San Jose Sharks

Pacific Division, Western Conference · 22 reports in the 2023-24 edition.

This is the 2023-24 edition — an archived read, written from that season alone. Read the 2026-27 club page →

The club

2022-23 · 82 games · 218 for, 255 against

How it played

Shot attempts share, five-on-five: 48.6% 21st of 32
Expected goals share, five-on-five: 48.5% 22nd of 32
Power play expected goals per sixty: 6.69 28th of 32
Penalty kill expected goals allowed per sixty: 7.67 22nd of 32

Where the record lies

Finishing goals scored above what the chances were worth: -0.1 17th of 32
Goaltending goals prevented beyond what the chances allowed were worth: -41.9 32nd of 32

San Jose Sharks got 41.9 fewer saves than the chances they faced warranted — 42 goals of the record that the underlying play does not explain, and it regresses.

Roster shape

Points-weighted, so these are the ages and origins of the production rather than of the sweaters.

Average age: 29.6; weighted by points
From 33 and up: 25.9%; of skater points
From under 26: 12.6%; of skater points
Homegrown: 41.7%; drafted by this club
Continuity: 59.4%; of last season's five-on-five minutes

The read

the numbers, and the eye

Twenty-first in shot-attempt share, twenty-second in chance share, seventeenth at finishing — and the worst goaltending in the league by nearly eight goals.

Who this names 9 of 22 on the roster · 34% of their five-on-five minutes details

Both columns above are searched, and a name counts on the same terms the page links it: in full always, by surname only when one man in the edition wears it. Nothing here says who ought to be named — only who was, so the weighting can be seen rather than guessed at.

Not named here: Alexander Barabanov, Matt Benning, Logan Couture, Mario Ferraro, Tomas Hertl, Kaapo Kahkonen, Luke Kunin, Kevin Labanc, Oskar Lindblom, Jacob MacDonald, Givani Smith, Nico Sturm, Fabian Zetterlund.

What the Quant Says

22-44-16, 60 points, 29th in the league and seventh in the Pacific.

234 goals for, 25th. 321 against, 30th. Twenty-first in shot-attempt share, 22nd in chance share, 18th at creating chances at even strength, 25th at suppressing them, 21st on the power play and 15th on the penalty kill.

At five-on-five: 168 goals scored against 168.1 expected, and 220 conceded against 178.1. The finishing was 17th at minus-0.1 and the goaltending 32nd at minus-41.9.

That is the season. San Jose played like a twenty-second-place club and finished twenty-ninth, and the entire distance between those two facts sat in the crease. No other page in this edition has a single number doing so much work.

Erik Karlsson scored 101 points here and has gone to Pittsburgh. Timo Meier has gone to New Jersey. Marc-Edouard Vlasic played his 1,239th game.

Mikael Granlund, Mike Hoffman, Jan Rutta, Kyle Burroughs, Filip Zadina, Anthony Duclair, Givani Smith, Ryan Carpenter and Mackenzie Blackwood all arrive. Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier, Matt Nieto, Noah Gregor, Steven Lorentz, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna and James Reimer do not.

A club that has lost a hundred-point defenceman and a forty-goal winger in one summer has replaced them with nine men on short contracts, none of whom is 25 or younger. The rebuild has not started; the roster has only got older.

What the Scout Says

The worst goaltending in the league by nearly eight goals, on a club that played like the twenty-second-best team in it.

San Jose's goaltending came in 41.9 goals worse than the chances it faced, the worst figure in hockey. Its finishing was 17th and its chance share 22nd. Erik Karlsson scored 101 points and has gone to Pittsburgh.

There is one number on this page and everything else follows it. The skaters were ordinary and the crease was catastrophic, and the club has answered it with a goaltender who posted an .8934.

Who this names 9 of 14 forwards · 78% of their five-on-five minutes details

Not named here: Ryan Carpenter, Luke Kunin, Oskar Lindblom, Givani Smith, Fabian Zetterlund.

What the Quant Says

234 goals, 25th in the league.

San Jose created 2.633 expected goals per 60 at even strength, 19th, and took 48.6 per cent of the shot attempts at five-on-five, 21st, and 48.5 per cent of the expected goals, 22nd.

At five-on-five it scored 168 goals against an expectation of 168.1 — a shortfall of 0.1, 17th in the league. The finishing was exactly neutral. Nothing about the scoring was the problem.

