Predictions and "Grade-ictions" Series

Ville Leino

2009/2010 Regular season stats: 6G 5A -8
2010 Playoff stats: 7G 14A +10
Grade: B+

From Heaven to Hell and back again.

Ville Leino went from Finnish League MVP, to a Detroit Red Wings healthy scratch, to a Philadelphia Flyers healthy scratch, back to Master of Puppets in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. He went from "the guy the Flyers got for Ole-Kristian Tollefsen" to "Silly Ville--the guy we got from Detroit for that crappy defenseman."

After the Flyers acquired Leino from the Red Wings, very few knew what to expect from him. OKT was more-or-less a bust for the Flyers and the fact they got anything for him was great. The Flyers really didn't know where to put him when he first got to Philadelphia, as he ended up being a healthy scratch for his first month in the organization.

Many heard a rumor that Leino was at one time (2008) the MVP of the Finnish hockey league, but very few believed it. How could the MVP of respectable European hockey league be such a failure in the NHL?

A failure? Ha! Silly Ville does not speak, hear or even comprehend that word. He was the biggest surprise of this year's playoffs and set the franchise record for points and goals by a Flyers rookie, though he hardly fits the bill of a "rookie."

The chemistry of the Briere, Leino, Hartnell line was unbelievable. According to Peter Laviolette, that is the only line that is set in stone going into training camp. And if that trio performs anything like it did in the 2010 postseason, they will go from being known as "the long-haired guy," "the short guy," and "that Finnish guy," to some incredibly clever name that hasn't even been thought of yet.

2010/2011 Predictions: 22G 31A +12