Sharks Newcomers Provide the Edge to Seal Long-Awaited Stanley Cup Breakthrough

NHL free agency as a method of team-building often seems to be regarded with suspicion by the hockey community. The perception that a limited pool of available talent on July 1 means those players who make it to market often require more money and longer-term contracts than prudent general managers can afford to commit is not entirely inaccurate.

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Yet it’s also undeniably a way for a team with money and a good eye to improve itself. For the San Jose Sharks, the road to a 5-2 Game 6 win over St. Louis and a trip to the Stanley Cup Final depended heavily on general manager Doug Wilson’s work in July.

To be sure, the primary reason that San Jose is headed to the final round of the playoffs is the same reason the team has been good for so many years. Players like Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Logan Couture, Brent Burns and Patrick Marleau are still key contributors, still vital to the team’s success. They deserve much of, if not most of, the credit for San Jose’s deep postseason drive.

Yet the reinforcements Wilson added were vital in their own way.

Joel Ward’s playoff performance is a pretty good example of that point. He was in some ways a risky acquisition. Although a proven NHL veteran, he was approaching his 35th birthday as he entered free agency last summer. The Sharks had to give him term (three years), significant money ($3.275 million cap hit) and a limited no-trade clause in order to secure his services.

That’s a lot for an older role player, but San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer (himself a newcomer) told NHL.com’s David Satriano that Ward’s versatility made him worth the commitment:

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Joel Ward is a class act, a great teammate. This guy is a jack-of-all-trades. When I had him at the World Championships, he could play on your first line, he can play on your third line, he can kill penalties, he can play on the power play. He goes to the blue paint, he scores in the dirty areas.

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Ward has done all that, and additionally had nine points in 17 games entering Game 6. He added two goals in Wednesday’s decisive game. True to DeBoer’s description, both of his goals came from the blue paint, including the eventual game-winner:

Ward wasn’t the only significant player added in free agency last summer. San Jose also gave a then-34-year-old Paul Martin a long-term deal, offering the underrated rearguard a four-year contract with an annual value just shy of $5 million.

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Martin has routinely logged 20 minutes per game in the postseason and provided a stable partner to the dynamic Burns. He made key plays on San Jose’s winning goal, starting with a strong outlet pass to exit the Sharks' own end and then keeping the puck alive at the offensive blue line when the Blues tried to clear. He and Burns were plus-three as a pairing in Game 6.

Less heralded than either of those signings was the summer addition of a European free agent, Joonas Donskoi. Originally a draft pick of the Florida Panthers, Donskoi was never signed and was thus available to the Sharks after winning Finland’s equivalent of the Conn Smythe Trophy in that country’s top league. He had 22 points and a plus-15 rating over 19 playoff games in the spring of 2015.

Donskoi clicked immediately in the regular season and, like Ward, has been a key playoff contributor. He had four goals and eight points in 17 games entering action Wednesday; he ended up scoring the Sharks' fourth goal of the night:

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention Martin Jones. Back in November, on the heels of a cold streak by the San Jose goaltender, I reflected on the trade that brought him to the Sharks and noted that the Boston Bruins had made an exceptionally good gamble: San Jose had missed the playoffs in 2014-15, the first-round pick sent the other way wasn’t lottery-protected and the Bruins were guaranteed a fair return which might have been much, much better than that if Jones had proved unable to hold down the Sharks' No. 1 job.

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As it turned out, Jones would be solid the rest of the way. He posted a 0.918 save percentage during the season, and while Wilson smartly brought in some goaltending insurance at the trade deadline in James Reimer, that insurance has not been needed. Jones made some brilliant saves in Game 6, as he has all postseason, and ultimately turned aside 24 of the 26 shots he faced.

As good a gamble as the trade was for Boston, it ended up being a better one for the Sharks, who may well win the Stanley Cup thanks in part to Wilson’s willingness to take risks.

Jones, Ward, Martin and the rest of the new additions deserve plaudits for their work in the playoffs. Those players put San Jose over the top in Game 6; now they hope to do the same in the Stanley Cup Final.

Statistics courtesy of Hockey Reference. Contract details courtesy of General Fanager. 

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.