Logan Couture had 27 goals and 67 points at 33, Tomas Hertl 22 and 63 with a minus-36, Alexander Barabanov 15 and 47 with 38 tip-ins from 168 attempts, Kevin Labanc 15 and 33 and Nico Sturm 14 goals from the hardest zone starts of any San Jose forward.

Mikael Granlund arrives with 31 assists, Mike Hoffman with 14 goals off a hundred-mile-an-hour shot and Anthony Duclair from Florida. Erik Karlsson scored 25 goals and had 101 points here and has gone to Pittsburgh, and Timo Meier has gone to New Jersey.

What the Scout Says

Sixty-seven points at thirty-three, and a minus-thirty-six on sixty-three.

Logan Couture is 6-1 and 206 and has 927 games and 700 points, with 27 goals at 33 — a fourteenth season at the same rate. The 83 career power-play goals are the most on the roster.

Tomas Hertl is 6-3 and 220 and takes 58 per cent of his shots from inside 20 feet at a median of 17. He had 63 points and a minus-36 on a club whose goaltending cost it 42 goals, and the second of those numbers is not about him.

Alexander Barabanov is undrafted out of Russia and registered 38 tip-ins from 168 attempts — a specialist's chart on a 47-point season. Kevin Labanc scored 10 goals from 56 mid-slot shots, 17.86 per cent against a league rate of 11.05.

Nico Sturm is undrafted out of Germany at 6-3 and took the hardest zone starts of any San Jose forward. Mike Hoffman arrives with a hundred-mile-an-hour shot, 54 slap shots and not one goal from 48 attempts beyond 40 feet.

Mikael Granlund arrives at 5-10 with 484 points in 750 games and Anthony Duclair with 122 goals in 490. Filip Zadina was sixth overall in 2018 and has 28 goals in five seasons.

Who this names 6 of 6 defencemen · 100% of their five-on-five minutes details

What the Quant Says

San Jose allowed 2.778 expected goals per 60 at even strength, 25th in the league, and conceded 321 goals, 30th.

At five-on-five it conceded 220 goals against an expectation of 178.1, and the club's goaltending came in 41.9 goals worse than the chances it faced — the worst figure in the league, and nearly eight goals worse than the next club. That is the whole of the difference between 25th at suppressing chances and 30th in goals against.

Mario Ferraro played 72 games at 21:36 and finished minus-31 at the 24th percentile of chance share. Matt Benning had 23 assists and one goal from the hardest zone starts of any defenceman in this book.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic played 78 games at 36 and has 1,239 career games, 77 goals, and not one last season from outside 20 feet. Jan Rutta arrives having taken 54 shots from beyond 40 feet and none at all from inside 20. Kyle Burroughs arrives with 62 penalty minutes in 48 games at the 1st percentile of sprints.

Erik Karlsson and Jaycob Megna have both gone.

What the Scout Says

Twelve hundred and thirty-nine games and one goal, and the hundred-point defenceman has gone.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic is 6-1 and 205 with 1,239 games and 364 points, and scored one goal last season — not a single shot from outside 20 feet went in. He is 36 and has played seventeen seasons in one uniform.

Mario Ferraro is 5-11 and 200 and played 21:36 a night at 25, at the 24th percentile of chance share on a minus-31. He is the most-used defenceman left on the roster and the numbers have never supported the role.

Matt Benning is 6-1 and 220 and had 23 assists and one goal from the hardest zone starts of any defenceman in this book.

Jan Rutta arrives at 6-3 with a Stanley Cup and 54 shots from beyond 40 feet and none from inside 20. Kyle Burroughs arrives with 106 career penalty minutes in 95 games and the 1st percentile of sprints. Jacob MacDonald is undrafted and scored one goal from 74 shots on goal.

Erik Karlsson played 1,683 five-on-five minutes here, the largest workload in this book, and has gone to Pittsburgh.

Who this names 2 of 2 goaltenders details

What the Quant Says

The club's goaltending came in 41.9 goals worse than the chances it faced — the worst figure in the league by nearly eight goals. Nothing else on this page matters as much.

Kaapo Kahkonen went 9-20-7 with an .8825 and a 3.85 in 37 games, facing 1,149 shots. He had three seasons above .900 before it, and his career line across 102 games is an .8987.

Mackenzie Blackwood arrives from New Jersey, where he went 10-6-2 with an .8934 in 22 games. He is 6-4 and posted a .9146 season at 23 and three seasons of decline since; his career line across 152 games is a .9057.

James Reimer played 43 games here and has gone to Detroit.

