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2024 player review Marc-Edouard Vlasic: Here to stay

San Jose Sharks fans went into this season with low expectations of Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The defenseman had been steadily declining from his peak effectiveness for several years. But there was a slight sliver of hope that this season would, at the very least, be a plateau. The defenseman looked better statistically at the close of the 2022-23 season, and the hope was that if he could maintain that, things wouldn’t be so bad. Sadly, that was not the case.

Vlasic did not play up to expectations to start the season, and with several other healthy options, Head Coach David Quinn decided to go with other defensemen. It started out as a game here and a game there but quickly snowballed into longer stretches. It was only when the injuries on the blueline started to pile up that Vlasic was placed into the lineup on a nightly basis.

Vlasic’s 2023-24 production

This season was much different for Vlasic than previous seasons. For the first time in his career, he was healthy-scratched. Amazingly, it didn’t make him worse, per se.

Games PlayedGAPts+/-TOI/G
576612-2716:16
Stats courtesy of NHL.com.

Vlasic played 928:00 minutes of ice time this season, his first season below 1,000 minutes ever. (We’re not counting the 2020-21 season when he played 892:58 minutes because it was a shortened season.) Not only was he healthy-scratched, he also received fewer minutes per game. There was only one season where he played fewer than 16:16 minutes per game, in 2021-22 when he averaged 15:12.

Still, even with his lighter load, he was effective offensively. Vlasic has never been known for his offensive acumen. His 12 points in 57 games is close to the points-per-game pace that he’s had in previous seasons.

Vlasic’s impact on the blueline

Amusingly, this offensive production made Vlasic more effective than at least one-third of the defensemen who suited up for the Sharks this season.

When you look at Evolving-Hockey’s goals above replacement (GAR) chart for all of the defensemen who played 500 minutes or more for the Sharks this past season, you see that while he still played better than younger players like Nikita Okhotiuk and Calen Addison.

And while Vlasic was not used on the power play, he was still used on the penalty kill as much as possible. Even though Vlasic played fewer games, he was third on the team in penalty kill minutes, behind Mario Ferraro and Jan Rutta. In his 90 minutes of penalty kill time, the opposing team only scored 12 times. It was a better goals against per 60 minutes ratio than Ferraro, and slightly worse than Rutta’s.

Vlasic’s future with the Sharks

Vlasic wasn’t the best defenseman on the ice for the Sharks this past season, but he wasn’t the worst either. Given the number of high-priced contracts that the Sharks have moved out in the past few seasons, Vlasic’s future in San Jose has become less of an issue.

He’s signed to a contract with a $7 million AAV that expires at the end of the 2025-26 season. That’s two more years, but now the Sharks have the cap space to absorb the hit without sacrificing what the team can do in the future. There’s plenty of cap space, so working around Vlasic’s contract won’t be an issue.

What that means is that it’s not likely that the Sharks will trade Vlasic. It’s also not likely that the team will buy him out. There’s no need for either move.

What’s most likely is that Vlasic will continue to see his ice time go down. He might also find himself watching a game or two this season as the Sharks tryout younger defensemen. Next season, if the team does not re-sign Jan Rutta or bring in another veteran defenseman, Vlasic may get more games, but only to play as the veteran presence on the ice. He could be the guy teaching all of the younger players what it takes to play in the NHL.

Either way, this seems to better suit the 37-year-old at this stage of his career. Vlasic seemed to play better this season, almost as if he were fresher. He seemed more dialed in defensively and he made better choices. Remember, he scored six goals this season, the most he’s scored since 2017-18. He was an impactful defenseman, albeit one in the sixth- or seventh-defenseman role. Look for him to stay with the team and fill this role for the next two seasons.

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.

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