Sharks playoff grades

CaptainShark

Registered User
Sep 25, 2004
4,129
2,122
Fulda, Germany
With the postseason run ending in another disappointment, I would like to know how you grade each player’s performance throughout the postseason, feel free to grade PDB as well.

I will post my assessment in a few hours. Just finished watching game 6, have to get a little break and some perspective.
 

Bizz

2023 LTIR Loophole* Cup Champions
Oct 17, 2007
10,931
6,571
San Jose
A+: Couture, Hertl, Sorensen
A: Vlasic
A-: Meier, Goodrow
B+: Jones, Ryan
B: Dell, Kane, Donskoi
C+: Tierney
C: Pavelski, Boedker
C-: Labanc, Karlsson, Burns
D: DeMelo
D-: Dillon, Braun
F: Martin, DeBoer
 
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Tkachuk4MVP

32 Years of Fail
Apr 15, 2006
14,793
2,675
San Diego, CA
A+: Hertl, Couture
A: Sorensen
A-: Vlasic
B: Dillon, Jones, Fehr, Meier, Ryan, Goodrow, DeBoer
B-: Braun, Boedker
C+: Donskoi
C: Pavelski
C-: Burns, Kane, DeMelo, Karlsson
D: Tierney, Labanc
F: Martin
 
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BaileyMacTavish

Hockey lovin' wolf
Nov 8, 2010
14,020
1,355
San Jose
A+: Hertl and Couture
A: Sorensen
A-: Vlasic, Ryan
B: Jones, Pavelski, Goodrow
B-: Boedker, Donskoi, Fehr
C+: Meier, Braun
C: Burns, Dillon,
C-: Kane, DeMelo, Karlsson
D+: Labanc, Tierney
F: Martin
Z-------: DeBoer
 

Alwalys

Phu m.
May 19, 2010
25,894
6,140
A+ Hertl
A Couture Sorensen
B+ Goodrow
B Donskoi Fehr Meier Dillon Braun
C Kane Pavelski Demelo Vlasic Jones Karlsson Ryan Deboer
D Tierney Burns Boedker
F Labanc Martin
 
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seroes

Registered User
May 3, 2016
2,918
1,760
California
A+ Hertl
A Courture, Sorenson
A- Meier
B+Vlassic, Fehr,
B Braun, Dillon
B- Donskoi, Bodeker, Ryan, Dell, Goodrow
C+Pavelski, Karlsson, Burns
C Demelo,
C- Jones, Kane,
D+ Deboar
D- Tierney
F Martin

A++++ Heed (warmed his seat better than anyone else)
 

CaptainShark

Registered User
Sep 25, 2004
4,129
2,122
Fulda, Germany
1st line

Kane/Donskoi - given that both were clearly less than 100 % against the Golden Knights, I won’t grade them. Didn’t meet my expectations, but the injuries are a legit excuse in my book.

Pavelski - The stats don’t look all that bad, his play on the ice at times did. Maybe he was dragged down by his line mates (see above), but I think it’s more of a confirmation of his decline. Grade: C-

2nd line

Boedker - continued his 2nd half trend and was a good complimentary peace to Hertl/Couture. Showed flashes of his speed and some good puck protection. The turnover in game 5 sticks out like a sore thumb. Grade: B-

Hertl - Best Shark forward in almost every game, no need for further explanation, grade A+

Couture - showed again that he is a playoff performer. Grade A


3rd line

Meier - a bit of a disappointment, he brought the physical side of his game on some nights, but didn’t show a whole lot of offense apart from a few flashes. He really hit his stride in December, but tailed off in the last 15 games or so. That carried over into the playoffs. Grade: C

Tierney - after a fantastic regular season with a lot of offensive output and great work on the PK, he fell off a cliff in the POs. One assist, not a lot of good looks, his line got outplayed on most nights and the PK sagged. Tierney looked lost on the PK at times. Huge disappointment, wonder what it means for his contract negotiations. Grade: F

Labanc - Not unlike Meier, their was a part of the season when one thought, he had it all figured out. It didn’t last and it got worse in pressure intense playoff hockey. Bad 5 on 5 but he had some moments on the PP. Grad: D+


4th line

Sorensen - The best player on a pretty effective 4th line (obviously not based on last night). His speed was a huge factor, he also had some pretty good PK-shifts and on top of that he scored 4 important goals. What else do you want from a 4th liner? Grade: A

Fehr - He did a solid job on said 4th line, nothing spectacular but just what the team needed. Grade: B

Karlsson - good fill in for that line, but IMO the weakest link. Would have liked to see Goodrow get a shot. Grade: C

Goodrow - too small a sample size


Defence

Burns - the playoffs were similar to his regular season, for every shiny moment there was at least one awkward moment. He was brillant on one shift and abysmal the next. I read somewhere, that Boughner was a big factor in burnsie finding consistency. Someone else will have to handle Boughnerd duties. Not a lot of luck shooting wise, highlighted by his to post/crossbars last night. Grade: C

Martin - it’s not his fault that Deboer chose to dress him, but he was outright terrible from the get go. Had to be sheltered and was brutally exposed at what IMO was the series deciding moment when Karlsson won game 3 in OT. He’s done. Grade: F

Ryan - much better than Martin, not as good as I expected him to be. But it’s unfair to grade him when he was out of game action for weeks.

