San Jose Sharks re-sign or decline: All unrestricted free agent forwards

Jonny Brodzinski, Center

At 26-years-old, Jonny Brodzinski has been mostly an AHL player over the course of his career. After this season, Brodzinski only has 57 games of NHL experience under his belt.

Of those 57 games, only three have been with the Sharks. In those three games with the Sharks, Brodzinski had one assist with an average time on ice (ATOI) of 7:24 and an even plus/minus.

Although he’s listed as a center, he hasn’t taken too many faceoffs in his NHL career. This season he only took one faceoff, which he lost. Over his NHL career, Brodzinski has only taken 13 faceoffs and has a 38.5 faceoff percentage (FO%).

Brodzinski isn’t anything more than a bottom-six forward in the NHL with 12 points (six goals, six assists) and an ATOI of 9:47 over the course of 57 games in four seasons.

However, he’s a top-six forward in the AHL, scoring 138 points (70 goals, 68 assists) in 200 AHL games. Again, even though he’s listed as a center, Brodzinski doesn’t seem to take many faceoffs, even in the AHL.

With all that said, I think Brodzinski is a good piece to keep around, whether it be in the NHL as a depth piece or AHL as a top-six forward mentoring younger players. He’s a versatile player who can play all the forward positions, giving the Sharks forward depth.

My decision for Brodzinski is to re-sign him. His current cap hit is just $700K and the Sharks could probably re-sign him to a one-year deal either worth the same or a little more than that.

Decision: Re-sign