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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our choices for most underrated player on the San Jose Sharks.
Todd Cordell
I don’t think there’s a whole lot to choose from – the Sharks are a pretty shallow team – but I have time for defenseman Tim Heed.
Heed has been used somewhat sparingly over the last three years. He provided the team with solid returns when he did play, though.
The Sharks conceded 0.67 fewer goals per 60 minutes with Heed on the ice. For perspective of how large of a gap that is, this year the Islanders gave up 2.37 goals/60 while the Red Wings allowed 2.97/60 (0.60 differential).
It’s no coincidence the Sharks garnered stronger defensive results with Heed out there. They also gave up chances (-3.29/60) and expected goals (-0.29/60) at a much lower rate. Suppressing chances generally leads to fewer goals.
I don’t think Heed is anything special but he’s a useful depth player on a team that doesn’t have many of them.
James Tanner
Weird choice for most underrated, but it's Erik Karlsson, who is pretty much just as good as he's always been, but the Sharks failures since he arrived, combined with his injuries have seen his reputation take a dive.
Karlsson was 5th in the NHL in 5v5 points per minute this year, and I'm almost certain he did so while playing through injuries. He put those totals up with a personal shooting percentage under 5% and an on-ice percentage of 8% which lead to a 98 PDO.
Simply put, Karlsson was injured, on a bad team and had horrible luck, and he was still one of the highest scoring defenseman in the NHL.
Finally, despite being on one of the NHL's worst teams, the Sharks actually won while Karlsson was on the ice. His defense has always been underrated, and a fair assessment of his career is that he's probably the best overall defenseman to be in the NHL since Nick Lidstrom retired. If that is true, then he is extremely underrated by most hockey people.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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