Name: Trent Whitfield
Position: Center
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 209
Shoots: Left
Status: $550,000 through 2010-11 season

Line combinations:

Regular season, EV: 13.39% w/Michael Ryder and Mirslav Satan; 12.48% w/Shawn Thornton and Steve Begin
Regular season, PK: 50.94% w/Daniel Paille; 13.21% w/Marco Sturm
Playoffs, EV: 76.19% w/Begin and Thornton
Playoffs, PK: 48% w/Begin; 24% w/Blake Wheeler

The Good: One thing you can’t take away from Trent Whitfield is his hard work, hustle, and tremendous effort.

In 16 games this season in Boston, Whitfield provided 11:02 of average ice time (TOI) and a solid 1:01 during the shorthand. No. 42 was solid on the face-off dot, winning 103-of-178 draws for 57.9-percent. However the 32-year-old got a little overzealous, on Oct. 22, when he dropped the gloves with Flyers’ defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen in his second contest of his NHL season.

When David Krejci dislocated his wrist in Game — 3 which ultimately ended his 2009-10 playoff season — Whitfield’s fourth-line duties were called upon once again for Games 4-7. He averaged 8:32 TOI alongside Begin and Thornton, and an important 1:59 of average time on the PK. The Saskatchewan native was a rock once again inside the face-off circle, winning 18-of-29 draws in the last four games for a 62.1 winning percentage.

The Bad: A perennial 20-plus goal scorer and 50-plus point center in the AHL, the 32-year-old journeyman could never crack those numbers at the NHL level. Whitfield even had a career-low in points this season, with 43, in which he has played 40 or more AHL games. In 16 regular season games and four post-season contests, Whitfield totaled 0-1-1, minus-3, 7 PIM, and 17 SOG.

Putting the puck right in Michael Leighton’s breadbasket on a shorthanded breakaway attempt in Game 6 against the Flyers defied Whitfield’s limitations on offense.

Final Grade:

The experienced, level-headed Whitfield was great on the draw and did a good enough job killing penalties for the B’s this season. Those attributes, along with tremendous amounts of hard work and effort get Whitfield an average grade from me. Although it’s tough to ask for offense like a top-6 forward from the journeyman, tallying just one assist in 20 games — from a guy who posted 50-plus points in his last five consecutive AHL seasons until this year — is quite disappointing.

Expect to see even less of Whitfield next season as the next crop of P-Bruins will likely get first dibs on the assignments.

Next report card: No. 44 Dennis Seidenberg