Chris Tierney recently just celebrated his 22nd birthday. The former 2012 second-round draft pick finished his first full season in the NHL with 20 points (seven goals and 13 assists) being flipped in between the second and third lines and seeing solid minutes on the penalty kill.
I’m a big Tierney fan; I really thought his brief two-game stint with the Barracuda in December (three points in two games) helped his NHL game when the Sharks recalled him days later. With the depth this San Jose team has at forward, Tierney’s development isn’t being rushed or compromised as he’ll spend 2016-2017 in a similar role as he had last year.
But at the age of 22 and one full season under his belt, he has a high ceiling and could move up to the second-line in a couple seasons if he continues to contribute at a solid rate for the minutes he’s getting. Now the Sharks have to decide if he’s worth protecting in the expansion draft next year and his play this upcoming season will determine that.
2015-16 Sharks 5v5 Forward Usage Chart (via Corsica Hockey):
Term definitions:
ZSR: Zone Start Ratio; The percentage of non-neutral zone starts that are offensive zone starts (OZS/(OZS + DZS))
TOI.QoT: Time On Ice Quality of Teammates; The weighted average TOI% of a player’s teammates
Rel.CF%: Individual corsi-for percentage subtracted by the team’s overall corsi-for percentage.
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