2019-20 Sharks offeseason review

[yave1964]

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK The Sharks made the playoffs The Sharks have been among the class of the West, having made the postseason in 14 of the 15 previous seasons. The year before they made the conference finals before bowing out in six games to eventual cup winning Blues. There seemed to be little doubt that they would continue their winning ways and again be among the best in the West challenging again for a cup.

 

FINAL RECORD 29-36-5 63 points last in their dvision worst record in the West, this was not a fluke, they had a -44 goal differential 3rd worst in the league. The skaters got old, the goaltending was awful.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR October to put it kindly was not a good month, they sat at 4-10-1 on November 2nd after losing that night to the Canucks. From that point they righted the ship, they went on a tear, winning six straight and 13 of their next 15 to get to 15-12-1 looking like a true western conference contender.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR Then they started losing, they lost their next six which ended with them firing head coach Deboer and bring in Bob Boughner, things got worse. They won the first game under Boughner and then the wheels came completely off, they kind of sort of hung around near .500 before slidning hard late to finish with the worst record in the west.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Evander Kane continued to build his legend as a true power forward leading the league again in penalty minutes to go with his team leading 26 goals. Hertl was having a solid year and was a top faceoff guy with a 55.8 pct. before an injury cost him over 20 games. Meier overcame a slow start to end up with 22 goals. Burns/Karlsson both had down (for them) years but scored at a decent clip. 

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Hertl and Couture were expected to lead the team into the next decade, they missed a combined 40 games. Labanc signed a one year sweetheart deal to allow cap space to add Marleau, he was pretty bad, a measly 14 goals while leading the team t minus 33. Marleau and Thornton look close to done, at least.Vlasic has clearly lost a step. Karlsson and Burns, two blueliners much more interested in jumping up into the play seem to have both lost half a step and have a hard time with the transition game when other teams use their speed to force the puck back the other way, they look tentative. lots of kids such as Simek, Gambrell, Ferraro, Suomela, Kellman, True, Gregor Heed, Middleton Radill and Berggman got double digit appearances in games and none, absolutely none of the above really impressed. In other words, veteran skaters slowed down, the defense aged and the kids didnt step up. The worst is the Senators have their first rounder as partial payment for Karlsson.

  But for all of that the worst was the arson squad in net, Jones and Dell were awful, actually Dell was ok for a backup but had to play too much due to the ineptitude of Jones and was exposed. Dell playing the second games of back to backs is a usable commodity but he had to play too much because Jones continued his regression. 

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR When Evander Kane scored the Sharks were 13-5-2. In the games in which he did not they went 16-31-3. As Kane goes, so go the Sharks.

 

FREE AGENTS Thornton and Dell are the two biggest names, 4th line P/K guy Melker Karlsson is an UFA as well.If Jumbo wants another year he will get it, Dell and Karlsson will likely be repalced.

  Sadly, Jones is not among the free agents, he has a very regrettable four years at just under six million a year remaining on his deal.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS This club is one year removed from pushing the Blues in the conference finals, the hope is a healthy Couture and Hertl will bring the offense back and that a couple of solid defensive minded partners will get Burns/Karlsson back to their havoc reeking selves. And with Dell an UFA and Jones more or less untradeable they have to figure out a way to add a 2B who can take over for long stretches when Jones checks out. 

 

Truthfully unless a good chunk of the kids listed above (17 total goals in a combined 389 games for the 11 rookies with double digit games)transition to the NHL they are in a rough patch. They need the kids now and more than ever to steop up.

 

[Puck_Pun]

Sharks lost too much firepower in the off-season and this exposed their weak defence caused by their push forward style of play. Having unreliable people in the net just made the situation untenable, resulting in what happened. Karlsson was supposed to be part of a big push for the cup which is why they put up their picks - which has really shot them in the foot now they need to refresh the lineup. 

 

Oh well.