Final Grade: Jonas Holøs

This report card is a joint effort by Beachie, Sandie, Paul, SlamDunktheFunk and DDC. Stats courtesy of hockey-reference.com and NHL.com

Final Grade: C+

Midseason Grade: B-

Last Year: N/A

Position: D (39gp)

Vitals: 5'11" / 196 lb / Age 23 / Shoots R

Drafted by the Avalanche in the 6^th Round (170^th) in the 2008 Entry Draft.

Joined Avalanche: Made his NHL debut with the Avs on October 16, 2010 vs. the Islanders

MHH Nicknames: Slash

Linemates:

• Hunwick 11gp 0g 0a 0pt -2
• Liles 7gp 0g 1a 1pt -3
• Cumiskey 4gp 0g 1a 1pt +2
• Gaunce 4gp 0g 0a 0pt Even
• Koci 3gp 0g 0a 0pt +1
• O'Byrne 2gp 0g 0a 0pt Even
• Foote 1gp 0g 0a 0pt -3
• Hannan 1gp 0g 0a 0pt Even
• Liffiton 1gp 0g 1a 1pt Even
• Quincey 1gp 0g 0a 0pt Even
• Shattenkirk 1gp 0g 0a 0pt +1
• Wilson 1gp 0g 2a 2pt Even
• As 7^th D 3gp 0g 1a 1pt +1

in case you are wondering who he didn't get paired with, it's Belle, Johnson, Cohen and Macias

Avs with Holøs in the lineup: 13-24-2 (.358 pt%) 2.67 GF 3.46 GA

Ice Time:

• TTOI 18:03 (10^th)
• EV 14:54 (11^th)
• PK 1:30 (11^th)
• PP 1:38 (7^th)

Career Highlights: Recorded his first NHL point on Oct. 28, 2010 against Calgary with an assist on a TJ Galiardi goal. Collected his first career multi-point game with two assists on April 8, 2011, vs. Dallas. On Oct. 16, he became just the 6^th Norwegian-born player to ever appear in an NHL game and is currently 1 of only 2 Norwegians in the league.

Report:  There are people who would point to Holøs's mistakes and roast him for them. There are others who would hoist him up on their shoulders if given the chance. The thing is that his performance falls somewhere in between. For a 23-year-old who had never played North American hockey before, the kid had a solid rookie year with the typical amount of rookie mistakes one would expect. He wasn't flashy, but he was strong positionally. He couldn't score a goal to save his life, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. In fact, he was down-right robbed on more than one occasion. Holøs won't ever be a top pairing guy, but his performance this past season showed that he can be an NHLer, most likely manning the 3^rd pairing. He still needs some development - which he will most likely get in Lake Erie next season - but the future looks promising for him, especially if he can up his physical presence on the ice. The Avalanche are deep in the lower-tiers of blueliners, so he's going to have to take it to the next level if he wants to make the line up as a regular right out of training camp. In his favor, though, is the fact that the coaches really started to trust him as last season wore on, evidenced by his increasing ice time which hit over 23 minutes by the final game.

Fun Fact: Holøs' 6 points was the highest season total ever for a Norwegian defenseman in the NHL, smashing the previous mark of 5 set by Ole-Kristian Tollefson in 2006-2007.

The Slash Drinking Game: Drink whenever an announcer has trouble pronouncing "Holøs."  Drunk potential: You'll be hospital-bound before the end of the 2^nd period.

What We Said at Midseason: I love Holøs' attitude, and his competence with the puck on the PP early in the season was a breath of fresh air. Maybe Holøs is such a competent, unspectacular player, that he gets snubbed because he doesn't excel at any one aspect of the game, he just does everything well enough - which is still way better than Hunwick.  He's got a lot of upside, even if it isn't flashy. It'd be a shame to let that potential go untapped back to Europe.

2010 Cap Hit: $785,000

2011 Status: Under contract through end of next season, RFA at expiry.

Outlook for Next Season: Here's another guy that we seemed to love a lot more than the Avalanche coaching staff (see also Greg Mauldin, David van der Gulik and Cameron Gaunce) while other guys we didn't love as much (Kyle Cumiskey, Matt Hunwick) sat fat and happy higher up on the depth chart. While he improved as the season wore on, he probably is going to bounce around between Lake Erie and Colorado next year. But, keep in mind he's only exempt from waivers for 21 more NHL games.

Next Up: Colby Cohen