SAN JOSE -- Sharks center Logan Couture had a name in mind to describe the type of skills newly acquired defenseman Erik Karlsson would bring to his team’s power play.
“For me, right away, I think of Dan Boyle when he was with us,” Couture said in a post-practice scrum at the first day of training camp Friday. “He’s a guy that sees the ice, and doesn’t possess a massive shot, but he finds lanes to shoot it. He finds openings, he finds sticks in the right areas.”
Boyle, who retired in 2016 after a 17-year NHL career, played in San Jose for six seasons. His 136 power-play points in those years topped all defensemen over that span, and his 104 power-play assists ranked second.
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Year-by-year, the Sharks with Boyle ranked as follows on the power play: Third, fourth, second, second, eighth and 20th. No team generated shot attempts, unblocked shot attempts, shots or expected goals on the man advantage at a higher rate than San Jose over those six years, either, according to Corsica Hockey.
The power play didn’t quite reach some of those heights last season, when the Sharks ranked 16th in power-play percentage (20.6). They still had no problem generating shots, attempts or chances with the man advantage, finishing no worse than seventh in those measures per-60 minutes last season, per Natural Stat Trick. The quality chances were there, too: Coach Peter DeBoer’s club ranked eighth by Corsica Hockey’s expected goals-for.
The finishing didn’t necessarily follow. Last year, the Sharks converted on 12.53 percent of their power-play shots, and 12.69 percent of their five-on-four shots, specifically. That was an improvement over 2016-17, but still ranked 18th and 16th, respectively, per Natural Stat Trick.
“We’re always looking to do things better [on the power play], but the foundation of what we do is very good,” DeBoer said. “It’s execution, it’s personnel, and the more great players you have that are gifted in power-play situations -- and [Karlsson’s] as good as there is -- that helps you.
San Jose Sharks
“Does that mean we’re going to be a No. 1 power-play unit right away? No. The bar for where we feel we need our power play to be is definitely higher than it was a year ago.”
Both DeBoer and Sharks general manager Doug Wilson spoke about the need to improve the power play in the wake of the trade, and it’s easy to see why the bar is raised. Since he entered the league in 2009, Karlsson has more power-play points (195) than any other defenseman. 166 of those were assists, and that total is more than any player other than Joe Thornton (172), Claude Giroux (198) and Nicklas Backstrom (216).
With Thornton in camp healthy after he tore his right ACL and MCL in January, San Jose once again has two elite set-up men on the power play at its disposal, in addition to Couture, Joe Pavelski, and Brent Burns.
Karlsson wasn’t in camp Friday, and he isn’t expected to be until after the weekend, when the Swedish defenseman hopes to have his visa issues wrapped up. So, DeBoer said he isn’t focused on where the two-time Norris Trophy winner fits on the power play and elsewhere.
Not that DeBoer believes he’d have much to worry about anyway.
“We’re concentrating on the group [here] now, and when [Karlsson] gets in, we’ll squeeze him in somewhere,” the coach jokingly said.