Joe Pavelski: A Proven Winner at Every Level

After helping the American Olympic hockey team win a silver medal earlier this year, Joe Pavelski is doing what he can to ensure that his local club will not be a playoff disappointment this year.

After tallying two goals against the Detroit Red Wings in Game One, he has increased his playoff total to seven, putting him two goals ahead of Sidney Crosby, who has the most points in this year’s playoffs.

It should come as no surprise that Pavelski is playing at his best during the playoffs. In 2008, when the Sharks advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals, he had three game-winning goals.

Pavelski has already matched that number this year by scoring on a five-on-three power play in the beginning of the third period, which helped the Sharks win Game One against last year’s Western Conference champions.

While the gold medal line of Patrick Marleau, “Jumbo” Joe Thornton, and Dany Heatley has floundered in mediocrity throughout the playoffs, Pavelski continues to make a name for himself by setting up teammates Ryane Clowe and Devin Setoguchi and scoring timely goals when nobody else in teal was able to find the back of the net.

Nicknamed “Little Joe” because of his small stature (Pavelski is less than six feet tall and weighs around 190 pounds) in comparison to “Jumbo” Joe (who stands 6'4" and weighs 235 pounds), Pavelski’s size discouraged many teams from taking him in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Many players chosen in 2003 have made an outstanding impact on their teams. The first four players taken in the draft—Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins), Eric Staal (Carolina Hurricanes), Nathan Horton (Florida Panthers), and Nikolai Zherdev (Columbus Blue Jackets)—all made significant contributions to their teams the year after they were drafted.

In fact, in three of the last four years, a 2003 draft pick has played a significant role in his team winning an NHL championship: Staal in 2006, the Anaheim Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf in 2007, and Fleury last year. It would only seem fitting that Pavelski, who was selected in the seventh round (205th overall), continue this trend.

It is incongruous, however, that Little Joe lacks the notoriety of his aforementioned teammates—Marleau, Thornton, and Heatley—who were drafted in the first round, and in the case of Thornton and Heatley, who were brought to San Jose in blockbuster trades that were supposed to bring a championship to the Bay Area for the first time since the 1994 Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers.

Despite being a proven winner on the ice and a model citizen off it, Pavelski was not given a leadership position when Marleau was stripped of his captaincy after the Sharks' loss to their archrival Ducks last year.

After his junior year at Stevens Point Area high school, where he led his team to a Wisconsin state championship in 2002, Pavelski left high school early—as is conventional for high school hockey players looking to gain recognition by college programs and NHL scouts—to play for the Waterloo (Iowa) Black Hawks of the USHL.

In Waterloo, where he was praised for his performance on the ice and his community service off it , Pavelski’s team was crowned champions of the USHL—the best junior hockey (ages 16-20) league in America—after he had been drafted by the Sharks and offered a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin.

In his first year at the University of Wisconsin he was named to the All-WCHA Rookie team and All-WCHA Second Team. Pavelski led the Badgers to a national championship during his sophomore campaign in Madison and opted to forgo his final two years of eligibility to join the Sharks in 2007.

He may not have the speed of Marleau, the size of Thornton, or the shot accuracy of Heatley, a letter on his chest or first-round credentials, but Pavelski has something that all three of those players lack:

A relentless desire to win.