Final Grade: C-
Midseason Grade: B-
Season Stats: 66 GP, 15 G, 15 A, 30 Pt, +1, 179 shots
Minutes: 823 total (10th out of 18), EV 9:54, PP 2:33, PK 0:01, ATOI 12:28
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Splits:
1st Half: 36 GP, 9 G, 14 A, 23 Pt, +7, 114 shots
2nd Half: 30 GP, 6 G, 1 A, 7 Pt, -6, 65 shots
Positions: RW (58 GP), LW (8)
Lines: 1st (29 GP), 3rd (14), 4th (13), 2nd (10)
Linemates:
C: Sakic (29 GP), Guite (16), Stastny (11), Arnason (9), Turgeon (1)
LW: Brunette (22 GP), Wolski (10), Rycroft (9), Richardson (7), McLean (5), Turgeon (5)
RW: Hejduk (5 GP), Klee (2), Rycroft (1)
Career: Svatos didn't really come close to matching any of the career highs set in his rookie year
Report: Now that is a sophomore slump...Dropped from 32 goals to 15 and from 50 points to 30...Had a decent first half, with 9 goals and 23 points...Nosedived in the 2nd half, where he had as many points (7) as Karlis Skrastins...Is creative with the puck, but often gets caught making one too many moves...Has good hands and a solid shot, but needs space to work...That makes him a little too reliant on having teammates who can wait until he gets open and can feed him the puck...At even strength, 13 of his 19 points came while with Sakic...With Sakic, his numbers project out over a full season to 50 points...That's still low, but not as disastrous as the 30 he put up...Wasn't very good in the 10+ games he put on each of the other 3 lines...In those games, he reminded me a bit of a hamster on a treadmill – lots of work, but nothing to show for it...Has nice "little guy toughness"...Takes a hit, gets up, and gives a hit right back...Of course, also prone to injuries...He's missed 115 games the last 3 seasons...Takes way too many bad penalties...Laperriere was the only forward with more minor penalties...Had nice goal production on the PP (8), but his PP point total (11) was a big drop from last year (22)...Is better defensively than many people think...Spent 8 games at left wing, and looked surprisingly good.
Fast Fact: At even strength, Svatos had just 6 points in the 37 games he played on a line other than Sakic's
2007-2007 Salary: $1,050,000
2007-2008 Status: RFA ($1,050,000 QO required)
Outlook: I like Svatos, and enjoy watching him play. After his terrific rookie year, I think many people projected him as the next Milan Hejduk. He isn't. He's a 20-25 goal scorer with the right linemates, but an offensive black hole if he's not. Nothing against Ben Guite, but spending 16 games pairing Svatos with a Guite-like player is just a complete waste of a roster space. More than any other player on the team, if there isn't room among the top 6 for him, it probably makes sense to move him. The Avs have 5 top 6 guys locked up already, and, of course, there's talk of them adding another this summer. If the Avs don't upgrade their 3rd line, or if Svatos can't crack one of the top two lines, it might be another long season on the treadmill for the young winger.