Half year player projections and player grades

[Vinny01]

Not sure how a $10.5M winger on pace for 62pts can be given more than a C (and that is due to the high goal scoring).

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by FBI

The general crowd, just seeing if we are getting closer to being satisfied with Huberdeau for a bit. Paying Elias at 7.7 for his crap play would be worse IMO.

I'd still take Lindholm just given their contracts.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Not sure how a $10.5M winger on pace for 62pts can be given more than a C (and that is due to the high goal scoring).

I would give him a C. Up from a D or F for prior years.

A
Wolf

A-
Zary
Coronato

B
Bahl
Andersson
Weegar
Lomberg
Coleman
Pachal

C
Backlund
Kadri
Huberdeau
Hanley
Vladar
Kirkland
Peletier
Pospisil
Rooney

D
Bean
Sharongovich

F
Barrie
Kuzmenko

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Not sure how a $10.5M winger on pace for 62pts can be given more than a C (and that is due to the high goal scoring).

Nobody seems to be taking issue with other guys not being measured against their salary.

Salary isn’t relevant to performance unless you’re measuring value for dollars, which is not what this exercise appears to be about.

It’s especially silly when you consider how much cap space the Flames are sitting on. What guys are making this season, outside of discussions regarding their trade value and who can afford them, is totally irrelevant.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Huberdeau would have to transform into McDonkey if you expect him to put up 115 points on this team.

Without finishers, how do you put up 70-80 assists? No one can hit twine on a semi-regular basis on this roster, no matter how many times you put the puck on their sticks.

Literally impossible expectations given the roster and its output, as well as how the team is instructed to play.

His 36 goal pace is about the ceiling of what I think a guy like him can manage here. If he hits 36 that will be the highest goal total from any one since we had a team with elite talent in 2022.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Nobody seems to be taking issue with other guys not being measured against their salary.

Salary isn’t relevant to performance unless you’re measuring value for dollars, which is not what this exercise appears to be about.

It’s especially silly when you consider how much cap space the Flames are sitting on. What guys are making this season, outside of discussions regarding their trade value and who can afford them, is totally irrelevant.

Cap space can never be irrelevant when evaluating NHL players considering the cap is an unavoidable part of team building in my opinion. I think all players should be measured against their salary but I am not going to attempt to provide my grades for each player. I just take a bit of issue giving a guy paid to be a 90+point play driver a high grade because he has been a F for the first 2 years and he is playing better in year 3.

People can give $10.5M Huberdeau A’s and B’s all they want for pacing for 62pts. I just find it hilarious.

[HighLifeMan]

Who cares what his pace is.. He is leading this team in goals and points, and has overhauled his game to fit what this organization has to offer him currently.

Do people truly not understand or care that a teams style of play, the players usage, the teams overall lack of general skill, or his linemates all have an incredibly large impact on production? Very, very few players in this league would be capable of putting up 90 points on this roster, and the guys that would, are making upwards of 13.5M. Calgary is missing that one key piece up front that would slot the forward group appropriately, and I don't think fans understand the difference that would make.

This is a guy who started the year with Pospisil, Sharangovich and Zary as his centermen. All of whom have never played the position full time at this level, and two of which clearly make for much better wingers. His most common linemate on the year is Pospisil who has two goals. Since being put with Kadri he has 19 points in 17 games (11 goals). What other 10M dollar player's most common linemate has 2 goals on the year, or a career high of 24 points? I'd love to know. Don't get me wrong, I think Pospisil is a fantastic player who does his job extremely well, but he's not a player that will ever help inflate production totals.

Anything less than a B grade would be silly for what Huberdeau has provided to this point.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Cap space can never be irrelevant when evaluating NHL players considering the cap is an unavoidable part of team building in my opinion. I think all players should be measured against their salary but I am not going to attempt to provide my grades for each player. I just take a bit of issue giving a guy paid to be a 90+point play driver a high grade because he has been a F for the first 2 years and he is playing better in year 3.

People can give $10.5M Huberdeau A’s and B’s all they want for pacing for 62pts. I just find it hilarious.

You can pick and choose what context to include and what to ignore and people can find it equally hilarious.

The thing is, we’re not building the team, and as fans we don’t actually have any reason to care what players are being paid unless it hinders the team’s ability to improve through trade, free agency, or re-signing other players. And today it does none of those things, so it’s not relevant to the conversation.

If we go based on your approach to evaluation, Hanley should be rated higher than Weegar and Andersson. Do you agree with that? He’s a top pairing defenceman making a fraction of what the other top pairing defenceman makes and a fraction of what our top second pairing defenceman makes. So A+ for Hanley. Pelletier, Lomberg, Rooney, A+ all around. Kadri, Coleman, Backlund can have a C.

The facts as they are today is that Huberdeau is paid to be the best forward on the team and he’s the best forward on the team. He got 115 points where the next two guys got 88 and 82, and you’re asking for 90 when the next two guys are going to have 58 and 44, not 70 and 65. In that context, maybe you’d expect Huberdeau around the 61-75 point mark, so B+ doesn’t seem outlandish at all.