San Jose Sharks: Revisiting the Gustav Nyquist trade after the season

Now that the 2018-19 season is over for the San Jose Sharks, let’s take a look back at one of the team’s biggest midseason moves — the trade for Gustav Nyquist.

The San Jose Sharks made it clear that they were all in for the 2018-19 season when they acquired star defenseman Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators just prior to the start of the season. This notion was even further solidified when they went out and traded for standout winger Gustav Nyquist at the trade deadline.

Unfortunately, the Sharks “all-in” philosophy didn’t exactly work out as the team fell just short of a Stanley Cup berth once again. As has been a recurring theme with the Sharks franchise, San Jose made it far, but not quite far enough.

But does that mean that the Nyquist trade was a failure?

On the surface, the simple answer is no. The success of an entire team cannot be placed on the shoulders of one player — especially one that was mostly relegated to second and third-line play. But that doesn’t necessarily mean his successes and/or failures didn’t impact the team.

Upon arriving in San Jose, Nyquist was immediately put on the third line pairing him with Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc. However, the former Detroit Red Wings winger was promoted up to the second line by the time mid-March rolled around — a role he was more accustomed to filling during his time in Detroit.

Nyquist finished the regular season with 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 19 games with the Sharks to bring his overall season total to a career-high 60 points.

But the postseason was where Nyquist really shined as the eight-year veteran was a key member of the Sharks top-six and even stepped up to the first line following captain Joe Pavelski‘s injury in Game 7 of the first round.

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It was there where he would leave his mark recording 11 total points — this time 10 coming as a result of assists — in 20 postseason games. This was a significant uptick from his numbers with Detroit as he had scored just eight points through 35 playoff contests in his career with the Red Wings.

His most notable playoff moment came when he assisted the aforementioned Karlsson’s controversial game-winning goal in the Sharks Game 3 victory in the Western Conference Final over the St. Louis Blues.

Nyquist is set to hit unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career and will likely be demanding a pretty lengthy deal. However, keeping him around might, unfortunately, prove to be a difficult task.

The Sharks are set to enter an offseason full of difficult decisions and general manager Doug Wilson is sure to have his hands full. Both the aforementioned Pavelski and Karlsson are soon to be free agents to go along with the likes of Joonas Donskoi and Nyquist among others. On top of that, star wing Timo Meier will be a restricted free agent and could demand a sizable extension.

This will all make it very difficult to retain Nyquist, even though both sides appear willing to work something out. Nyquist had this to say during the Sharks last day of media availability around two weeks ago.

"“I love it here. I had a great time here. I had a great experience, a great three months.”"

Even though the acquisition of Nyquist didn’t ultimately push the Sharks over the hump, it’s safe to say that the former Red Wing lived up to expectations in San Jose.

The Sharks traded a second-round pick and a conditional third-rounder (which could turn into a second-rounder if the team opts to re-sign him) for Nyquist and while it’s never great to give up draft capital, that’s likely very much on par with the value that he brought following the trade.

San Jose needed top-six depth and wanted to add another scorer at the deadline. Nyquist was able to provide both to the Sharks — even if they didn’t ultimately win it all.