Pittsburgh Penguins Season Grades: Zbynek Michalek

Today’s Penguins Puck’s Pittsburgh Penguins 2011 Season Grades will feature the season of free agent acquisition defenseman Zbynek Michalek. Grading scale: The grading scale will range from A+ down through F, with half grades (+/-) included. The players will be graded on their overall season performance, as well as how they performed compared to their potential, talent level and expectations. Both Penguins fans and Marc-Andre Fleury alike mourned the free agent loss of defenseman and Stanley Cup hero Rob Scuderi last year after he left for Los Angeles prior to the 2009-10 season. That year, Pittsburgh severely lacked a true shot-blocking gritty defenseman. This year, they found one. General Manager Ray Shero signed Zbynek Michalek to a 5-year/$20 million contract during the 2010 off-season. The now 28-year-old was coming off a solid season in Phoenix in which he finished with 17 points and 156 blocked shots. Michalek nearly duplicated those stats this year in Pittsburgh. He recorde...