- Editor's note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California's Sharks coverage for the 2021-22 season. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
Timo Meier has arrived.
"When you draft a player as high as we did, liked everything about him this is what everyone expected he would be," ex-Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer told San Jose Hockey Now on Thursday.
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Meier has piled up 21 goals and 26 assists in just 41 games this season, his 47 points pacing San Jose. Meanwhile, DeBoer is reuniting with Meier in Las Vegas, as the Vegas Golden Knights' coach is helming the Pacific Division All-Star squad, where the Swiss winger is making his first All-Star Game appearance this weekend.
"I'm proud of him," DeBoer said. "People don't see that Timo cares. Timo works at his game. Timo's coachable in parts of his game to make himself better and more effective and more of a complete player. I enjoyed coaching him, really happy to see his success."
But let's rewind back to the 2015 draft: DeBoer had just been hired by San Jose and the Sharks selected Meier with the ninth overall pick, ahead of the likes of Mikko Rantanen, Mathew Barzal, and Kyle Connor.
Meier made his NHL debut on Dec. 2016, and his first three seasons, all under DeBoer, went as expected for a top draft pick.
San Jose Sharks
"His progression when I was there was from three goals to 20 to 30," DeBoer recalled. "The 30-goal year? He was a dominant player that year for us."
And indeed he was -- SPORTLOGiQ's portrait of Meier in 2018-19 was of a puck-carrying machine who attacked the dirty scoring areas.
Expectations were sky-high for Meier after his breakout campaign, doubly so after the 22-year-old restricted free agent was inked to a four-year, $24 million dollar contract that summer. In fact, Meier was part of perhaps the most memorable RFA class ever, a group that included Mitch Marner, Brayden Point, Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Patrik Laine, Connor, and Matthew Tkachuk.
The next season, however, Meier's fortunes dipped with the team's. The 2019 Western Conference finalists, now without the scoring of Joe Pavelski, Gustav Nyquist, and Joonas Donskoi, needed the Swiss winger to explode, but it didn't happen.
DeBoer was fired in Dec. 2019, and assistant coach Bob Boughner took over. Meier still managed 22 goals in 70 games and was the media-voted Team MVP, but he didn't take the anticipated step forward and the Sharks missed the playoffs.
"A lot of young guys have trouble replicating those years," DeBoer mused, "and he's not the first young player to have a down year after a great year."
It's not every young guy, however, that has an even more down year after a down year.
Again, expectations were sky-high for Meier going into the 2020-21 campaign, with the Sharks essentially adding just role players Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto up front in free agency. And again, Meier disappointed, potting just 12 goals in 54 games. Over an 82-game season, that's 18 goals -- a far cry from the sure-fire 30 or so that the Sharks were expecting from their 2015 lottery pick.
If 2019-20 was simply not a step forward for Meier, the 2020-21 campaign was a full step back:
Boughner diagnosed the problem last year that SPORTLOGiQ's micro-stats point straight at: "It’s easy as a forward to get a puck, sling it toward the net, and get a shot from the outside. But [he’s got] to actually get inside, use that big body of his and protect parks and be around the net when the rebounds, the second and third chances come."
This season, halfway through his big contract and amidst lowered expectations, Meier has arrived -- or perhaps more accurately, he's back.
A couple weeks ago, a scout told me that he thought Meier was even better in 2018-19 than this year, though I argued that the winger broke out that year "sheltered" behind the likes of Joe Pavelski, Evander Kane, and other high-end flankers in a star-studded Sharks lineup.
This year, Timo is the man in San Jose, the team's undisputed top scoring threat on the wing, facing the opposition's best on a nightly basis. He's once again a puck-carrying monster who lives in the high-danger scoring areas.
2019 breakout star or 2022 All-Star, the Sharks are happy that they kept their at times maligned top draft pick through good times and bad.
"Some guys get there a little quicker," DeBoer pointed out. "Look at Rantanen, who went right after him in the draft, made almost an immediate impact. Timo, it's taken a little bit longer. But he's right in that conversation with those guys again."