Joe Pavelski Still Rising At 32 For San Jose Sharks

Joe Pavelski can celebrate being at the peak of his profession on his 32nd birthday…

Joe Pavelski turned 32 years old Monday, July 11. There are no indications he is slowing down.

Pavelski is the captain of the San Jose Sharks because he is accountable during and after the game. He plays the right way and says the right things.

Any analysis of his game has to start with his role as captain. He righted the ship in the middle of a storm when crippling losses led to all-time low morale.

That ship did not quite reach the promised land but charted all necessary territory. The dressing room could not be mistaken for one of “co-workers, not teammates” as had been heavily reported before Joe Thornton had the “C” stripped from him.

Fair or not, the Sharks were a much tighter team on and off the ice under Pavelski. Simply having gone through the adversity together and the coaching change to Peter DeBoer were probably both more significant factors in their success during the 2015-16 NHL season, but strong leadership was important.

Thornton was part of that leadership, as was Logan Couture, Joel Ward, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Brent Burns, Paul Martin, Justin Braun and even Martin Jones. But without Pavelski, that is a very back-end heavy leadership group.

Moreover, Pavelski was clutch. He led the team in all goal categories—overall (38), game winners (11) and power play (28)—but also had the most ice time of any forward (1624:54) because he could also defend in the big moments of any game. He had six goals and six assists while scoring in 10 of the last 12 games of the 2015-16 NHL season.

He came up huge when his team needed it most in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was the leading candidate to win the Conn Smythe going into the finals and led the league in postseason goals. As always, he was also reliable defensively with 66 hits, 20 blocks, 11 takeaways and 176 wins in 337 draws.

The reality is that Pavelski has been San Jose’s most versatile asset for years. He has played all three forward positions as well as quarterbacking the power play professionally and for Team U.S.A in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He had great defensive numbers over the 2015-16 NHL season: 147 hits, 67 blocks and 46 takeaways along with 516 wins in 938 draws.

He is also the most consistent of the Sharks. Pavelski went without a point for three games just once during the regular season (January 14-18) and was plus-2 during that stretch. During the three times he went more than four games without a goal, he always had at least three assists and those slumps never reached seven games.

Part of that was certainly having Thornton feed him. Part of it was having a Norris Trophy candidate in Brent Burns on the point, adept at getting pucks close to the net.

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Still, Pavelski worked to become among the best at working in front of the crease and the very best anywhere at redirecting pucks despite his smallish stature (officially 5 ft., 11 in., 190-lbs.). He put similar work into the faceoff circle, blocking shots and anything else to help his team win. It was something DeBoer drove home in the Stanley Cup finals and detailed in an ESPN piece by Pierre LeBrun.

That is how one reaches the All-Star game at 31 after not even being among the first 200 players drafted. Pavelski is successful because of his leadership rather than being a leader because he is successful.