Faulk is dinged by Gordon in end of year grades

[Galatians221jb1]

There's a paywall or I'd put the link but Gordo's end of year defensemen grades were unkind to Faulk giving him a "C". Fowler and Parayko got "A's" , all others got "B"s except Faulk. Faulk was dinged as an offensive defenseman who is no longer producing offense. I'm assuming that Gordo at least talks to Monty and Army while researching his final grade analysis. Hopefully a change will be made regarding Faulk for next season.

[seattleblue]

Fowler A
Parayko A
Faulk C
is a legitimate assessment for grades IMO

[Galatians221jb1]

Fowler A
Parayko A
Faulk C
is a legitimate assessment for grades IMO

Agreed. Just hope Army is in agreement.

[hockey jedi]

Faulk plays his tail off. His +/- wasn't great most of the year, which hurt him. His offense has fallen off. I worry about brain farts. He makes a ton of head scratching passes and is occasionally too cavalier with the puck when he's the last man back. He's a tough competitor.

[hockey jedi]

This ESPN writer suggested moving Faulk would be good.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/3- ... b168&ei=24

[JoshInFenton]

Need to move him, or at least move him off the role of 6 on 5 defensemen and look for someone with fewer lapses in coverage. not that it was all on him, but there were some bad ones this year that were strictly his guy and his mental oopsie.

[Absolut]

Faulk plays his tail off. His +/- wasn't great most of the year, which hurt him. His offense has fallen off. I worry about brain farts. He makes a ton of head scratching passes and is occasionally too cavalier with the puck when he's the last man back. He's a tough competitor.

He gives me about 3 heart attacks per game.

[Section315]

Jeff Gordon still writes lazy takes? Man, that guy has stole thousands of dollars from the P-D.

[Hockey Pete]

Faulk plays his tail off. His +/- wasn't great most of the year, which hurt him. His offense has fallen off. I worry about brain farts. He makes a ton of head scratching passes and is occasionally too cavalier with the puck when he's the last man back. He's a tough competitor.

He gives me about 3 heart attacks per game.

Quoted for accuracy...

He's a warrior, but he just looks lost sometimes.

[bluetunehead]

He’d be a great 3rd pairing defenseman if we had another good RHD, but I no longer really trust him in high leverage situations. Just gets beat too often. Can’t question the effort though that’s for sure.

[skilles]

It sure seems the Blues disagree as Faulk was the second most used player at even strength and overall in the regular season and the playoffs.

My personal opinion is I'm fine with Faulk on the 2nd pairing next season but we need to get the replacement in the system fairly soon.

I think Faulk was over rated for years here and very quicky became the opposite.

[blackinkbiz]

Pssschhh... He's fortunate to have gotten a C. It should have at least been a C-. Personally, I'd have given him a D.

When I heard he wasn't supposed to be on the ice for the final shift of the 3rd period in Game 7 because he mistakenly jumped before Broberg could and ended up blowing another coverage for the game tying goal ... D would be considerate.

[Lone_Ranger]

C is pretty harsh. The whole D played great under Monty during that run and that was without Parayko. Faulk was a big part of that playoff push. Pretty unfair grade IMO. B- would of been more fair.

[STL fan in MN]

I feel like Faulk has become a lightning rod. The latest whipping boy. I thought it was fine this season. Not amazing, but fine.

I feel like there’s some recency bias on that last game with him. Anyone remember how he and Broberg hadn’t been on the ice for a single goal against the first 4 games of the series? No?
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/blues ... 2437.html

Faulk also had a rough last quarter of the season but that was when Parayko was out and Faulk was usually the only right-shooting d-man in the lineup (I think Kessel played 1-2 games down the stretch). Faulk struggled being our #1, all situations RD but why wouldn’t he? That’s not his role. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Once he was back on the 2nd pairing with Broberg, he looked much better.

In the playoffs, the Blues scored 6 goals and allowed 0 when Broberg-Faulk were on the ice. That pairing was by far our most consistent pairing this season (810 minutes together) and the team scored 26 and allowed 21 when they were on the ice together.

Father Time is clearly catching up to Justin Faulk but I don’t think he was bad this season. His offense just isn’t what it used to be and I’d prefer to get him off the PP but he’s fine. Not amazing but fine. I think we need to look to upgrade his position but it needs to be the right move, not an immediate move. If that move isn’t available this summer then I’m fine with returning with Faulk for next season. The rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated IMO.

[callitwhatyouwant]

I feel like Faulk has become a lightning rod. The latest whipping boy. I thought it was fine this season. Not amazing, but fine.

I feel like there’s some recency bias on that last game with him. Anyone remember how he and Broberg hadn’t been on the ice for a single goal against the first 4 games of the series? No?
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/blues ... 2437.html

Faulk also had a rough last quarter of the season but that was when Parayko was out and Faulk was usually the only right-shooting d-man in the lineup (I think Kessel played 1-2 games down the stretch). Faulk struggled being our #1, all situations RD but why wouldn’t he? That’s not his role. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Once he was back on the 2nd pairing with Broberg, he looked much better.

In the playoffs, the Blues scored 6 goals and allowed 0 when Broberg-Faulk were on the ice. That pairing was by far our most consistent pairing this season (810 minutes together) and the team scored 26 and allowed 21 when they were on the ice together.

Father Time is clearly catching up to Justin Faulk but I don’t think he was bad this season. His offense just isn’t what it used to be and I’d prefer to get him off the PP but he’s fine. Not amazing but fine. I think we need to look to upgrade his position but it needs to be the right move, not an immediate move. If that move isn’t available this summer then I’m fine with returning with Faulk for next season. The rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated IMO.

This is accurate. The biggest worry in Faulks game isn't his defense, it's whether or not he can produce offensively anymore. his first year with the blues doesn't really get to count but this is the telling stat his following 3 years

shot percentage
6.0
9.6
5.6

Last 2 years
1.5
3.2

Career
5.7

If he returned to career averages, I think we would all be OK with how Faulk was playing because his defense has gotten better, while his offense has dropped off pretty significantly. Is this a product of something else? I don't know. Fowler excelled this year in Monty's system. Parayko had an all time offensive season. Broberg was at an 8.2 both fowler and parayko over 10. Heck even Leddy was at a 9. So Faulks offense definitely is an outlier in that group.

I remember Faulk being a lot better up in the rush a few years ago. It wasn't reliant on just slappers but he also stepped up into a lot more shots at in the mid ice and looked to be dangerous. It seems like he plays a lot more backwards now. Did the coaching staff ask him to protect Broberg as a young defensemen?

[stlblue06]

For the past 3 seasons (before the turnaround) Faulk has been by far the most infuriating Blues player to watch. He’s become so bad during this period that I can’t help but to become extra aware every time he’s on the ice because I know the Blues are extremely vulnerable for a game changing mistake in our own d-zone or offensive zone momentum killer.

Leddy wasn’t far behind him but he turned his play around for a few months before this season and it was a treat when he was hurt most of this season.