Over on Puckrakers, Porty and the guys have started a player by player review of the past year and assigned a grade. I thought it could be interesting if we played along with our comments and grades here.
Over on Puckrakers, Porty and the guys have started a player by player review of the past year and assigned a grade. I thought it could be interesting if we played along with our comments and grades here.
Atkinson - B+. He showed he can handle the pressures in his short time and actually showed improvement as the year went on. I still think he needs to add strength as he did get pushed around a bit but he has nice skills, speed and, above all, desire! I like his drive to compete and become a better player. If the trajectory continues we've got a nice top 9/top 6 forward for a long time.
Atkinson gets a B from me, I don't think he's ever going to be more than an average skilled NHL player but the intensity and spirit he brings may translate into an impact player type.. He plays consistently hard toward the net and he plays to win, I like that.
Let's not forget most of his goals came in two games.
Interesting take. I was wondering if we were grading on a standard scale or based on expectations.
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yea but , those pile of goals came when he was playing top line minutes at the end of the year ... not the 6 minutes he was allocated to before that ...
yea but , those pile of goals came when he was playing top line minutes at the end of the year ... not the 6 minutes he was allocated to before that ...
What in the world are you taking about? Cam only played less than 12 minutes once in the NHL this season. He averaged over 15 minutes a game.
No idea what he means. Maybe he's thinking of Johansen or something
Whatever ice time he had, I think Cam earned it shift to shift. He has special talent. He's as engaging a forward as I've seen in a CBJ sweater.
I would give him a B this season, an average of a C from the early season and A for the late season. Though he scored the bulk of his goals in just a couple games, it was quite clear to me that he was putting the work in and in a position to score quite a bit leading up to the late scoring. It was just a matter of time for him to score, and I really like how he kept working and didn't get discouraged.
DMac sure as hell better be resigned. Has the heart and hustle that this team needs. Cam did very well for his rookie campaign. Can't wait to see what he does next year.
The kid has promise. He scored a ton of goals in top college competition and that isn't easy to do. I don't think that Atkinson should be discounted. He's got a ton of skill and appears to have the heart needed to succeed in the NHL. He's been proving his naysayers wrong for the past decade. He's a lot like 5'6" 160 pound Montreal Canadien David Desharnais who was told he'd never make it....in the AHL. Desharnais had 60 points in 2011-12 which was his first full NHL season. Desharnais is primarily a playmaker while Atkinson appears to be mainly a goal scorer. Perhaps the Jackets could pick up Desharnais and have 2/3rds of the Mighty Midget Line.
Atkinson will be a top 6 forward to start the season and probably on the first wave of the power play at some point next season. I wouldn't think that 40-50 points would be an unrealistic expectation for him.
Howson is golden with his undersized 6th round picks.
Last edited by Cyclones Rock: 05-02-2012 at 02:53 AM.
He was, what, a 7th rounder? Undersized too.... Look, I'll give him a A- as well for this season (Pretty sure he was a monster when he played games in springfield this season), but I don't honestly expect him to keep trending up.
He was, what, a 7th rounder? Undersized too.... Look, I'll give him a A- as well for this season (Pretty sure he was a monster when he played games in springfield this season), but I don't honestly expect him to keep trending up.
Sixth round in 2008 - same draft year as Calvert, Kubalik, Goloubef, Regner, Collins... oh, and the perpetual primadonna loser we traded to Ottawa to get TJ Tynan.
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On one hand, its disturbing that 5 of those goals came in 2 games.
On the other hand, we all saw how good he was when he wasn't scoring, and I think we all knew it was just a matter of time before good things came to this guy that worked so hard and with such positive effect in the offensive zone.
It's hard to grade, hard to determine the scale, especially for a rookie that hasn't had a full season in the NHL yet, but I'm very excited to see what he can do, and I'd be disappointed if he didn't land a top 6 spot and some juicy PP time as well next season.
I don't know about anyone else, but I saw improvement in (nearly) every game with the end of the season call-up. So, for those saying "yea, but it was 5 goals in 2 games", it was the last two games. Let's give Cam a month in the fall before discrediting his scoring pace (or over-inflating it).
It wasn't like he got the hat trick in his first game and never scored again.
Looking at his Twitter feed, seems like he ends up working out with Jonathon Quick at least some of the time in the summer. So, Cam, go practice snipe-ing on Quick as much as possible this summer (it has to be significantly harder than snipe-ing on Mason).
I pretty much agree with all three of Porty's evaluations so far. Really, there will be room for dissension about only a few people on the roster. We all saw the same things, I think.
Cam confuses me sometimes. At times I don't think he's going to be more than average, and then I think he's going to be skilled.
I find it interesting that when Brassard and Umberger were heating up, Atkinson did as well,
When it was Umberger-Brassard-Atkinson they were playing really well.
Umberger and Brassard were moved with Nash and the line fizzled.
Nash moved down to the second line and Atkinson to the first and the line heated up again.
He has the tools needed, I think. He handles the puck decently, has amazing speed, and has a somewhat unimpressive shot, but gets it off very quickly.
I think Cam is the kind of player that can really succeed given the appropriate line mates.
I think we'll see big years from Umberger, Brassard and Atkinson next year. Hopefully Johan can put a good year together. If three of those four players put up fifty-points, then we'd have more fifty-point players than we did this year (Nash was highest with 59, Prospal was the other 50-point player).
