Avalanche season grades: Blake Comeau

We move into the Cs now in our Avalanche player season grade review, with Blake Comeau. The veteran had a nice season for the Avs, but let’s break it down in detail and give a final grade. A reminder: the grade given in our analytical chart is the computer-generated one, from our own proprietary analytics system. We give a human one at the end:

Overview

Like a lot of Avalanche players, Blake Comeau entered 2017-18 looking for some redemption. Like most returning players from the previous season’s squad, he didn’t play very well. Happily for Comeau, he found that redemption.

Despite playing only two more games (79-77), Comeau increased his point total from 20 to 34, his goals from eight to 13. He was a minus-19 the year before, a plus-5 this year. He was an important member of a pretty good penalty-killing unit. He was a locker-room leader, kind of the wise, veteran sage guy most every team needs. He was the right-wing anchor of the team’s third line.

His season got off to a bad start offensively, too. He didn’t get a point in any of his first seven games. Starting around early November, however, he became a pretty consistent point-every-other-game guy. Probably more important, he did a consistently respectable job defensively, on the PK and just with the fundamentals overall. He drew a lot of penalties (and took a few, too). There were definitely times where that wasn’t always the case, and as the numbers in the graphic above show, he didn’t post very good puck-possession numbers.

Which is ironic, because one of the things I’ve occasionally been critical of with Comeau is how he holds on to the puck a little too long when he gets it. He likes to circle the net a lot and up high in the offensive zone, trying to make plays. But that’s not his best strength, and sometimes he’ll turn it over and be caught going the other way.

He’s a good, solid role player when things are going right. This season, things mostly went right for him. Whether he continues to have the opportunity to do that for this team moving forward – that’s a question still unanswered.

Biggest Moment

A tough call here, as there really weren’t any games in which Comeau was the dominant player statistically. So, I’m going to go with a Dec. 11 game in Pittsburgh in which the Avs won 2-1. Comeau was credited with the game-winning goal, even though it was just an empty-netter.

But his play that game typified Comeau when he was at his best. He was part of a PK unit that kept the powerful Penguins pointless on the power play and on the ice when the Penguins pulled the goalie for the extra attacker. His empty-netter was needed, as the Pens did score right after that to make it 2-1, which was the final score.

What’s Next

Another tough question. Comeau can be an unrestricted free agent July 1. The Avs are still trying to figure out their personnel decisions regarding unsigned guys. He’s 32, the second-oldest guy on the team, behind Carl Soderberg. He made $2.4 million in his final year. He does want to come back, but I can’t imagine him doing so under any cut in pay. Another team out there might value him more.

We’ll know the answers at some point soon.

Final Grade

B

If this was to be his final act with the Avs, Blake Comeau can feel good about it. He was a valued member of what proved a playoff team. He also scored two goals in those six postseason games. That the Avs got 34 points from a third-line guy was a decent reason why they did make the playoffs.

It’s going to be iffy whether he returns. Joe Sakic essentially said he though the Avs might get “even younger” this off-season, so it might have been a tell in their plans to offer him a new deal. He’ll find work somewhere else if they don’t.