When the San Jose Sharks signed Givani Smith in the off-season, it was a bit of a head scratcher. In only one of his previous five seasons in the NHL had he ever averaged more than ten minutes of ice time per game. Never had he scored more than ten points in a season. That wasn’t really what a team that was light on forwards needed.
But Smith brought the one thing that General Manager Mike Grier was looking to add to the Sharks’ lineup, sandpaper. With 210 penalty minutes in 119 games played coming into the season, Smith fit the bill.
Smith’s 2023-24 production
However, during the season, Smith’s grit, as it were, never seemed like enough of an asset, especially compared to the offensive skill that other options at the forward position seemed to offer.
| Games Played | G | A | Pts | +/- | TOI/G |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -13 | 7:48 |
As it was, Smith still received limited playing time on a team that suffered several injuries in the forward position. Oftentimes, the coaching staff seemed to determine that players like Kevin Labanc and Mike Hoffman were better choices for the lineup than Smith.
Even when he was in the lineup, Smith’s 7:48 average ice time was the lowest on the team by more than three minutes per game. He was not used at all on the penalty kill and played just 16 seconds on the power play all season. His only ice time came at 5-on-5.
Smith did offer grit
When in the lineup, Smith did bring the grit as advertised. He wasn’t afraid to lay a hit when necessary. Smith was sixth on the team in hits with 73. That’s especially impressive, considering he played fewer minutes than many of the players below him on the list.
He also ended the season with 40 penalty minutes, including four majors. He took 14 penalties in total and drew 11.
The trouble with Smith as a player is that he never seemed to be able to be the gritty player that the Sharks needed at a given moment. His hits never seemed to come at an impactful moment in the game that changed the tide. Neither did his fights. He did not seem to swing the emotion the way some players are able to.
Smith’s play didn’t hurt the Sharks
When he was on the ice, Smith’s play didn’t hurt the Sharks too much, as shown in Evolving-Hockey’s regularized-adjusted plus-minus chart below.
That said, it wasn’t a huge help either. It’s a small sample size to look at, considering that Smith was given limited playing time and sheltered minutes when he did play. Much like the review of Ryan Carpenter earlier this month, it’s kind of a what you see is what you get situation.
Smith’s play didn’t hurt the team, but it didn’t help the team either. It is what it is and likely not something that the Sharks will want or need much of next season.
Smith’s future with the Sharks
Smith is signed for one more season with an $800,000 cap hit. It would be pretty easy for the Sharks to put him on waivers and send him down to the Barracuda if the team needed to make room for a young forward ready to make the jump. What’s more, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden to the roster if the team lost the 26-year-old forward because another team picked him up off of waivers.
Smith is the kind of forward that a team inserts into the lineup when it doesn’t want to bring a prospect up too early or needs to make a game-time decision due to injury or illness. He’s a good 13th forward that the team can carry without worrying too much about hurting a young player’s development. For that reason, keeping him around this season won’t be an issue. After that, it’s hard to see the Sharks signing him over some other free agent forward.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players who are 1) still with the Sharks and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.
