The 2022-23 NHL Season kicks off on Friday
morning with the Sharks squaring off with the Nashville Predators in Prague,
Czech Republic, a mere five months after San Jose wrapped up arguably one of
their worst seasons in franchise history. Lots of new faces from top to bottom
for a franchise that finds itself with a new general manager, coaching staff
and a spattering of players that weren't on the roster when the Sharks last
played. For those of you who forgot, that last game was a 3-0 loss to the
expansion Seattle Kraken.
The 32 win season San Jose limped through
last season sets a nice low water mark to try and match. General Manager Mike
Grier gets a bye this season, so he can use the first few months to honestly
evaluate his roster. The problem is, he doesn't have much collateral to try and
revamp a roster that is not expected to do much better than last season's 77
point output.
Grier's big additions this past summer include a bevy of
bottom six forwards, who don't have scoring track records. The defense arguably
got worse with the exit of Brent Burns and Jacob Middleton. Marc-Edouard Vlasic
can't turn back the clock and his game can only continue its steady decline.
They will rely on both the young and old to stop the puck in net with Kaapo
Kahkonen and James Reimer.
That doesn't exactly scream playoff
contenders. It's more likely that San Jose will compete for a lottery pick spot
again next summer.
San Jose will lean on Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl and
Logan Couture to lead the offense. Meier and Hertl combined for 75 goals, but
Couture stumbled with his 23 goals in 77 games played last season. Without
competitive linemates, Couture was hung out to dry last season.
Like
last season, after that trio, there's a massive drop in talent among forwards.
Luke Kunin and Oskar Lindblom are journeymen who just don't have the tools to
generate big offensive numbers. Kunin has never scored more than 15 goals in an
NHL season and Lindblom scored a career-high 17 goals for the Flyers four
season ago. German Nico Sturm will likely fill 3rd and 4th line minutes.
The youngsters, who can no longer lean on the youngster moniker have
to deliver, so it's put up or shut up time for a series of mid-line forwards.
At the top of that list is Kevin Labanc, whose 21-22 season was cut short by
injury. He missed the final 54 games of the season and only participated in 21
games total for San Jose. Alexander Barabanov had some interesting moments, but
he'll start the season on the injured list and didn't even travel to Prague.
The Sharks patience with Noah Gregor may begin to wane if he doesn't
start to produce. He has all the tools, but finishing was a major issue for the
centerman. He's bounced between the Sharks and Barracuda each of the last three
seasons, but this year looks to be the year he'll have to show more consistency
in the scoring department. The Sharks can't afford to wait for Gregor to
finally figure it out.
The real intrigue lies with youngsters William
Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau. Eklund got a taste of the NHL last season, but San
Jose shipped him back to Sweden in order to preserve the length of their
control over his contract. That won't happen this season. The flashy forward
will get a shot at sticking with the big club. If he struggles, he'll be part
of the Barracuda shuttle that the Sharks used over excessively the last two
seasons.
Keeping Eklund motivated will be difficult if they
don't give him the chance to learn what life in the NHL is like. Bordeleau
could crack the lineup, because it's so thin, but it's likely that he suffer
the same fate as Eklund last year and will find himself relegated to a farm
assignment somewhere.
The rest of the roster on offense is filler.
Nick Bonino is playing out his career. Matt Nieto just isn't a guy that the
Sharks can count on for steady scoring. Jonah Gadjovich, Steven Lorentz, Evgeny
Svechnikov and Jeffrey Viel will all compete for the right to watch games from
the press box and get an occasional look when the Sharks have to fill holes.
If the defense was the big unknown last season, it's more like black
hole status this year. San Jose rid themselves of Burns contract, and received
value in dealing Middleton at the trade deadline last March. The problem, they
didn't fill the void with any quality.
Markus Nutivaara is probably
the most able bodied defenseman San Jose added, but he's not exactly a Norris
Trophy candidate. Erik Karlsson will be the de facto whipping boy simply
because his contract doesn't match the production. You can't fault him for
taking the money, but the $11.5 million cap hit the Sharks will incur five
years is going to continue to debilitate the Sharks ability to put a
competitive roster on the ice. Sadly, San Jose will also still pick up $2.72
million of Burns contract for the next three years to add to the financial
misery.
Mario Ferraro can't be the lone defensive plug for San Jose,
so either Matt Benning and Radim Simek step up, or it's going to be an
extremely ugly season. Look for Scott Harrington or Jaycob Megna to eventually
take Vlasic's minutes when they figure out that he's out of gas.
In
net, Kahkonen is the Sharks youth experiment. They think he's the guy that can
be a long term solution. They thought the same thing about Adin Hill, who was
shipped to Vegas at the end of August in a move that finally answered what San
Jose would do with their log jam in net. Aaron Dell will hang out with the
Barracuda unless either Kahkonen or Reimer gets hurt.
That's more
likely to happen with the veteran Reimer who will turn 35 in March. Reimer has
been extremely resilient for most of his career, but he did spend a brief stint
on the shelf last year. Without much protection out front, he'll need to expend
more to stop pucks. That could easily translate to the wear and tear that you
don't want exposing an aging netminder to.
New head coach David Quinn
may have to play roster mad scientists like Bob Boughner did the last two
seasons. The Sharks just don't have the depth to compete and Grier may want to
evaluate more of the prospects that are being groomed on 10th street. The hope
is that Quinn will rule with more of an iron fist, which may be required to
extract the most value out of a roster thin on talent.
It's put up or
shut up for some of the bigger dollar players.
