In a season filled with doom and gloom, the arrival of Mikael Granlund was a bright spot. No one knew what to expect when the San Jose Sharks took on Granlund’s contract as part of the return in the Erik Karlsson trade. Given Granlund’s poor performance down the stretch for the Pittsburgh Penguins at the close of the 2022-23 season and in the playoffs, many had written the forward off. However, Granlund proved critics wrong, coming out with a bounce back season.
Granlund’s 2023-24 production
Granlund was the team’s top point scorer this season, leading the way with 60 points in 69 games.
| Games Played | G | A | Pts | +/- | TOI/G |
| 69 | 12 | 48 | 60 | -23 | 20:57 |
Granlund averaged 20:57 of ice time per game, taking over top-line center duties in the absence of Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl. He was third on the team in ice time this season among forwards, with 1446:12 behind only William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund. However, Eklund played 80 games this season and Zetterlund played 82 compared to Granlund’s 69.
All in all, this season was a strong rebound from the 2022-23 season when he scored just 41 points in 79 games split between the Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The hard work earned Granlund the team’s MVP award as voted on by members of the Sharks media. It was well deserved. The Sharks scored 180 goals this season, and Granlund registered a point on one-third of those goals.
San Jose’s most complete player
Granlund was not only the Sharks’ most valuable player but also the team’s most complete player.
Granlund had more than 200 minutes on the power play, second amongst Sharks forwards. He also played nearly 150 minutes on the penalty kill, the most among Sharks forwards and third on the team behind Jan Rutta and Mario Ferraro.
And looking at his numbers, he was not entirely out of place in that role.
If you look at Evolving-Hockey’s regularized-adjusted plus-minus chart (RAPM), you can see that even on a team that struggled to score, Granlund was still above league average. His impact on the power play was even greater.
What’s more, his goals for per 60 minutes (GF/60) at both even strength and on the power play compared to his expected goals for per 60 minutes (xGF/60) were good. Even when the scoring chances weren’t expected to be there, Granlund was finding a way to make things happen.
A bit of that is luck, but in hockey, sometimes you make your own luck.
Doing the little things right
For Granlund, it was all the little things that he did right that led to his very good season.
Granlund was good in the faceoff circle, winning 46.82% of the faceoffs he took this season. He was slightly better than that on the penalty kill, where he won 51.06% of the draws.
He was also responsible with his stick and his body. According to Natural Stat Trick, he had a plus-two penalty differential, meaning that while he took 16 penalties this season, he drew 18.
But perhaps his biggest impact was his ability to pursue the puck when the other team had it. He led the team with 49 takeaways, according to Natural Stat Trick, even though he played fewer games than many of the top forwards. What’s more, he only gave away the puck 21 times.
Granlund’s future with the Sharks
Granlund is signed for one more season and has a $5 million cap hit next season. With Tomas Hertl now with the Vegas Golden Knights and the future of Logan Couture still up in the air, Granlund has quickly slid into a leadership role on the Sharks. At 32, he’s one of the oldest players on the roster and one of the only ones with more than 300 games played at the NHL level. He’s the veteran leadership the Sharks need as the team continues to guide young prospects.
While anything can happen, it’s hard to see the Sharks trading Granlund, even at the deadline, unless there’s an offer that’s simply too good to refuse. That, of course, can change if the Sharks sign another veteran forward of the same caliber as Granlund during free agency, but the one thing the team cannot do is leave players like Will Smith, Collin Graf and the future number one overall pick adrift.
It would not be surprising if the team extends Granlund this season, especially if he continues to find chemistry with some of the younger players on the roster.
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.
