The season is over, and we’re going to rate every player who played more than 20 games this season on their performance the same way we were all graded back in the day – on a report card scale of A to F. We’re taking a look at everyone from Bailey to Rodrigues in our 2016-17 Buffalo Sabres Report Cards.
Age: 32
Contract: Through till 2018-19 ($3,900,000)
Introduction: Josh Gorges finally got dropped from the Sabres top defensive pairing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he got any better. He saw his ice time drop steadily, especially once Dmitry Kulikov and Zach Bogosian were healthy again.
The veteran defenseman is signed through for another year, but is unlikely to play much of a part next season especially if Buffalo is able to upgrade the position in the offseason.
Key Stat: 26.1 shifts per game played – the lowest in Gorges’ long career. On a defensively weak Sabres team, that is still middle of the pack however, and more than the injury-prone Zach Bogosian and the leaden-footed Cody Franson.
Thumbs Up: With 2:40 of shorthanded TOI per game played, Gorges was the second-most important penalty killer on the Sabres this season.
Thumbs Down: Gorges offers little to the Sabres right now, and the only reason he is still on the team is because he has a limited no-trade-clause. Buffalo badly needs an infusion of pace and offense from the back-end, but the alternate captain is not the person to provide it.
Memorable Moment: When you score one goal all season, barely get into any fights and are not a big hitter, the highlight reel is pretty short.
Voting: Using the good old grade school system of A, B, C, D, F, with a grade of A representing a great season, a grade of C being the performance you expected, and F a very poor season, rate Josh Gorges on his performance this year.
Grade Josh Gorges on his 2016-17 season.
| A | 1 |
| B | 12 |
| C | 128 |
| D | 262 |
| F | 122 |