For Luke Kunin, 2024 did not go the way he would have liked. Last season, Kunin appeared to be on his way to becoming a strong contributor to the San Jose Sharks rebuild. He was a solid depth forward who killed penalties and occasionally contributed on offense. But injuries cut his season short and just 31 games into the season, Kunin ended his season and had surgery.
He recovered from that surgery with plenty of time to get stronger in the offseason and joined the 2023-24 training camp ready to play. He was healthy. The trouble is, the players around him weren’t.
Kunin’s 2023-24 production
Kunin was one of the only four Sharks who played more than 75 games in teal this season. As a result, he moved up and down the lineup and into and out of the center position. He was Head Coach David Quinn’s do-everything guy.
| Games Played | G | A | Pts | +/- | TOI/G |
| 77 | 11 | 7 | 18 | -30 | 15:44 |
It’s hard to say if that role helped or hurt the forward. It was often clear that Kunin was not suited for a role as a second-line center, but he found himself in that spot more often than Sharks fans would have liked. With top center Logan Couture only able to play six games this season, the surgery, plus the subsequent trade of Tomas Hertl and the injuries to Mikael Granlund, Kunin was on the second line more often than not this season.
As a result, he faced stronger competition and often did not perform well.
There must always be one
The results can be seen in Evolving-Hockey’s goals above replacement (GAR) chart for San Jose Sharks forwards this past season. When you look at the chart, you can see that Kunin registers all the way at the bottom of the list.
In almost every category, Kunin’s season as a whole appears to have been detrimental to the Sharks. While there will always be one player who is statistically the worst player on the team, it’s hard to believe that Kunin claims this position over some of the other players on the roster.
And yet, there he is.
Based on these numbers, it could be argued that Kunin does not warrant a new contract. However, I would continue to argue that the true issue with Kunin this season is that former Head Coach David Quinn tried to do too much with him and leaned too heavily on the forward. Too often, it felt as though Quinn was trying to force a player better suited for the third- or fourth-line into top-six situations, doing a disservice to the player. The problem was exacerbated by an incredibly poor season by the Sharks all around.
Kunin’s successes this season
While his GAR numbers do not bear this out, there were some successes for Kunin this season.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Kunin was second on the team in hits. He delivered 145 this season, second only to Kyle Burroughs. Kunin led the team in penalty minutes with 83. Of those 83 minutes, 45 of them came from fights. Kunin received nine major penalties this season.
Interestingly, even though he led the team in PIMs, Kunin was still able to draw more penalties than he took. Natural Stat Trick reports that he drew 29 penalties to the 28 that he took.
He was also an impactful two-way forward. He had 22 takeaways to just 15 giveaways. He was third on the team among forwards in blocked shots.
In total, Kunin had 1212:01 of ice time this season, fourth among forwards. He played 148:04 minutes on the penalty kill, fourth on the team in PK time. Granlund was the only forward on the Sharks to have more time on the penalty kill than Kunin.
The intangibles Kunin brings to the Sharks
It was that dedication to dropping the gloves, to making the hit, to blocking the shot and to committing on the penalty kill that makes it difficult to write Kunin off completely. In a season that lacked energy, Kunin was often the most invested player on the ice. He was not afraid to make a large, impactful hit, like the one he made against Jake Neighbours on April 6. Kunin also had no problem answering for that hit just seconds later.
Justin Faulk being a good neighbour to Jake Neighbours, if you will. 👊 He fights San Jose's Luke Kunin after Kunin throws Neighbours into the boards. #stlblues
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) April 6, 2024
Watch on the Bally Sports app, brought to you by @BommaritoAuto. pic.twitter.com/YxUlFBV0wD
Quinn probably said it best in April when he said, “I can’t say enough about that guy. I would go to war with him any day. You want him on your team every day. He’s always the guy doing it. So it’s just who he is; it’s who he’s been his whole career.”
Kunin’s future with the Sharks
Kunin is a restricted free agent this offseason, but it’s clear that he’s the kind of player the Sharks want on the ice. Otherwise, the team would not have handed him an “A” midseason.
For his part, Kunin has said that he wants to be in San Jose and part of the rebuild. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and he brings that to the ice every day. He’s the kind of hardworking forward who could help shape some of the younger players as they move up in the Sharks system.
Will Kunin be a 20-goal scorer and 30- to 40-point-per-season player? Probably not. Will he be a hard-nosed forward who can kill penalties and contribute to the power play when needed? Absolutely.
Kunin is the gritty kind of forward you want on the fourth line in the playoffs. Given the weakness of the Sharks roster, it’s a role he’s never had the chance to slot into. However, as the Sharks get deeper, it will be fun to see what Kunin can do if he’s consistently placed in a third- or fourth-line role alongside Nico Sturm.
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.
