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
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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.
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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.
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Brian Elliott: D-. Thinking more and more the Avalanche will just cut bait.