San Jose is creating teal cool after getting all of the way into the Cup last year. Even though some roster flaws were made abundantly clear in their six games with the Penguins in the final string for Lord Stanley’s mug, the Sharks were directly on the brink of winning their first franchise Stanley Cup. They addressed a number of their demands from the offseason and unless era begins to catch up to them, they should be in great position to make another deep playoff run.
The front office did not reinvent the wheel on the summer but it did lose some dead weight and also added a forward in Mikkel Boedker who seems like a perfect fit on the scoring unit to the Sharks. Marty Jones proved he has what it takes to be a No. 1 backstop last season along with his 37 wins and .918 save percentage and will probably be requested to play 70-plus games for the Fish if he stays healthy — a first-round choice for Jones now seems like a steal.
Have a look at some of the Sharks’ futures chances for the upcoming season.
Stanley Cup +1600
A number of you may be hot on the Sharks after they dropped just two wins short of winning their initial franchise Stanley Cup last season but consider this. Pete DeBoer, head coach of the Sharks, has qualified for the playoffs just two times within his eight-year NHL coaching career. Though he made the finals in those postseason appearances, he has no Stanley Cup rings and really missed the playoffs the year following his team made it into the Cup final.
Nevertheless, San Jose is one of my favorite value plays at 16/1. The savvy vets on this team have become steeped in playoff experience and seem to have shed the label of chokers. In case Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau can contribute 50 percent of the things they did last season and save some gas for the playoffs, this group could be a postseason nightmare.
Western Conference +750
This is a great play. Although teams don’t win back-to-back Western Conference championships very often — it’s happened just three times since 1994 — I am only considering two teams in Western Conference futures: that one, and the Dallas Stars.
The West has become a place where conservative play has been heavily outshined by firepower and the Sharks are freaking gunslingers. They had been the fourth-highest scoring team in the league last season but were absolutely deadly with the man advantage and scored a league-high 59 on the power play. If Jones can only be solid, this group is going places — great areas, I’m hoping.
Pacific Division +260
The Sharks finished third in their division with 98 points last season but should not have any trouble eclipsing that metric in 2016-17 should they improve just slightly at home. Though they were the very best road team in the show last season (28-10-3), San Jose finished with a dismal 18-20-3 record within their own construction.
That terrible home record was more than an anomaly. The Sharks actually outscored their opponents 73-65 in the SAP Center last season and were on the incorrect side of several one-goal games. Jones might need to improve in SoCal when the Sharks want to run away together with the Pacific like they could — San Jose had the fourth-worst house save percentage in the league this past year.
Complete Season Points OVER/UNDER 100.5
If you’ve taken in anything I’ve written so far, you’ll know I feel that the OVER here is a simple bet. This team could have challenged the Capitals for the Presidents’ Trophy had they never lost so many close games at home.
Brent Burns Norris Trophy +700
Brent”The Beard” Burns, what a baseball player this guy is. He paced all defensemen in goals last season with 27 while also leading ALL skaters in individual Corsi, yet he obtained just three first-place votes for the Norris. The voting for the best defenseman is always a little wonky — and skewed toward larger markets — but you have to think Burns has now paid his dues and ought to be a shoo-in when he has another year like he did in 2015-16 and when the Sharks are equally as great as I think they’ll be.
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