My Season grades for the Pens players and management

Wayyyyyy too many A's & B's for a non-playoffs team.

Rierden deserves an F for running a lifeless powerplay. Reilly Smith was also a ghost after the first 10 games (7 goals in last 66 games, only had 2 more goals than Jeff Carter despite spending a good portion of the season in the Top 6.)

Honestly I feel like this past few weeks could be momentum built up for the start of next season. Last year at the end of the season this team was dead in the water and became more and more predictable we were missing the playoffs. This year they finished strong. It seems our hopes of O’Connor and Puustinen becoming potential top 6 wingers are coming to fruition. But for now they are for sure going to be mainstays that can play up and down the lineup.
Obviously changes will be made with the roster but I do hope something changes with the coaching staff as well. Even though I still believe Sully can coach this team to success, a shakeup could be necessary moving forward.
I’m not gonna lie, I feel better about going in to next season. They have proven they can make a push, they missed the playoffs by 3 points and were arguably better than both Washington and Detroit. Both Washington and Detroit barely lucked their way in to playoffs and were struggling heavily to win games these past few weeks while Pittsburgh was just rolling and rolling. Of course, this team needs to learn how to hold on to leads.

Before I make my changes to OP’s grades, let’s all give a stick tap for Jeff Carter’s career. The guy had one heck of a career and I appreciate his commitment to the Pens. If he ends up someday in the front office I’ll be happy.

Centres
Crosby: A+
Malkin: B-
Eller: B
Acciari: C
Poulin: B-
Zohorna: C-

----Left Wingers
O'Connor: A-
Bunting: A
Smith: C
Harkins: D
Nieto: D
Gruden: C+
Guentzel: A

----Right Wingers
Rust: A
Rakell: C
Puustinen: B
Carter: B-
Puljujarvi: C
Bemstrom: C
Hinostroza: D+

----Left Defense
Joseph: B-
Pettersson: A
Shea: B-
Ludvig: B-
Graves: C

----Right Defense
Letang: B-
Karlsson: C
St. Ivany: B+
Ruhwedel: B-

----Goalies
Nedjelkovic: B+
Jarry:B
Hellberg:B-

----Management
Sullivan: C
Rierden: D
Velucci: B

Dubas: B
FSG: B

Carter: B-
I thought that was the worst part of this whole thing till I saw this:
Shea: B-
Ludvig: B-

You must be blind.
Ludvig 5v5 oiGA/60 is 4.0
That's Jack Johnson level!

If any defenseman on the penguins deserved a F, it was Ludvig.