2008 Final Grade: B
2007 Grade: N/A
Links:
Scott Hannan (hockey-reference page)
2008 ITCS (aka highly unofficial) Hannan game log
Season Stats: 82gp 2g 19a 21pt -5
Minutes: 1,859.7 (1st), EV 19:03, PP :33, PK 3:05, ATOI 22:41
1st Half: 41gp 1g 12a 13pt -8
2nd Half: 41gp 1g 7a 8pt +3
Playoffs: 9gp 0g 1a 1pt E
Best Month: December (15gp 1g 6a 7pt +5)
Linemates: Liles (31), Leopold (21), Cumiskey (13), Clark (9), Sauer (4), Boychuk (2), Skrastins (2)
Season: It may be tough to believe, but Hannan’s 21 points were just 3 short of his career high (2005-2006 and 2006-2007) and his 19 assists were just 1 away from his career high of 20 (2006-2007).
Report: It started…poorly. Hannan looked lost in the first 10 games or so. He said he had problems adjusting to the new system and I’d certainly chalk it up to that. Once he got some games under his belt, he seemed to settle down substantially. On December 3rd, Hannan reached a low point of -15 but then slowly started to crawl out of the hole (going +10 the rest of the way). Despite steadying his game, he still was prone to the odd stinker or two. That occasional sloppiness led to Hannan taking 25 minor penalties - tied with Ryan Smyth for the team lead and too many of those were careless and unnecessary. Hannan was, by far, the most used penalty killer on the team with 252 PK minutes (Clark was 2nd among D with 183). His 19 EV points - as low as that is - was tops among our blueliners. Hannan, like so many of his teammates, is a good shot blocker and his 153 blocks led the team (thanks to the injury to Clark who had 10 less in 57 games). And even though the track record for D from other teams is that they lose some physicality when coming to the Avs, Hannan actually doubled his hit totals from the previous season (not that 59 makes him a bruiser or anything).
Fast Fact: 2007-2008 was Hannan’s first season in the NHL with a negative +/-
2007-2008 Salary (and Cap Number): $4,500,000 ($4,500,000)
2008-2009 Status: Hannan’s $4.5 million contract runs through the end of the 2010-2011 season.
Outlook: How odd that this is the 14th grade I’ve done so far, and yet Hannan is just the 3rd player of the bunch (along with Brett Clark and Ian Laperriere) currently under contract for next season. Of course, that contract is a sore spot with many Avalanche fans. He’s currently the 20th highest paid defensemen which, I agree, is too high. However, in 3 years $4.5 million for a solid-if-not-spectacular defensemen may well be a steal; with the way salaries are increasing in this era of *cough* cost certainty, Hannan may well be in the 50th-range for salary, a much more appropriate position. It’s worth noting that of the 20 defensemen making $4.5 million or more, Hannan is one of just 3 guys under 30 (Andrei Markov and Dion Phaneuf are the others). So, while we watch other high-priced defensemen tail off, Hannan should at least maintain his current level of play and might even show improvement (I certainly expect some improvement next year, at least). I don’t think Hannan’s contract will ever be considered a steal and I don’t think Hannan will ever be considered a #1 guy, but I do think he was a solid acquisition that will, in the long run, work out very well for the Avs.
the weirdest thing about the whole Hannan thing is how poorly him and Clark worked together. Maybe it was just system adjustment issues for Hannan, but they both started the season so poorly together, then pulled out of the tailspin when paired with others (Clark with Sauer, Hannan with Liles/Cumiskey/Leopold).
I agree with the B. He’s not exactly what I expected (I think I was expecting more of a Foote when we got him) but he’s a damn good player. I’d like to see some more Hannan / Leopold this year, along with Clark / Foote. Those seem like very solid pairings to me.
yeah, we all sort of figured Clark and Hannan would be the bomb diggity, but it just went nowhere. Maybe now that Hannan seems to have figured out the system they can revisit it again. Or maybe it’s just a pairing that will never work.
A pretty hard guy to grade to be honest. We know that the forwards suffered from line shuffling to unseen levels. The defensemen were victims of it as well. I think all of the defensemen put in significant minutes with every other defenseman. Here is what I liked about Hannan, he’s a yapper. He’s talking to his partner and he’s talking to the goaltender. That’s a huge cultrual change on the blueline. Let’s name some defensemen from the previous year shall we? Brisebois, Vannanen, Clark, Sauer, Skrastins and JM Liles. Of all those guys Liles is the most talkative but I’ve watched Liles a lot and he’s a clam-shell when he’s playing. The guy does not communicate on the ice in any type of leadership roll. Basically you could put all six of those guys together and be lucky to get six words in six hours. You add in Leopold, who was hurt and it’s a lot of followers on the blue line. Hannan, the emergence of Finger and now the late addition of Foote changes the whole dynamic of the backline. I think Hannan saw the void of leadership and stepped in to it. I don’t think he expected to do that coming in but as the year went on you could see him talking to Jose and talking on the bench.
I also liked his positioning and skating for the most part. I was dissapointed with Hannan’s breakouts, be it just clearing the zone or a headman pass up out of the zone. He did some admirable puck carrying in to the offsensive zone from time to time however. Hannan’s offensive numbers are pretty average for what he does.
What I want to know is how do you fit him in to the defense next year? Can you really afford to have Hannan anchor your top pairing when he’s not going to make the kind of outlet passes they need for top line forwards? When you got Foote and Salei do you put Hannan with Clark again on the second pairing? Leopold and Finger are your 6/7? Hell, there’s no room for Liles as I see it.
Anyway, Hannan didn’t do anything spectacular but he did the little things which I am a huge fan of. I think he’s a big part of the Avs giving up 41 fewer goals from the Church mouse club of the previous year.
Well considering the rumors that the Avs have been talking to Foote, Finger, and Sauer and their are no reports about talks with Liles say something. I hope if that is the case that we at least trade him and get something for him. I would love to have Liles back, but unfortunately I think he’ll be the odd man out.
Hannan did get better as the season went on, and maybe there is some truth to what Doc said. I think many of us (and maybe the organization) expected him to come in and do what Foote did for this club. Maybe he started to by the end (as Dario pointed out with the communication) but it still wasn’t enough; which I think was obvious with the immediate impact Foote had when he came back.
Come on…a B is way too charitable. I’m scrunching up my face really, really hard and trying to forget that obscene contract, just because I want to try to be objective. OK…he is just a player now…just a defenseman. I give him points for being an ironman and sucking up minutes, and playing hurt. I take away (many) points for not being physical enough, for his inability to make a good pass out of is own zone, and for skating like he needs to take a crap.
All right, I can’t lie. His obscene salary is still in my head, and it’s not his fault. However, I won’t forget what I thought we were getting when we picked him up (shutdown defenseman), and what I saw sure wasn’t what I expected. C minus.