The San Jose Sharks will enter the 2024 offseason full of question marks, but perhaps no question mark is bigger than the one surrounding who the team’s veteran leaders will be. At the start of this season, it was assumed that the role would be filled primarily by Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture. But with the former now a Vegas Golden Knight and the latter’s remaining career uncertain due to injury, there’s a clear void of veterans in San Jose, and the coaches and executives need some experienced players to help guide the team through the rest of their rebuild. If the Sharks want to look within the organization for veteran leadership, they should focus on forwards Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm. Both of them have several of the qualities the Sharks need to look for in seasoned players, and can embrace an opportunity to take on new chapters in their careers.
Granlund and Sturm Provide Meaningful On-Ice Contributions
Though they are both centers, Granlund and Sturm play very different styles of hockey. However, they are aware of the roles they fill and have performed them well this season. The offensive-minded Granlund comfortably leads the team in points and assists, and he has been critical to some of their best stretches this season. It’s easy to imagine what kind of numbers he could put up on a more skilled Sharks team. Sturm doesn’t score nearly as much, but he remains a steady, smart-checking forward who can kill penalties and is professional enough to play well even when the team struggles. He is also one of the best face-off men in the NHL.
Team leaders in the NHL certainly need to be vocal, but they should also make an impact with their play. Leading by example is crucial, and they can set the tone for the entire team for any given game or even an entire season. Granlund can do so by putting up stats, while Sturm can forge his own path of leadership through the skills that don’t show up in the box score. Together, their leadership could help guide the Sharks for many years to come.
Granlund and Sturm Have Crucial Experience
The Sharks haven’t made the playoffs since 2019, and likely won’t again for at least a couple more seasons. But when they do return, they should have some players who have a history of playoff runs and long, grinding campaigns. Sturm and Granlund both fit this category in different ways.
The 28-year-old Sturm has only been in the NHL on a full-time basis since 2020, but he has appeared in 22 playoff games and most importantly, won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. He understands the difficulty and the emotion that comes with playing for and winning a championship, which is the exact quality the Sharks should be looking for in their veterans. Given that they have one such player on their team, they would be wise to not let him go.
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Granlund has yet to lift the Cup in his career, but he is 32 and has more than 10 years and 800 games of NHL service. He has also registered 32 points in 59 career playoff games. He holds the exact type of familiarity with the postseason that the Sharks could use.
Sharks playoff teams of the past included several veterans who had been through many playoff runs before. But those were often the result of longtime Sharks who had been through previous San Jose postseason appearances, and the team doesn’t have those players anymore. They’ll need to look elsewhere for playoff experience, and Sturm and Granlund should be the starting point.
Sharks Can Offer Unique Chance
Granlund and Sturm are set to become free agents in 2025, and it’s still too early to tell if they’ll be re-signed at that time, assuming they’re even on the team by that point. And of course, either player could choose to depart in order to pursue an opportunity to win more immediately.
However, the team could form a mutually beneficial relationship with the duo. The Sharks can lock down two players who would serve a variety of important roles for the franchise. At the same time, Granlund and Sturm would have a team on which they could serve as centerpieces, each in their own unique way. They might not get that opportunity on any other team in the league, and that might appeal to them.
Over the next year or so, the Sharks will be faced with a lot of decisions for the direction they want their rebuild to take. One element of that will be determining who fills the veteran roles, but they might already have their answer in Granlund and Sturm.