Blog parameters:
Each person covered will be given a rating. Factoring into that rating will of course be his performance but another input is going to be performance versus expectation coming into the season. Much of the background I likely covered in my tear down blogs, so don't expect massive chapter and verse but possibly some quick hitting information if not already covered in those blogs. In addition, to create some parameters, a player will have had to play 20 games to get a grade. Anything less means there isn't a representative sample for which to make a decision, so Brady Skjei and Marek Hrivik, to name two, will not get grades.
Here is where it gets really funky and interactive. I want you the reader to comment on the blog as to the rating. But not just hey I think you are right on or you are crazy but to provide your own rating and rationale for it. So if you agree with what I wrote, great, say that. But if the belief is the rating should be higher or lower, then you have to provide the rationale accordingly. Plus and minus grades are allowed to enable a broader opinion. Before the next blog, we will see if the blog comments consensus rating mirrors mine.
In addition, to shake it up, I will jump around a bit, so not all the players of the same rating are listed in a row, same with positions. So in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, you never know what you're going to get.
Covered in this blog: Tanner Glass
This is what I wrote on Part IV of my Rangers tear down and post-mortem blogs. Tanner Glass, the whipping boy of the New York fanbase, has one year left of the three-year, $4.5 million he signed two years ago. His salary and poor advanced metrics made him easy to hate. Glass wasn't the reason why the Rangers struggled at times this season. Granted, his puck possession numbers are astonishingly bad, but he did what you want out of a fourth liner. Play with energy and show a willingness to take the body. Glass is likely an AV favorite, which could protect him, but if NY does send him down, only about 500k stays on the cap. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's the route the team employs as it looks to remake the bottom six.
Overall Grade: C (Glass' rating by the majority of the fanbase is impacted by their feelings on how his spot on the roster is mainly because of AV along with his lack of production on the ice. In addition, his place in the top-12 has resulted in others - possibly those more deserving - getting scratched. Add in that he received a three-year deal and one that causes cap utilization even if he was sent down and you have a recipe for disaster. All that factored in, beyond the puck possession issue, there were several games where Glass made his presence felt with a decent forecheck while also providing energy. But as noted above, I expect major changes in the bottom six, which should consistent of some combination of Lindberg, Hrivik and Jensen).
Players covered in prior blogs, My grade, Consensus Grade
Rick Nash C-/C Assistant Coaches C/C Dan Girardi D+/C or C- Derick Brassard, B/ B+