A club that conceded chances at the 25th-best rate in the league lost 41.9 goals in the crease and has answered it by trading for a goaltender whose last figure was .8934. There is no plan on this page that does not depend on one of these two men being much better than he has been.

What the Scout Says

The worst goaltending record in the league, and the answer is a goaltender who posted an .8934.

Kaapo Kahkonen is 6-2 and 217 and went 9-20-7 with an .8825 in 37 games, on a career .8987 across 102. He had three seasons above .900 before this one, which is the entire argument for him.

Mackenzie Blackwood arrives at 6-4 and 225 with a .9146 season at 23 and three seasons of decline since, on a career .9057 across 152 games. He is very large and very reactive and the record has moved one way for three years.

James Reimer has gone to Detroit. San Jose lost 41.9 goals in the crease — the worst figure in the league by nearly eight — and has traded for a man whose last save percentage was .8934. That is not a solution and the club does not appear to be pretending it is one.

The roster

Evidence 0 Full 20 Light 2 No record

No measured season behind two of them: Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kahkonen. Their pages carry an older stat line and a judgment, and nothing from 2022-23.

Alexander Barabanov

LW · San Jose Sharks

Undrafted out of Russia, forty-seven points, and thirty-eight tip-ins from a hundred and sixty-eight attempts.

Matt Benning

D · San Jose Sharks

Twenty-three assists, one goal, and the third-hardest zone starts in this book.

Mackenzie Blackwood

G · San Jose Sharks

Six-foot-four, a .9146 season at twenty-three, and three seasons of decline since.

Kyle Burroughs

D · San Jose Sharks

Sixty-two penalty minutes in forty-eight games, and the first percentile of sprints.

Ryan Carpenter

C · San Jose Sharks

Undrafted, 330 games as a fourth-line centre, and a shot at the floor of the league's distribution.

Logan Couture

C · San Jose Sharks

Twenty-seven goals at thirty-three, and a fourteenth season of the same rate.

Anthony Duclair

LW · San Jose Sharks

Thirty-one goals two seasons ago, twenty games last season, and nothing at all from nineteen shots inside twenty feet.

Mario Ferraro

D · San Jose Sharks

Twenty-one and a half minutes a night at the 24th percentile of chance share, and a minus-31 to go with it.

Mikael Granlund

C · San Jose Sharks

Thirty-one assists and ten goals, and nothing at all from beyond forty feet.

Tomas Hertl

C · San Jose Sharks

Sixty-three points and a minus-36, on a club whose goaltending cost it forty-two goals.

Mike Hoffman

C · San Jose Sharks

A hundred-mile-an-hour shot, fifty-four slap shots, and not one goal from forty-eight attempts beyond forty feet.

Kaapo Kahkonen

G · San Jose Sharks

An .8825 in front of the worst goaltending record in the league, and three seasons above .900 before it.

Luke Kunin

C · San Jose Sharks

Forty-two penalty minutes in thirty-one games, and a hundred and ninety-seven pounds of it.

Kevin Labanc

RW · San Jose Sharks

Ten goals from fifty-six shots in the mid-slot — 17.86 per cent against a league rate of 11.05.

Oskar Lindblom

LW · San Jose Sharks

Six goals in seventy-three games, all but none of them from inside twenty feet, at 1.65 miles a night.

Jacob MacDonald

D · San Jose Sharks

Undrafted, thirty years old, and one goal from seventy-four shots on goal.

Jan Rutta

D · San Jose Sharks

Fifty-four shots on goal from beyond forty feet and not one from inside twenty.

Givani Smith

RW · San Jose Sharks

Seventy-two penalty minutes in thirty-six games at seven minutes a night.

Nico Sturm

C · San Jose Sharks

Undrafted out of Germany, fourteen goals, and the hardest zone starts of any San Jose forward.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic

D · San Jose Sharks

1,239 games, one goal, and not a single one from outside twenty feet.

Filip Zadina

RW · San Jose Sharks

Sixth overall in 2018, twenty-eight goals in five seasons, and a fresh start at twenty-three.

Fabian Zetterlund

LW · San Jose Sharks

Twenty-four years old, a hundred and eighteen shots from thirteen minutes a night, and six goals.

How they were used

2022-23 · 82 games

Measured from shift charts at five-on-five, not projected. Units are built from the strongest partnership outward and ordered by how much they were used; the percentage is the share of the first player’s five-on-five ice time spent alongside each linemate. A low number means the club never settled on a combination. Players who have gone are marked — either to another club, or off an NHL roster altogether, which covers retirement and an unsigned summer alike.