Final Grade: C-
Midseason Grade: B-
Season Stats: 66 GP, 15 G, 15 A, 30 Pt, +1, 179 shots
Minutes: 823 total (10th out of 18), EV 9:54, PP 2:33, PK 0:01, ATOI 12:28
Splits:
1st Half: 36 GP, 9 G, 14 A, 23 Pt, +7, 114 shots
2nd Half: 30 GP, 6 G, 1 A, 7 Pt, -6, 65 shots
Positions: RW (58 GP), LW (8)
Lines: 1st (29 GP), 3rd (14), 4th (13), 2nd (10)
Linemates:
C: Sakic (29 GP), Guite (16), Stastny (11), Arnason (9), Turgeon (1)
LW: Brunette (22 GP), Wolski (10), Rycroft (9), Richardson (7), McLean (5), Turgeon (5)
RW: Hejduk (5 GP), Klee (2), Rycroft (1)
Career: Svatos didn’t really come close to matching any of the career highs set in his rookie year
Report: Now that is a sophomore slump…Dropped from 32 goals to 15 and from 50 points to 30…Had a decent first half, with 9 goals and 23 points…Nosedived in the 2nd half, where he had as many points (7) as Karlis Skrastins…Is creative with the puck, but often gets caught making one too many moves…Has good hands and a solid shot, but needs space to work…That makes him a little too reliant on having teammates who can wait until he gets open and can feed him the puck…At even strength, 13 of his 19 points came while with Sakic…With Sakic, his numbers project out over a full season to 50 points…That’s still low, but not as disastrous as the 30 he put up…Wasn’t very good in the 10+ games he put on each of the other 3 lines…In those games, he reminded me a bit of a hamster on a treadmill – lots of work, but nothing to show for it…Has nice “little guy toughness”…Takes a hit, gets up, and gives a hit right back…Of course, also prone to injuries…He’s missed 115 games the last 3 seasons…Takes way too many bad penalties…Laperriere was the only forward with more minor penalties…Had nice goal production on the PP (8), but his PP point total (11) was a big drop from last year (22)…Is better defensively than many people think…Spent 8 games at left wing, and looked surprisingly good.
Fast Fact: At even strength, Svatos had just 6 points in the 37 games he played on a line other than Sakic’s
2007-2007 Salary: $1,050,000
2007-2008 Status: RFA ($1,050,000 QO required)
Outlook: I like Svatos, and enjoy watching him play. After his terrific rookie year, I think many people projected him as the next Milan Hejduk. He isn’t. He’s a 20-25 goal scorer with the right linemates, but an offensive black hole if he’s not. Nothing against Ben Guite, but spending 16 games pairing Svatos with a Guite-like player is just a complete waste of a roster space. More than any other player on the team, if there isn’t room among the top 6 for him, it probably makes sense to move him. The Avs have 5 top 6 guys locked up already, and, of course, there’s talk of them adding another this summer. If the Avs don’t upgrade their 3rd line, or if Svatos can’t crack one of the top two lines, it might be another long season on the treadmill for the young winger.
Honestly, I think he’s trade-bait. He’s got just enough potential to be an intriguing bargaining chip if part of a multi-player switcheroo. Now, who would take him I don’t know, but he’s not a complete liability.
If the Avs score a big right winger in the free agent orgy over the summer, Svatos will find himself playing in Cleveland, I imagine.
I am not going to lie, I am a huge Svatos fan after his rookie year. He impressed me so much but I guess that was just a thing that happened. He kinda slowed down this year, and maybe too much. Its sad to say but I would see him being the next forward to go. I love his playing style when he is at the top of his game. He has a great shot, stick handling is great, and he is faster than people give him credit for. I agree that if he doesnt step it up in maybe the training camp he could be the next one out the door, which is so sad to think about. I dont know about the line combonations he was on. I would blame some of it on our coach. He never really stuck with any combonation and it was hard for him to adjust possibly? Well I hope that is it and that he steps it up in training camp and really shines like he did in his rookie year!! Its wishful thinking, but thats what I’m about! haha
Svatos needs to add more deminsions to his game. It’s really fantastic that he can make plays between the circles, but he’s always there and never anywhere else. It aboslutely KILLED me to see Svatos in the slot while Sakic was on the boards digging pucks out and cycling it with Brunette. Maybe Svatos’ numbers were better with Sakic but on the other hand I’d guess Sakic’s numbers were flat. Svatos is either going to have seasons like last year or he’s going to go in to the corners with his old nasty attitude and get the puck. He needs to diversify his game while still cashing in on his one deminsion that he’s so good at, kind of like Brett Hull. If he can figure that out he can be a great player. If he’s playing to not get hurt and all he will do is hover in front of the net then he’s needs to be traded.
[...] and receive draft pick compensation (a 2nd rounder if his contract is under $2 million). Given his poor season, I don’t expect many teams to have Marek’s agent on speed dial this summer. Barring a [...]