This was compiled by Eric Bourgeois, hardcore Amerks fan and future contributor to this site.  Here’s his brief synopsis of players (in no particular order) from this season and a grade to go along with them.

Key Players

Taylor ( B- ): Dedicated, reliable and familiar but is absolutely only a role player at this stage. It’s all he wanted to be this year.

Fenton ( C ): Servicable 5th line depth center. Belongs in ECHL moreso. Works awful hard and does little things well.

Jenks ( D ): Started late because of heart thing, looked good in middle, did nothing late. Played too much for a rookie.

Grant ( D ): Lacerated kidney derailed first half. Was a beast for about a month till he got again and played soft last 2 months. Not a good “VET” signing.

Knackstedt ( F ): ECHL quality who did little here.

Duco ( B ): Took nights off but still got 20 goals and 126 PIM’s. Maybe should have had 30 goals and 200 PIM’s though?

Selleck ( B+ ): Did everything asked of him. Showed skill and willingness to scrap with anyone. NHL heavyweight in 2-3 years?

Thomas ( B- ): Not the same player after he was sent back down. Skillfull at this level, got a shot in the show, but is an AHL’er.

Repik ( B- ): Fine skillwise but he was even poor in the AHL in his own zone. Won’t miss Victor Gordyuk II.

Dadanov ( C ): Shocking recall in my opinion. Not ready for NHL with anyone other than FLA. Very medicore here overall for skill.

Timmins ( B+ ): NHL smarts and faceoff skill. Kinda guy who could have really used a long AHL playoff season for development. No issues at all with him.

McArdle ( B- ): Worked hard, willing to scrap but production hasn’t improved. Injuries will likely derail career if current path continues.

Baier ( C+ ): Good 7th D-man. Works hard. A little bit of nasty. Good guy in community. Played WAY too much.

Caruso ( B- ): May have saved his career as no way he would have been in the AHL next season as of X-mas. Added necessary nastiness to his game, with lack of talent)

Kostka ( B+ ): Mediocre in own zone, very good offensively. Played hard and said right things. As a non-vet this guy was a steal.

Wilson ( B- ): Showed character last game by coming back and scoring twice. Very skillfull, but not good in own zone. Very expensive, but great attitude.

Robak ( C ): Could be a good one, but behind pace of Ellerby and Garrison were after year 1. Lots of work to-do. Played too much.

Comrie ( C ): Should have been in ECHL all season, but has the size to become a reliable D-man I think. Plays simple enough.

Callahan ( F ): layed soft, nonchalant. Hurts my brain to think of him in NHL. Worst vet signing in history of team? Looked like he was fishing everytime he needed to play body.

Temporary grades for short-termers

Nylander ( B+ ): 4 goals in 7 games. Imagine a line of him, Grabner and Kennedy? Painful to think about.

Plante ( C+ ): Way too inconsistent. An AHL backup is his future. Great guy, but had his big chance and blew it.

Markstrom ( B- ): Struggled to get acclimated then played well. Things would have been much better had he not got hurt I think.

Cheverie ( F ): One of the worst goalies I’ve seen come through here.

Clackson ( D ): Had one awesome shift on opening night. An ECHL’er.

Del Monte ( D ): Struggled in own zone…ECHL’er.

Calla ( D ): ECHL’er we’ve had to suffer with for too long.

Paetsch ( B ): Would have been better off with this Rochester boy instead of Callahan. Wasn’t a good start loaning him off to Syracuse so early.

Marshall ( B ): Played hard and was reliably physically. I think he can play at this level. My ECHL’er of the year award goes to him.

Ellerby ( C ): Was actually fine when he was here, but is more talented than he showed here.

Cullen ( C ): Missed first 60% of season and then last week. Moderately productive, but never looked like Cullen of old. Not sure he will ever.

Jessiman ( D ): Good size but just another unproductive inconsistent forward in his limited time here.

Kennedy ( B- ): Probably most skillfull player we had…albeit very limited in time. Wish they would have secured him in October when they tried. Wasn’t very productive though.

Rissmiller ( B+ ): Only 8 games…but 10 points. Huge size and good skill.

Battaglia ( F ): Was the end of his road, and we got to “enjoy” it

Fast ( C ): Actually was fine when he played here – nothing special. Can move puck. Fast = Dumping Minker though in our eyes and mind.

Dubuc ( B ): Nice soft accurate wrister. Probably should be in next list, but I think he’s a 25 goal scorer at this level.

Not enough time to evaluate

Oberg: Looked like another finesse D with no physicality, but he was better than a lot of what we had.

Luciani: I liked the way this kid played, and he was rewarded with a couple of goals in Toronto.

Reynolds: Non-descript

Hedden: Certainly didn’t hate what I saw

Eghoetz: Not AHL quality

Bendickson: Not AHL quality

Hotham: Looked like he could play at this level. No better or worse than Comrie

Conacher: Appeared to have some skill and wheels

Petezian: Our official end of the year mop-up guy. Battles – doesn’t he?

Pierce: Not AHL quality

O’Hanely: Actually looked like he can move the puck decently

Gordon: Remember he had some skill, but nothing stood out

Peters: 2 roadies was it… before the incident.

Rank: I think him retiring stung us a little. He’s a tough guy to play against.

On roster at some point, but never played

Grabner: Well, he ended up being Isles leading scorer, so I’d say this waiver claim loss was significant

Reinprecht: Didn’t want to come here, chose Europe. Don’t blame him, but he would have helped and been more interesting to watch than ECHL’ers

Foster: If he’s anything like Cheverie lets be happy we don’t know anything more

DeLory: This guy’s been around for 30 years it seems like. Probably fortunate we didn’t get to see him

Hudson: Ego games kept our only hope of physicality buried in Cincy

Supposed to have seen but never happened

Santorelli: One of Florida’s steadier goal scorers..for whatever little that was worth. Was prized off-season acquisition for us. Haha

Matthias: Some didn’t like him, but he was abused by this organization. I wish him well, actually

Bitz: His injury never healed so we never got to see the big guy