The 2016-17 Sharks Look Legit After Stumbling in Cup Final

San Jose is making teal cool after getting all of the way into the Cup last year. Although some roster weaknesses were made abundantly clear in their six games with the Penguins in the final string for Lord Stanley’s mug, the Sharks were right on the brink of winning their initial franchise Stanley Cup. They addressed a number of their demands in the offseason and unless era begins to catch up to them, they ought to be in fantastic position to make another deep playoff run.
The front office didn’t reinvent the wheel on the summer but it didn’t shed some dead weight and added a forwards in Mikkel Boedker who seems like an ideal fit on the secondary scoring unit to the Sharks. Marty Jones proved he has what it takes to be a No. 1 backstop last year with his 37 wins and .918 save percent and will probably be asked to play with 70-plus matches for the Fish if he remains healthy — a first-round pick for Jones now appears like a steal.
Check out some of the Sharks’ futures odds for the upcoming season.
Stanley Cup +1600
Some of you may be sexy on the Sharks once they fell just two wins short of winning their initial franchise Stanley Cup last year but think about this. Pete DeBoer, head coach of the Sharks, has qualified for the playoffs just two times within his eight-year NHL coaching profession. Although he left the finals in those postseason appearances, he’s got no Stanley Cup rings and really missed the playoffs the year following his team made it to the Cup final.
Nevertheless, San Jose is one of my favorite value plays 16/1. The savvy vets on this team are now steeped in playoff experience and seem to have shed the label of chokers. In case Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau can contribute 50 percent of what they did last season and save some gasoline for the playoffs, this group may be a postseason nightmare.
Western Conference +750
This is a great play. Although teams don’t win back-to-back Western Conference championships quite often — it has happened only three times since 1994 — I am only considering two teams in Western Seminar futures: this one, along with the Dallas Stars.
The West has become a place where conservative drama is being heavily outshined by firepower and the Sharks are freaking gunslingers. They had been also the fourth-highest scoring team in the league last season but were totally deadly with the man advantage and scored a league-high 59 on the power play. If Jones can just be strong, this group is going places — great places, I am hoping.
Pacific Division +260
The Sharks finished third in their division with 98 points last year but should not have any trouble eclipsing that metric in 2016-17 if they improve just slightly at home. Although they were the very best road team in the series last year (28-10-3), San Jose ended with a gloomy 18-20-3 record in their own construction.
That terrible home record was nothing more than the anomaly. The Sharks actually outscored their opponents 73-65 at the SAP Center last season and were on the wrong side of several one-goal games. Jones will have to increase in SoCal when the Sharks wish to run away together with all the Pacific like they might — San Jose had the fourth-worst house save percentage in the league this past year.
Complete Season Points OVER/UNDER 100.5
If you’ve taken in anything I’ve written so far, you’ll know I feel the OVER here is a simple bet. This group could have challenged the Capitals for the Presidents’ Trophy had they never lost so many close games at home.
Brent Burns Norris Trophy +700
Brent”The Beard” Burns, what a baseball player this man is. He paced all defensemen in goals last season with 27 while also leading ALL skaters in person Corsi, yet he received only three first-place votes to the Norris. The voting for the very best defenseman is always somewhat wonky — and skewed toward bigger markets — but you need to think Burns has now paid his dues and should be a shoo-in if he has another season like he did at 2015-16 and when the Sharks are as great as I believe they’ll be.

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