Name: Marc Savard
Position: Center
Age: 32
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 191
Shoots: Left
Status: Signed through 2016-17 NHL season at $4,007,143 cap-hit per season

Line combinations:

Regular season, EV: 12.61% w/Byron Bitz and Blake Wheeler; 12.44% w/Marco Sturm and Steve Begin
Regular season, PP: 53.52% w/Michael Ryder and Sturm
Playoffs, EV: 50% w/Milan Lucic and Miroslav Satan
Playoffs, PP: 47.73% w/Ryder and Satan; 36.36% w/Satan and Lucic

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The Good: Without a shadow of a doubt, Marc Savard makes the Boston Bruins precipitously better on the power play. And despite the injuries that kept him sidelined for exactly half the season—foot, knee, concussion—Savard’s 17 power play points led all Bruins’ players; now making him the club’s leading point-getter power play for the fourth-consecutive season. His 10 goals, 23 assists, and 33 points  put Savard in the Bruins’ top-7 list  in each respective stat category.

Savard courageously returned from his third IR stint, Grade 2 concussion, for all seven games of the Bruins’ final round of the playoffs. After blasting a howitzer of a shot that had eyes over the shoulder of Flyers’ goaltender Brian Boucher in Game 1 of the semifinals, Savvy showed his ability to snipe—being more than just a set-up man.

The Bad: Injuries plagued No. 91 for half the season—the worst being a Grade 2 concussion sustained by Penguins’ forward Matt ‘bleepin’ Cooke on Mar. 7. The devastating head-shot kept him out for the final 18 games of the regular season, and the entire first round (six games) against Buffalo. Although he showed much perseverance and dedication to the organization, Savard was still not 100 percent.

His overtime bomb in Game 1 against the Flyers was the final highlight to his injury-ridden 2009-10 NHL season. He did managed to put 20 more shots on net after the game-winner, but the 32-year-old just wasn’t the same over the last six games.

Could do some extra work polishing up his face-off draws, as he was under 50-percent on the season.

Final Grade:

Hopefully we’ve seen the worst of injuries to Savard, as the 32-year-old inked a seven-year extension on Dec. 1, 2009 to remain in Boston through the 2016-17 season…until he’s 40. When healthy, and a good supporting cast on his wings, Savard will flirt with 100 points on any given season.

If there’s one good thing to come out of this unfortunate season: the head-shot heard around the world caused to NHL to act quickly on engaging new rules on hits to the head—banning all blindside/back-pressure/lateral hits to opponents heads. And instead of waiting to implement the new rule next season, the NHL put a fast-forward and instilled the rules just prior to the playoffs, on Mar. 25.

That’s a wrap on the report cards. Click here to read ’em all.