2016-17 Report Card: Michael Frolik

Michael Frolik (Right Wing) - Midseason Grade: A-

Our Individual Grades:

Samwell9: (A-)

Michael Frolik is the exact sort of player that helps a team win championships. While he is not a dominant force, he does basically everything right and can be used in all situations. He is also remarkably consistent, both throughout the season and on a year-to-year basis. He perhaps had the best season of his career this season, forming the 3M line with Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund, who were the biggest reason for the team’s success this season. He did all of this while having a wrist injury from December onward, which likely slowed down his goal scoring pace (he still had 17). Watching Frolik work with Backlund on the penalty-kill is a thing of beauty. Frolik is great.

FlamesMM: (A-)

Frolik does everything that’s asked of him and even more. While he may not get a lot of points, he does everything else so well that his point totals aren’t a big deal. He finished one point shy of his career high this year so he also contributed there along with everywhere else. For as big of a miss that the Brouwer signing was, this signing has been the exact opposite and he’ll be a crucial piece of the Flames for years to come. His continued strong play with Backlund gives the Flames the ability to create a strong defensive line that has scoring capabilities. Would’ve liked to have seen a bit more from him in the playoffs but other than that he was outstanding.

HockeyGoalieEh: (A+) Frolik was a possession monster along side Backlund and Tkachuk. The Flames are an extremely top-line heavy team and without any one of these three players, they’re in the lottery. They’ll need to expand their depth to truly be competitive.

MarkParkinson14: (B). Apparently I’m the hard grader on Frolik....and he’s one of my favorite players on the team. Frolik had a very good season, on what was arguably the Flames best line. Sandwiched between Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund, Frolik had his second best season as a pro, putting up 44 points and being a penalty kill monster for Calgary. And let’s not mince words: he’s not good because of who he plays with, he’s just good. He does the little things well and should continue to be a large part of Calgary’s promising future. Too late to change my grade?

Our Final Grade: A-