46% in favor of changing the coach.

Forwards:

Matt Duchene: A-. Jibblescribbits did not agree.
Tomas Fleischmann: B+. Will Flash be brought back? It's not sounding promising.
Milan Hejduk: B. A mostly solid season for the Duke.
Chris Stewart: B. Can this guy score or what?
Paul Stastny: B. A good season, but he's no Tyler Bozak.
Philippe Dupuis: B-. One of the Avs most consistent players all year...unfortunately.
Jay McClement: B-. I think this one is too high, but it's not like I run the place or anything.
Greg Mauldin: B-. One of our favorites, which means we'll never see him in a unipron again.
David Jones: B-. Just a little more consistency, please.
Kevin Porter: C+. A tough one to evaluate
Daniel Winnik: C+. Guess who gave him a B?
Ryan O'Reilly: C+. Due for a big grade improvement next year.
Mark Olver: C+. A pleasant surprise.
Cody McLeod: C-. The season was more like Highlander II.
David Koci: D+. Everyone's favorite punching bag.
Ryan Stoa: D+. Although he did outscore T.J. Hensick.
T.J. Galiardi: D+. I want to believe.
Brandon Yip: D-. A lot of people thought we were too hard on Yip.
Peter Forsberg: INC. But still a total fucking badass.
David van der Gulik: INC. At least one BU alumni will be back.

Defensemen:

John Michael Liles: A-. One of his best seasons, and graded accordingly.
Eirk Johnson: B+. Turnovers seemed to be the biggest negative in our evaluation.
Kevin Shattenkirk: B+. I'm not crying; there's dust in my eye.
Scott Hannan: B+. Hey, maybe we should sign this guy this summer?
Ryan O'Byrne: B. We were fairly unanimous across the board in our love for OB Wan. 4 Bs, 1 B+.
Ryan Wilson: B. Too high, you say? Tough shit.
Jonas Holos: C+. Almost crept to B-.
Cameron Gaunce: C+. Still waiting for his first win in an Avalanche unipron.
Adam Foote: C+. Thanks, Adam.
Matt Hunwick: C. Looking at these ranked like this, I'd say his grade is about right.
Kyle Cumiskey: C-. Definitely a downer of a year.
Kyle Quincey: C-. Don't tell him, but I gave him a D-. We were all over the place: B-, C+, C, D+, D-.
Shawn Belle: INC. AJ tried to give him an A, but we overruled him.
David Liffiton: INC. He'll be back for another year of a vocal minority lobbying for a call-up.
Colby Cohen: INC. He raised the Stanley Cup and you didn't.
Ray Macias: INC. Did we miss anybody?

Goalies:

Peter Budaj: D+. The Avs' best goalie...in the way that the funniest Howie Mandel joke is funny.
Craig Anderson: D. No, you'll never know what really happened so stop thinking about it.
Brian Elliott: D-. Thinking more and more the Avalanche will just cut bait.

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Comments

Ha

Ryan Wilson: B. Too high, you say? Tough shit.

A man who stole my whisky used the defense that no one could resist a bottle of Scotch. I had no choice but to testify on his behalf.

by c6hor8 on Jun 24, 2011 7:07 AM MDT reply actions

My favorites:

Daniel Winnik: C+. Guess who gave him a B?

Shawn Belle: INC. AJ tried to give him an A, but we overruled him.

Chris Stewart: B. Can this guy score or what?

The Stewie one hurt a lot. I miss him so damn much. I’ll have a man crush on him for life, don’t care what the haters say.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:16 AM MDT up reply actions

I will always root for him. However, I love EJ so much that it makes it better.

A man who stole my whisky used the defense that no one could resist a bottle of Scotch. I had no choice but to testify on his behalf.

by c6hor8 on Jun 24, 2011 7:17 AM MDT up reply actions

I love that we got EJ out of it. It was an absolutely fair trade in my book. It’s just that one big shakeup that both teams appear to have needed. Props to Sherman for having the guts to give what was needed to get a guy like him back. However…Stewie brought something back to the game for me that I just haven’t seen on the Avs in a long time. That whole, “I’ll beat the shit out of your face, and when I get out of this box I’m gonna abuse your goalie too” attitude.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:23 AM MDT up reply actions

Now that we’ve got EJ, we can focus on getting a guy like that back.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:24 AM MDT up reply actions

Daniel Winnik: C+. Guess who gave him a B?

Tough one…so many choices. So I’ll say AJ, no wait, Cheryl…no Sandie. That’s my final answer

The doctor's say he's got a 50/50 chance of living...though there's only a 10% chance of that. - The Naked Gun

by chiavsfan on Jun 24, 2011 7:26 AM MDT reply actions

Wrong!

It was Quincey.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:33 AM MDT up reply actions

I was close

The doctor's say he's got a 50/50 chance of living...though there's only a 10% chance of that. - The Naked Gun

by chiavsfan on Jun 24, 2011 7:35 AM MDT up reply actions

Yeah. Sandie was too busy showing her cupcake skills off to Winnik to even think of a grade.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:39 AM MDT up reply actions

In my defense, I actually gave him one of the lower grades from the staff (A-) for the midpoint grade. I don’t think his play went down substantially from midseason to the end of season for it to warrant an even lower grade. just my opinion, of course. I think he still did what he was supposed to do.

It's all about the A-

by Sandie Gauthier on Jun 24, 2011 10:36 AM MDT up reply actions

Oh and in case any of you punks ever forgot:

This was no mistake. We’ll be back stronger than ever.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:29 AM MDT reply actions

Can we fast forward to October? PLEASE!

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:31 AM MDT up reply actions

Ha, that cumiskey goal.

A man who stole my whisky used the defense that no one could resist a bottle of Scotch. I had no choice but to testify on his behalf.

by c6hor8 on Jun 24, 2011 7:34 AM MDT up reply actions

That guy needs to come back.

I can’t get over the Duchene on Luongo intro. Just..man..intense.

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:36 AM MDT up reply actions

How about some Duchene highlights to prepare you for October?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FBdYuHMio&NR=1

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

by Randy Time on Jun 24, 2011 7:46 AM MDT up reply actions

For such a shitty defense, their grades sure are high.

(trollface.jpg)

Have we drafted Larsson yet?

by SteveHouse on Jun 24, 2011 8:06 AM MDT via mobile reply actions

except that only 2 players with a B or higher were with the team all year

I am the most humble blogger of all time

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jun 24, 2011 8:09 AM MDT up reply actions

There’s definitely a trend with all of our “highly” graded players…

by MalachiConstant on Jun 24, 2011 8:13 AM MDT up reply actions

Production concussions.

Have we drafted Larsson yet?

by SteveHouse on Jun 24, 2011 8:30 AM MDT via mobile up reply actions

Production concussion, what’s your function?
Hooking up elbows with mouths and noses.
Conjunction Junction, how’s that function?
I got three favorite cars
That get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what’s their function?
I got “and”, “but”, and “or”,
They’ll get you pretty far.

by Andy_ on Jun 24, 2011 8:40 AM MDT up reply actions 3 recs