Vlasic - Did a good job shutting down the Ducks in round one and a decent job of containing the best line in the league against Vegas. Still it was a little step back from years past. Grade: B

Braun - see Vlasic, on a lower level of course. Made more mistakes than Vlasic and I am biased because I hate his lack of puckmoving/handling skills. Grade C+

Dillon - Was solid on most nights, made some boneheaded mistakes, overall did what was to be expected. Grade: B-

DeMelo - his signature moment for me was him being on the ice at the end of game 5 and throwing a blind centering feed that didn’t have a chance and let to the empty net goal that crushed our comeback hopes. He is a guy that can’t be trusted defensively and on offense he just doesn’t put it together. Sharks should look for someone else to fill the No6 spot. Grade: D

PDB: i cant judge the positives he brings, just can point out his stupidity with Martin and with Demelo (on the PP and on the ice late in game 5).

Edit: forgot Jonesey... he was great against the Ducks and ok against the Knights, got outplayed by Fleury in the series. Grade: B-
 

Sharksrule04

Registered User
Jul 23, 2010
3,697
1,229
New York, NY
A+: Couture, Hertl, Sorenson
A: Vlasic
A-: Fehr
B+: Meier, Braun, Dillon
B: Pavs, Kane, Boedker
B-: Donskoi, Burns (his D was atrocious)
C+: Karlsson, Ryan, Jones
C: Demelo
C-: Tierney
D: Labanc
F: Martin
 

Friday

Registered User
Apr 25, 2014
5,730
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LA
A+: Hertl, Sorenson

A: Couture

B: Vlasic, Braun, Meier, Pavs, Donkey, Fehr, Dillon, Goodrow

C: Kane, Boedker, Burns, Ryan, Jones, Demelo, Tierney, Melker

D: EAD to me, Lebanc, Martin
 

DeadGhost

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Feb 15, 2010
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1st line
3rd line

Meier - a bit of a disappointment, he brought the physical side of his game on some nights, but didn’t show a whole lot of offense apart from a few flashes. He really hit his stride in December, but tailed off in the last 15 games or so. That carried over into the playoffs. Grade: C

Tierney - after a fantastic regular season with a lot of offensive output and great work on the PK, he fell off a cliff in the POs. One assist, not a lot of good looks, his line got outplayed on most nights and the PK sagged. Tierney looked lost on the PK at times. Huge disappointment, wonder what it means for his contract negotiations. Grade: F

Labanc - Not unlike Meier, their was a part of the season when one thought, he had it all figured out. It didn’t last and it got worse in pressure intense playoff hockey. Bad 5 on 5 but he had some moments on the PP. Grad: D+

I pretty much agree, word for word, with your entire assessment except for the 3rd line.

Meier was the only consistent physical force in both series Whether it was needed is debatable but it was there. Aside from Hertl and Boedker he was probably the puck that was strongest on the puck and really drove zone entry this post season. I give him a Grade: B

Tierney wasn't noticable but never really hurt the Sharks, in my opinion. I thought he was composed and smart throughout the post season. Grade: C

I agree with the grade (D+) on Labanc but I thought he looked better 5 on 5 than on the PP. He coughed up too many pucks for my linking and killed some good puck movement working the half wall. Many will give him a pass on the PP for his sweet feed to Couture on the OT game winner though.

Enjoyed your write up!
 
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rangerssharks414

Registered User
Mar 9, 2010
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Long Island, NY
A+: Hertl, Couture, Sorensen
A: Fehr
A-: Vlasic
B: Dillon, Braun, Meier
B-: Burns, Donskoi, Jones
C+: Boedker, Ryan, DeMelo, Karlsson
C: Kane, DeBoer
C-: Pavelski
D: Labanc
F: Martin, Tierney

Don't remember: Goodrow, Dell
 

TomasHertlsRooster

Don’t say eye test when you mean points
May 14, 2012
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The players grades posted in this thread are what I’d generally agree with so I’ll say for my playoff grade I’d give all of you here on hfsharks an A++. All the game thread ****posting/raging/cheering always makes watching the team in the playoffs that much more fun.

I agree with this except for Vlasic. How are people giving him an A or even a B? He was on the ice for how many big goals against by Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault? We scored 3 or more goals in 4 straight games and lost two of them due to Jones and Vlasic/Braun. All 3 of those players get a C at best and only because of their deployment and their good performance against Anaheim.
 
