Final Islanders Report Cards: 2009-10 Edition

To pass the long hockey-less months and stir reflection on the season that was, each year we sprinkle "report cards" throughout the summer for major Islanders players, soliciting the votes of readers and drifters here to compile the official grade. Now that training camp is kicking off a new season this weekend, we present the final class grades from 2009-10 and the grades they took home.

Before your jaw drops at the spectrum of scores (Meyer graded higher than Tavares?!), remember that voters are instructed to grade how a player did relative to your preseason expectations. So while everyone brings their own rubric to these grades, most are grading on a curve. So obviously no one expected 30 goals from Matt Moulson, and he tops the class based on this curve. (Also keep that in mind for next summer, by thinking this month about what expectations you have for players in 2010-11.)

What follows is the full and final tally. The numeric grade for each player links to that player's write-up and poll. These will be sent home to each player's parent and to Garth Snow, to sign and send back to me...er, us...er, you know, we several hundred graders at Lighthouse Hockey.

2009-10 New York Islanders Final Grades

While we had fun with the words behind each number, on every poll* 10 was the highest -- exceeded expectations as much as possible -- while 5 and 6 equaled the middle, essentially "met my expectations." Any 1 votes meant you thought a player was a Hall of Famer when in fact he was a 2009 Islanders (or, you just hated him so much you didn't care about the rules).

*Due to popular demand and subliminal incantation, Frans Nielsen's scale actually "went up to 11." To adjust for that, I just assumed everyone who gave him an 11 would have given him a 10 on a scale that hadn't been adjusted for Frans' sheer Danish awesomeness.

**Andy Sutton, Rick DiPietro, Joel Rechlicz and...anyone I forgot were given Incompletes.

Any big surprises? Reading by the book, you sure expected more of Isles vets Bergenheim, Hunter and Gervais, while Freddy Meyer and Trevor Gillies played out above their paygrade and Matt Moulson, of course, took you all by surprise.