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: 26
Contract: Cap hit of $775,000, under contract through 2017-18 season.
Introduction: When Nicolas Deslauriers was brought to Buffalo in 2014 (in one of Tim Murray’s first trades as GM) the former defenseman-turned-forward was seen by most as a throw-in to the trade, but with some potential to grow into his new position. However, over the past few seasons, Deslauriers seems to have settled into his role as a fourth line energy player who adds minimal offense but plenty of sandpaper to the lineup.
This season, he missed significant time due to injury and ability, and had by far his worst offensive campaign since turning pro three years ago.
Key Stat: Whether you subscribe to the altar of advanced stats or not, there’s no arguing that Deslauriers is a hilariously bad player when it comes to driving possession. In fact, his Corsi this season of 39.35 was not only worst on the team, it was the second-worst number in the entire NHL for players who had more than 40 games this season, and that was on top of receiving relatively protected zone starts. Youch.
Thumbs Up: Deslauriers certainly brings energy and effort to every shift, which is exactly what he should do considering his very limited playing time. He finished third on the team with 2.6 hits per game, and he’s always willing to stick up for his teammates whether in a scrum or a fight. His -6 rating was an improvement on previous seasons.
Thumbs Down: Unfortunately, if it doesn’t involve hittin’ or fightin’ then Deslauriers probably isn’t very good at it. He only managed two assists all season despite playing 42 games, and out of all players who took the ice more than 40 times this year, only one player had fewer points than D-Lo. Honestly, Deslauriers just doesn’t bring anything positive to ice other than hits/fights/energy, and the negatives of his awful possession numbers to go along with zero offensive production so heavily outweigh the positives that you’d have to imagine his position in the lineup could be in jeopardy next year.
Memorable Moment: Deslauriers got into a pretty heated scrap with Brandon Manning of the Flyers back in January, and lowered the boom on the Flyers defenseman.
Grade Nic Deslauriers on his 2016-17 season
| A | 7 |
| B | 20 |
| C | 111 |
| D | 283 |
| F | 239 |
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 Nic Deslauriers on his performance this year.