2008 Final Grade: B-
2007 Grade: C-
Links:
{{svatos}} (hockey-reference page)
2008 ITCS (aka highly unofficial) Svatos Game Log
Season Stats: 62gp 26g 11a 37pt +13
Minutes: 848.3 (11th). EV 11:10, PK :01, PP 2:30, ATOI 13:41
1st Half: 38gp 16g 2a 18pt +5
2nd Half: 24gp 10g 9a 19pt +8
Playoffs: DNP
Best Month: January (12gp 9g 3a 12pt +6)
Positions: RW (62)
Lines: 2nd (35), 3rd (14), 1st (7), 4th (6)
Linemates: Svatos season log
C: Arnason (31), Hlinka (9), Stastny (8), Sakic (6), Hensick (4), Guite (3), Richardson (1)
LW: Wolski (23), Smyth (11), Brunette (9), McLeod (7), Hlinka (4), Smith (4), Richardson (1)
Season: Svatos had his 2nd highest totals in GP (62), goals (26) and points (37). His +13 was a career best.
Report: Svatos rebounded nicely from his disappointing sophomore season, jumping from 15 goals to 26 goals. In the process, his shooting percentage more than doubled, from 8.4 in 06-07 to 18.6 (which was 3rd best in the NHL). When Svatos is in the lineup, he's always a threat to score - he's averaging just under 32 goals per 82 games over his career. Unfortunately, it takes him about 1 1/3 seasons to get to 82 games. He's averaging just 63 games a season in the last 3 years and he's hit the 70-game mark just once as a professional (72 games with Hershey in 2004-05). Svatos didn't get his 3rd assist until his 45th game (by that point, he had 20 goals), but then had 9 assists in his final 18 games. He also seemed to be much more committed defensively this year, which is a nice plus. And he continues to entertain us with some timely big hits that seem to come out of nowhere. He doesn't initiate a ton of contact, but if someone hits him, 9 times out of 10 he's going to hunt that person down and return the favor - usually on the same shift. Once he went down, it took Milan Hejduk 13 games to overtake him for the team lead in goals. And that just makes us want to see a full 82 from him even more.
Fast Fact: To date, Svatos has 204 NHL games played...and 145 NHL games missed.
2007-2008 Salary (and Cap Number): $1,200,000 ($1,200,000)
2008-2009 Status: Svatos and the Avalanche are headed to arbitration this summer.
Outlook: When I did Svatos' grade last year, I complained that he didn't work well with linemates not named "Joe Sakic". This year, Svatos scored 9 goals with Tyler Arnason, 6 with Jaroslav Hlinka and 5 with Paul Stastny, so I guess we can check that one off our list. He also eased up on the boneheaded penalties, improved his defensive play, and seemed to be much more consistent overall. All he has to do now to earn my eternal gratitude is to stay in the lineup.