The San Jose Sharks success next season will hinge on goaltending
By Justin Fried
The San Jose Sharks’ goaltending last season was frustrating, to say the least. If the team is going to have success this season, they’ll need improved play from their netminders.
The San Jose Sharks went into the 2018-19 season with high hopes all around. And even though they fell just short of a Stanley Cup Finals berth again, their expectations were overwhelmingly met.
For the most part that is.
While the Sharks offense was as deadly as it’s ever been and the defense was stacked with top-tier talent, the team’s goaltending ultimately let them down on a number of occasions. And if the Sharks are going to find success this upcoming season, the goalies are going to have to step it up.
Martin Jones entered the season as the starter coming off a few solid seasons of production in a row. But Jones regressed in a big way last season posting career lows in seemingly every statistical category.
The 29-year-old’s save percentage of .896 was third-worst among qualified goalies while his 2.94 goals-against-average was ‘topped’ by only Jimmy Howard and Henrik Lundqvist among netminders with at least 50 starts.
His advanced metrics don’t look much prettier either. Jones was a -0.35% in dSv% (delta/adjusted save percentage) which essentially means that he performed worse than how a league-average goalie would have fared in the exact same situations.
Moreover, his -5.95 GSAA (goals saved above average) means that he let in an atrocious 5.95 more goals than a league-average goaltender would.
Simply put, Jones was bad. Really bad.
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Still, there were times when Jones would remind us all of the fantastic player he had been in the past. Take for example his legendary 58-save performance in Game 6 against the Vegas Golden Knights in the postseason.
No to mention his strong performances in the Colorado Avalanche series and respectable showing against the eventual-champion St. Louis Blues. But ultimately his inconsistency proved to be the Sharks downfall more often than not.
Unfortunately, Jones was hampered with 62 regular season starts — an incredibly high number even for some of the best goalies in the league. This was due to the lack of trust by head coach Peter DeBoer in backup Aaron Dell.
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The Sharks entered the season optimistic about a potential one-two punch in net with Jones and Dell. But Dell’s disastrous season seemingly changed their plans and forced Jones to make at least 10-15 more starts than he should have.
Dell finished with a save percentage of .886 and a goals-against-average of 3.17. Plus his advanced metrics are even worse than that of Jones.
But even though both Jones and Dell struggled mightily last season, it appears that the Sharks are set on rolling with the duo against during the 2019-20 campaign. For better or worse, these are your two goaltenders.
There are still a couple of AHL products who could be given a look in training camp including San Jose Barracuda standouts Josef Korenar and Antoine Bibeau. The former had a strong rookie season in the AHL last year while the latter was final goalie cut from Sharks training camp last season.
Could the Sharks give one of their younger goalies a shot to backup Jones?
It’s possible but unlikely. Dell has a cap hit of $1.9 million this season making it difficult for the team to simply cut ties with him without interest from a trade partner. On top of that, DeBoer has shown a tendency to stick with experienced goalies in the past limiting the rookies’ chances.
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Regardless, the Sharks will need better production from whoever is in net.
For Jones, the solution could come with just clearing his mind. The 2018-19 campaign clearly took its toll mentally on Jones whose overaggressiveness cost him on a number of occasions.
That’s not his game — and he knows it.
If Jones could go back to his calculated, patient approach then he could very well have more success next season. But a lot of his success could hinge on how Dell or whoever the backup goalie looks.
Jones simply cannot be tasked with starting 60+ games again this season. In a perfect world, he wouldn’t even be starting 50. It will be up to Dell to regain DeBoer’s trust and alleviate some of the stress and fatigue that likely contributed to Jones’ poor season.
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Even with the losses of Joe Pavelski and Gustav Nyquist, the offense should have no problem scoring goals next season. And after re-signing Erik Karlsson in the offseason, the defense shouldn’t be an area of concern.
The San Jose Sharks success next season will, instead, hinge on the play of their goaltenders.