2015-16 Report Cards: Brandon Bollig

Brandon Bollig

D

BizzleJ – C

Brandon Bollig is yet another one of those players who isn’t put out on the ice to score goals. Eight Flames players had more goals this past season than Bollig has had his entire NHL career. Bollig’s job is to go out and hit anything that moves and his 103 penalty minutes this season shows he is doing his job, and then some. Bollig racked up 117 hits this season and blocked 25 shots. The brightest spot on his resume is his Stanley Cup win with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013. Besides his usefullness as a battering ram and his Stanley Cup ring, Bollig is too big of a cap hit at $1.25M per season so I gave him a C grade.

Samwell9 – F

Brandon Bollig seems like a nice guy and all that, but there just really is no room for him in the NHL at this point in time. Teams need to roll 4 lines that can all play, as much as Burkie says the team needs “truculence,” that cannot come at the cost of skill. Bollig prevents the Flames from being able to completely use 4 lines, 4 points in 54 games and a 43.8% CF is evident of such a thing. Fighting has gone significantly down in the NHL and a player like Micheal Ferland can provide that when necessary while still playing a regular shift. I just think a roster spot could have been better used elsewhere (Paul Byron). Hopefully Burke was not for real when he said the next coach will play Bollig more. I have to give Bollig an F.

MarkParkinson14- F

Brandon Bollig. I'm really not sure what Brandon Bollig does well to deserve a spot on the Flames roster. Is that a harsh statement? Sure, but it's true. 54 games, 4 points. I don't expect him to be Gretzky, but 4 points is just plain sad. Bollig does pile up the penalty minutes. His 103 was by far the most on the Flames this season and his 117 hits put him 3rd on the Flames as well. The Flames brass like to pride themselves on "truculence" and wanting to have big bodies on the ice. Bollig semi fits that description, but it's not like he's the ideal bruiser either. For what he brings to the Flames and what he did in 54 games this year, I have to say that Bollig's 2015-16 season was nothing short of disappointing. His PIM went up from the season before and his hits went down. Not to mention his point total dropped from a whopping 5 to 4. I'll never understand his roster spot and his stats and game play don't "wow" me either. F

FlamesMM- D

For a player who's roll is diminishing by the year in the NHL, you'd imagine Bollig would have to be pretty good to keep him in the NHL consistently. Wrong. For a Flames organization that has the motto "Always earned, never given" I still can't figure out how Bollig has managed to hold down a roster spot in Calgary the last two seasons. I could name three Flames who could easily take his role for the upcoming season, MIcheal Ferland, Lance Bouma, and Garnet Hathaway. Sure Bollig sounds like a character guy to have in the room, it comes at cost of essentially handicapping the Flames' fourth line any time it's on the ice. For a rebuilding club, Bollig is probably the last guy you'd want to have eating a roster spot. D

MattyFranchise – D

Man did he ever get scored on a lot with a 33.3 GF%, -14.2% GFRel and second worst on the team in general (only Bouma was worse). He was part of the problem in raw possession as well clocking in at 43.9 CF%, tied for last with Matt Stajan, while being the second worst possession sinkhole at -4.5% CFRel (Stajan was marginally worse). Of his 4 even strength points only the 2 goals were primary points, his assists were both secondaries. By eye, he frustrated the heck out of me all season long. His only saving grace, and really all that's keeping him from an F, is that he had the 2nd worst ZS% of all forwards at 39.6. Only Stajan had worse. That's a lot of heavy lifting for a guy with the very limited ability that Bollig possesses.

HockeyGoalieEh – F

Bollig is a complete waste of space at the N.H.L. level. His 40.04 percent modified expected goals was actually lucky as he was actually at 37.22 percent. These numbers are adjusted for zone starts – the raw data is even worse than this. In addition to that, his -20 penalty differential would equal an additional 3.75 goals against given a team with an average penalty kill. He is beyond useless at even strength; a gargantuan black whole who shouldn't be employed. Buy him out, trade him, stack him in the minors; just make sure that he isn't playing at all next year.

by BizzleJ