San Jose Sharks 2017 Season Preview: Draft Utopia

San Jose Sharks 2017 Season Preview

Joe Thornton is back for the Sharks in 2017-2018. Can the Sharks continue to dominate the Pacific Division?

Chris Ransom follow @DraftUtopia Posted on 9/15/2017.

San Jose Sharks Line 1 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Mikkel Boedker	Left Wing	81	6-foot-1-inches	210-pounds	10	16	26
Joe Thornton	Center	79	6-foot-4-inches	220-pounds	7	43	50
Joe Pavelski	Right Wing	81	5-foot-11-inches	190-pounds	29	39	68

San Jose Sharks Line 2 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Melker Karlsson	Left Wing	67	6-foot-0-inches	180-pounds	11	11	22
Logan Couture	Center	73	6-foot-1-inches	200-pounds	25	27	52
Joel Ward	Right Wing	78	6-foot-1-inches	226-pounds	10	19	29

San Jose Sharks Line 3 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Timo Meier	Left Wing	34	6-foot-0-inches	210-pounds	3	3	6
Tomas Hertl	Center	49	6-foot-2-inches	210-pounds	10	12	22
Joonas Donskoi	Right Wing	67	6-foot-1-inches	190-pounds	6	11	17

San Jose Sharks Line 4 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Marcus Sorensen	Left Wing	19	5-foot-11-inches	175-pounds	1	3	4
Chris Tierney	Center	80	6-foot-0-inches	195-pounds	11	12	23
Jannik Hansen	Right Wing	43	6-foot-1-inches	195-pounds	8	12	20

San Jose Sharks Forwards Review: San Jose has a ton of depth at center and right wing. Their huge gaping weakness lies at left wing. In fact the game plan should be to have a defender on their center and a defender on their right winger at all times. That's how predictable the Sharks offense looks on paper. Just take away their center and right winger with your defenders and dare their left wingers to score on you. The offense just appears to be so predictable.

Last season the Sharks' ranked 19th in goals scored and 25th in the NHL on the power play. San Jose is a team that could easily regress in this department.

San Jose Sharks Defensive Lines

Player	Line	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Brent Burns	Line 1	64	6-foot-5-inches	230-pounds	12	27	39
Marc-Edouard Vlasic	Line 1	75	6-foot-1-inches	205-pounds	6	22	28
Paul Martin	Line 2	81	6-foot-1-inches	200-pounds	4	22	26
Justin Braun	Line 2	81	6-foot-2-inches	205-pounds	4	9	13
Dylan DeMelo	Line 3	25	6-foot-1-inches	195-pounds	1	7	8
Brenden Dillon	Line 3	81	6-foot-4-inches	225-pounds	2	8	10

San Jose Sharks Defensemen Review: Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic anchor this first line. The Paul Martin and Justin Braun line can be effective at times. The third line featuring Dylan DeMelo and Brenden Dillon is the weakness of this line. That's why the Sharks are absolutely doomed if anyone on their top 4 gets injured.

The San Jose Sharks ranked 5th in goals allowed and 18th in penalty killing. San Jose is probably going to decline in both of these areas defensively. The penalty killing could improve. I highly doubt they remain a top 5 team in goals allowed. If San Jose can be a top 5 teams in goals allowed and penalty killing, then they will have a great chance to return to the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That is going to be key.

Draft Utopia Between The Pipes Goalie Tracker

Starting Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Martin Jones	San Jose Sharks	65	35-23-6	2 Shutouts	.912	2.40 GAA

Backup Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Aaron Dell	San Jose Sharks	17	11-6-1	1 Shutout	.931	2.00 GAA

San Jose Sharks Goaltender Review: San Jose's goaltending with Martin Jones and Aaron Dell is their biggest strength right now. This team will go as far their goaltending takes them.

San Jose Sharks Prospect Pool: Jeremy Roy is San Jose's best prospect. The 2015 second round pick was a late first round prospect who enters his first season with the Barracuda. Other then Roy there aren't any prospects on San Jose that excite me. That's why its paramount for the Sharks to use these next few NHL Drafts to get some younger guys in their farm system. Joe Thornton and Logan Couture are 38 and 33 respectively plus this team needs more prospects at left wing.

San Jose Sharks 2017-2018 Prediction

San Jose will finally play like a mediocre team. I said this team would suck heading into 2015-2016 and the Sharks made me look really foolish by getting to the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals. The Sharks are a team that could end up proving me wrong. The issue with them is outside of Martin Jones and Brent Burns, the rest of this team consists of aging players that are about to be past their prime. I still feel like Joe Thornton has one or two good seasons left. His play began to decline last season though and that's the biggest thing that worries me with the Sharks. This teams issues at left wing are bad too so I'm gonna say the Sharks miss the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I said the same thing two years ago and San Jose won the Western Conference so take this preview with a grain of salt.