This article will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll look at each player on the San Jose Sharks and assess how their season went. This piece will focus on Stefan Noesen.
Noesen came to the Sharks after being claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins in December. He has good size, plays a physical game and in 34 games with San Jose this year, he scored six goals and eight points, a pace of 14 goals and 19 points per 82 games. Those stats aren’t anything overly exciting, but it’s important to consider that he was averaging just 11:50 per game and San Jose also had a shooting percentage of just 6.5 per cent while Nosen was on the ice, which was lower for him than any other forward on the team (minimum 15 games played).
His underlying stats were quite strong, however, as his expected goals for percentage of 54.4 per cent ranked second amongst Sharks forwards (min. 15 games played), according to NaturalStatTrick.com. He also managed a corsi for percentage of 51.4 per cent, which was a bit stronger than San Jose’s overall corsi for percentage this year.
Noesen is on an expiring contract and he’s one of several free agents the Sharks will have to make a decision with. On one hand, he was decent with the Sharks when comparing him to other members of the bottom-six and San Jose could bring him back for cheap. On the other hand, he’s already 27 years old and it could be worthwhile to save that spot for a younger prospect or a veteran forward with more upside. I’d probably side with Noesen not returning but hey, if he does return, that’s just a bit more cheap depth.
Noesen had a decent year from the time he came to San Jose and at the very least, he was a nice waiver pickup for the Sharks.
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