2015-16 Report Card: Joe Colborne

Joe Colborne

Center

Grade: B

MarkParkinson14 – B+

The kid known as “Big and Local” is often the target of fan displeasure and unworldly expectations. That will happen when you play where you were born, but Joe Colborne may have silenced many of his critics with his breakout season in 2015-16. You may ask yourself “how can a breakout season only garner him a B+?” Well, Colborne really didn’t hit his stride until mid February. From February 19 until April 9th Colborne registered 26 of his 44 points in that time frame. That’s 26 points over a 26 game span. That’s an amazing finish and his season would have been even better if he started a little hotter (prior to those 26 games he had 29 0 points games). He was on the plus side of Face Off Wins/Losses with a split of 85/70. He’s put the Flames in an interesting situation as he is starting trend upward just as he’s due for a new contract.

BizzleJ – B-

Joe Colborne had a great season, in fact, his best to date. Joe continues to be a "Big and Local" presence in front of the opposition net, and it paid off big this past season as Colborne netted 19 goals and assisted on 25 for a career high 44 points in just 73 games. Joe also does great things off the ice with his Colborne's Forces program which treats members of our Canadian Military and their families to attend Flames games and also meet some of the players and tour the dressing room. So why does a player that played his best season to date and that does great things for the community only get a B grade? Because to get an A grade you have to be very extraordinary. Colborne is great, but he's no Johnny Gaudreau.

samwell9 – B

Joe Colborne is a very polarizing figure among Flames fans. People seem to absolutely love him, or they despise him and think he is worthless. I'd say I'm in the middle. Colborne has a lot of great assets, particularly his size, his willingness to go to the net, and he's definitely a terrific shootout player. He's skilled for sure, he's not a plug. The frustrating part about Colborne is that you just want him to put it all together, if he did I think he could definitely be regarded as a solid second line player. There were countless times this year where Colborne would drive up the ice, through the D, get into a terrific scoring area; but then he would hold on to the puck too long and nothing would materialize out of a promising looking rush. He may not have the strongest hockey sense around. While he had a pretty slow start to the year, he ended the season on an absolute tear (driven by a sky high shooting percentage), so it will be interesting to see how his future with the Flames plays out. There is a use for Colborne in the middle six, but the Flames can only afford to pay him so much. I'm giving Colborne's season a B.

FlamesMM – B

I haven't always been a big fan of Joe Colborne, I thought he underutilized his size more often than and seemed as though he was always lacking in his physical game. Between his dekes in the shootout and his overall ability to make moves, Colborne has always seemed to have a potential to become a solid secondary scorer behind Gaudreau and Monahan. However, he only seemed to pick up the scoring late in the season, mostly after the pressure was off and the season was already dead. Colborne is a key piece of the Flames but with his expiring contract, the Flames better not go overboard and offer him a Lance Bouma deal after two months of lighting it up. Colborne has a ways to go stlll, but I enjoyed the progression he made while playing with Backlund and Bennett. Hey, they both start with B. And I'm going to give Colborne's season a B.

MattyFranchise – C

HockeyGoalieEh – A

The Flames had plenty of problems this season. Joe Colborne wasn't one of them. Colborne's scoring ability, particularly in even strength scenarios, was particularly useful for the Flames this season. Adding to that was the fact that for the first time in his career he managed to be a positive in the possession category in modified Corsi. The xG was not where one would like it to be, but it was tolerable. That combined with the possession made him a top sixty player at even strength. He actually averaged more primary points and total points per 60 minutes than any other Flame this year in five on five situations.

He was horrible on the power play and probably shouldn't be there, but that's a small quarrel to have. With all of this being said, this was in one season in an otherwise pedestrian career. There are concerns that his production may have come along side Mikael Backlund and those shouldn't be discredited. He's going to cost a decent sum of money – money that the Flames aren't likely to have lying around once they address the concerns with the goaltending. Given that there's a good chance of regression, it's likely that he's a goner and if that's the case it's a shame that they didn't attempt to gain any assets with him at the deadline.

by Mark Parkinson