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The Brenden Dillon Effect |
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When the Sharks acquired Brenden Dillon they were looking for an upgraded partner for Brent Burns. They coyly suggested they wanted a big left shot – perhaps a lie as blatant as any from the offseason – and mentioned nothing about playing with Burns.
Quickly it became clear that Dillon was destined to be Burns’ new babysitter. It’s not a knock on Mirco Mueller by any means, it was just one of those ah-ha moments where the GM finally realizes that pairing a rookie defender with a player transitioning from forward to defense might not be the greatest idea. I think the management/coaching staff expected the transition for Burns to be much smoother.
Dillon came from a pretty bad possession team in Dallas to a pretty good possession team in San Jose so it was an easy assumption that his numbers would increase. How much they increased has been a pleasant surprise and has helped the new pairing of Burns-Dillon become the Sharks most effective possession pairing. From here on out assume all stats are 5v5.
Dillon-CF%
With Dallas: 51.20%
With San Jose: 58.00%
Now look at Burns before Dillon and since his arrival in San Jose.
Burns-CF%-SA60-SF60
Before Dillon
CF%: 51.60%
SA60: 29.6
SF60: 28.3
With Dillon
CF%: 57.30%
SA60: 27.6
SF60: 35.4
Brenden Dillon has had a tremendous effect on Brent Burns and the stability on the second defensive pairing. Everything is better. Shots against are down, they are creating more chances and just generally playing better defense than any other Burns combination all year.
San Jose was also 14th in Score-Adjusted Fenwick with 50.6 prior to Dillon’s arrival. Since he started donning a teal jersey the Sharks SAF is second in the NHL at 55.4 for the 10 games worth of Dillon and is 10th overall for the full season at 52.1.
Increases everywhere.
Dillon even has two assists in ten games with San Jose after having only one in Dallas – not that he’s a point machine – just to add to the increased performance all around.
How has San Jose been doing in the standings with Dillon? Well, they've been doing fantastic. The Sharks are 7-2-1 since the trade and have shot themselves up the Western Conference standings and into a tie for 2nd in the Pacific Division.
His presence on the ice has also resulted in a better GA60 for San Jose as well. Niemi/Stalock are still doing what they normally do. Their play hasn't been significantly better in the ten games with Dillon than without, but the decreased amount of shots coming at them have resulted in less goals against.
Prior to Dillon the Sharks had a Sv% of 92.4%, after the trade that went up slightly to 92.6%. Not much of a change, indicating the goalies are just continuing to play their normal game. The GA60, though, have gone from 2.3 without Dillon to 1.8. That’s the difference between having one defensive pairing and a train-wreck elsewhere to having two solid pairings and a boosted third pairing.
It’s no longer time to cringe when Vlasic and Braun go off the ice. Burns’ play has picked up – I’d wager that he’s more comfortable knowing who has his back now – and his confidence is clearly improved. Brenden Dillon has had a significantly positive effect on the San Jose Sharks since arriving. Although it’s a 10 game vs 22 game comparison the drop-off would have to be considerably disastrous for the Sharks statistics to worsen with Dillon as opposed to without when the number of games reaches 22:22.
There are still issues to address on the roster but the Dillon acquisition has made a considerable difference. It doesn't mean the Sharks are Cup favorites, and I’m not anointing Dillon the Norris Winner, it just means the Sharks have one less problem - a problem that was a potential season killer.
Thanks for reading.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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