The San Jose Sharks loosened up the purse strings on July 1, 2024 and started actively looking for veteran players who would help guide the new generation of Sharks into the NHL. The team added Tyler Toffoli to the fold to give rookie Macklin Celebrini a bona fide shooter to play alongside. The Sharks also added Alex Wennberg, a defensively responsible forward able to play the two-way game that the team wanted to employ.
Wennberg’s 2024-25 production
Wennberg gave the Sharks exactly what they expected in the 2024-25 season. He scored 35 points in 77 games this past season, close to his average for the last few seasons.
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Shooting % | TOI/Game |
| 77 | 10 | 25 | 35 | -21 | 12.2% | 18:51 |
He was consistently healthy, missing just five games and he logged heavy minutes on the penalty kill. Wennberg was reliable and had the third-highest total ice time on the team, among forwards and defensemen. Only Mario Ferraro and William Eklund logged more minutes than Wennberg this season.
Defensively responsible except on the penalty kill
Wennberg was not a dynamic scorer by any means, but he was incredibly responsible with the puck, which is why he was among the top forwards on the Sharks, even though he registered fewer points and goals than them.
Interestingly, where Wennberg lacked was on the penalty kill. Wennberg logged a lot of time on the penalty kill. He finished the season third on the team in short-handed minutes, behind Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin. Once Kunin, Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm were gone, Wennberg was leaned on even more heavily.
While the entire Sharks’ penalty kill was suspect — the 66 power play goals allowed this season were the worst in the league — Wennberg had the worst short-handed defense on the team according to Evolving Hockey. The issue is that his short-handed defense was also among the worst in the entire league.
And this isn’t a new issue.
According to Evolving-Hockey, these are Wennberg’s short-handed stats for the last four seasons.
| Season | SHD | Place in League |
| 24-25 (SJS) | -3.5 | 2nd to last |
| 23-24 (SEA) | -6.1 | Last place |
| 22-23 (SEA) | -2.4 | 28th to last |
| 21-22 (SEA) | -0.1 | tied for 229th to last |
His 2023-24 season is a bit of an anomaly. Evolving-Hockey has his time with Seattle and his time with the New York Rangers (where he played after the trade deadline) split, and so the stat above only includes a portion of the season. That said, even if you were to factor in his time in New York that season, he would only move up one spot to second-to-last in the league in terms of short-handed defense.
It’s strange to see because his even-strength defense in all four of the seasons mentioned above was in the positive.
What it might indicate is that while Wennberg is a quality two-way forward and very good defensively at even-strength, but he’s not built for the penalty kill. The Sharks might be better served next season by finding another forward, along the lines of a Nico Sturm-type, to help kill penalties and give Wennberg more of the difficult assignments and defensive zone starts at even strength.
Wennberg in the clutch
Other than that, we can’t really criticize Wennberg’s game. He sacrificed his body to make things happen on the ice. He led all forwards this season in blocked shots with 80, according to Evolving-Hockey.
While the Sharks allowed a lot of leads and one-goal games to slip through the team’s fingers, Wennberg was able to pull off a few highlight-worthy wins in the clutch. Of his ten goals this season, 20% of them (2) were game-winning goals.
https://www.nhl.com/sharks/video/cbj-sjs-wennberg-scores-goal-against-elvis-merzlikins-6364276202112
He went 47.5% in the faceoff circle, a slight improvement over his last three seasons. I’m total, the Sharks received exactly what they expected to in Wennberg.
Wennberg’s future with the Sharks
Wennberg is entering the second year of a deal that paid him $5 million per season. Many argue that was an overpay for the 30-year-old’s skills, but Sharks fans can see that Wennberg brought to the Sharks a steadying, even-keel presence that helped guide rookies like Celebrini and Will Smith through what could have been a very difficult rookie season.
Wennberg will look to continue in that guidance and steady play this season and there’s no reason to believe that there will be a drop off in his play. The question will be whether General Manager Mike Grier looks to sell once again at the trade deadline. If this is the case, then Wennberg’s name might be at the top of the list. As a depth center on a contending team, Wennberg could be in high demand, especially if San Jose is willing to use its now free retention spot to make the deal happen.
Wennberg will be with the Sharks in the fall, but I would not bet on him being there at the end of March, especially if the Sharks are vying for a lottery pick once again.
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 even if they are not under contract at the moment and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.
