San Jose Sharks: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Unrestricted Free Agents

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

The free agency period has begun, and Doug Wilson has made moves that have given the Sharks cap space. The question is not whether they will sign new players, it is how effective those players will be.

In the summer of 2008, the Sharks made major upgrades on the blueline that were supposed to carry them to a title. Rob Blake, Dan Boyle, and Brad Lukowich certainly provided that upgrade, as the Sharks had arguably the best blueline in the regular season.

But the team got no post-season hardware out of their new unit. This should bring Wilson to the realization that the problem is not on the back end, but rather among the forwards.

The Sharks have struggled to score in the playoffs for four consecutive postseasons, and bowed out in the second round each time. The widely accepted theory is that it is defence that wins in the playoffs, but the statistics post-lockout say otherwise.

The top eight offensive teams were all in the 2009 playoffs, but the second-best defensive team, the Minnesota Wild, did not. Of the final four teams playing were the three with the most scoring in the postseason, with both finalists being the top two.

That trend holds for the previous years, with the final two teams being first and fourth in playoff scoring. Seven of the top eight offences advanced beyond the first round and three of the top four were in the Conference Finals.

In every year in which NHL.com shows statistics (through 1997-98), the Stanley Cup winner has finished in the top five in scoring during the playoffs. Only twice in those ten seasons was that winner lower than third.

In other words, you have to score to win.

While the Sharks blueline was among the most effective on the offensive end, the reality is that it is the forwards who are relied on for putting the biscuit in the basket. That has been the team’s failing in the past four springs.

Only twice in that stretch has a player scored a point a game for the entire post-season (2007: Joe Thornton and 2006: Patrick Marleau). Both Pittsburgh and Detroit had two players do that this year alone.

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