Year-End Grades: Conrad and Driedger

Well, I was supposed to have these grades done before any news about overagers was out and about, but I'm a slacker.  So here we are.

David Conrad: B+

Radsy is a lunch-pail type guy. For his efforts he earned Unsung Hero honors from me. He also got himself his best season ever with 10 goals, 14 assists in the regular season. But he's not an offensive guy. He's a shut-down guy. He plays gritty and plays a good defensive game, as seen with his gazillion minutes on the penalty kill.

Conrad is not flashy, hell he can barely skate. My God it looks like he's snowshoeing when he skates. But he manages to get from one end of the ice to the other and does whatever needs to be done for the team. Blocking shots? Check. Checking guys? Check. Looking sexy? Check. Creating traffic in passing lanes? Check.

I didn't figure he'd be back as a 20. I'll miss those lips. But he's a very specific role player and that's not what teams generally need from their coveted overager spots. Best of luck to David in whatever his future holds.

----------

Chris Driedger: B

Again, I don't like to mark down rookies, and it's not really Chris' fault he didn't get to play much the first half of the season. But I'm not going to inflate his grade either. He's a rookie. Which means there's still lots to learn. Drew's injury allowed Chris to get in a lot of playing time, and I'm not quite sure he was ready for that much work all at once. That's part of the learning curve though.

Driedger has a great mentor in Drew and I know he's been working with Olie too. He'll be a good goalie. He's got size, covers the net well, and basic technique. It will be interesting to see how much development he takes in over the summer like Drew did 2 summers ago.