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McDeez

Registered User
Feb 8, 2007
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San Jose
A++ - Hertl. (The fact of how strong this kid is on the puck is insane)
A+ - Couture (my pick for Captain next year) and Sorenson
A - Vlasic

Everyone else was meh. Yeah, including Jones. Too many soft goals.
 

McDeez

Registered User
Feb 8, 2007
1,115
167
San Jose
I agree with this except for Vlasic. How are people giving him an A or even a B? He was on the ice for how many big goals against by Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault? We scored 3 or more goals in 4 straight games and lost two of them due to Jones and Vlasic/Braun. All 3 of those players get a C at best and only because of their deployment and their good performance against Anaheim.


Vlasic averaged 25 minutes TOI. Most ever in his playoff career. For the amount of time he was on the ice, something had to give. Their 1st line is no fluke, and they showed why. Braun wasn't helping him out much either. Jones let in plenty of soft goals this series too.
 

Mafoofoo

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Jul 3, 2010
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I agree with this except for Vlasic. How are people giving him an A or even a B? He was on the ice for how many big goals against by Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault? We scored 3 or more goals in 4 straight games and lost two of them due to Jones and Vlasic/Braun. All 3 of those players get a C at best and only because of their deployment and their good performance against Anaheim.

Vlasic died after game 2. The remaining 4 games Pete kept throwing out his corpse.
 
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DeadGhost

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Feb 15, 2010
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Vlasic averaged 25 minutes TOI. Most ever in his playoff career. For the amount of time he was on the ice, something had to give. Their 1st line is no fluke, and they showed why. Braun wasn't helping him out much either. Jones let in plenty of soft goals this series too.

This is how I felt about Vlasic as well. It's not his fault he was relied upon so much. It was evident yesterday that we was spent.

The more I think about the injuries/usage of Vlasic, Braun, Kane, Burns, and Donskoi I really don't see any way the Sharks could have put up a fight in a conference final. They were toast after those OTs.
 

Lebanezer

I'unno? Coast Guard?
Jul 24, 2006
14,756
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San Jose
These grades take into account the entire playoffs, but the Vegas series is weighed more heavily because my god Anaheim was awful.

Hertl A+ He was great

Couture A- Played pretty well, benefited from playing with Hertl though.

Boedker B Like Couture, he benefited from playing with Hertl, but he was moving his feet, and did a pretty good job.

Vlasic C (because JTR says so) Mostly for surviving insane deployment and being overextended

Sorensen B Did a lot of good things, but disappeared for games

Ryan B (inc) Was the Sharks best defenseman in game 6 and played the least.

Meier B- Did some good things, but also is prone to some awful turnovers. Lots of potential, just needs to keep developing.

Donskoi B- Injured, but still has so much ability

Fehr - C Really a non factor in the Vegas series

Pavelski - C Too slow, didn't bring much to the games. He's not even deflecting pucks anymore. It's all attempted high tips

Braun - C Overmatched and worn to shreds

Dillon - C Dragged down by his partner, but was still decent

Kane - C Injured, was rendered ineffective by his body

Jones - C So bad against Vegas

Labanc - C- Total non factor, looked scared on the power play, takes too long to shoot. All correctable, he's just gotta get quicker.

Karlsson C- He played, I think.

Burns - D Sloppy in ever aspect, and too worn out from overuse to have any energy on the PP or defensively

Demelo - F Not good enough for the NHL, may not be good enough for the AHL. His passes and shots are weak, he can't break the puck out, he gets pushed around defensively, has minimal offensive abilities. He needs to go.

Martin - F Should have never received a grade, the NHL game has passed him by, and it was sad to watch him be exposed time and time again.

Tierney - F He managed two assists, both on the powerplay, one of which was on the last goal of the game, in garbage time, of an 8-1 victory. I do not think he's the answer at 3C, and I think he should be traded.
 
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TomasHertlsRooster

Don’t say eye test when you mean points
May 14, 2012
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Vlasic averaged 25 minutes TOI. Most ever in his playoff career. For the amount of time he was on the ice, something had to give. Their 1st line is no fluke, and they showed why. Braun wasn't helping him out much either. Jones let in plenty of soft goals this series too.

Their first line might be no fluke, but neither is Crosby, neither is McDavid, etc.; Vlasic gets paid far more than any other defenseman of his scoring ability and he gets paid that because of his ability to shut down top players. Had Vlasic been able to shut down William Karlsson’s line the way that he has historically been able to shut down the NHL’s true elites, we probably win games 2-4, giving us a 3-1 lead going into game 5.

Vlasic died after game 2. The remaining 4 games Pete kept throwing out his corpse.

If he really dies after 6 games of being leaned on then he sure as hell isnt worth his contract.

The Smith-Karlsson-Marchessault line had 9 goals. Just those 3 players. If you consider goals where a different player scored but two players from that line had an assist, they had 13. That accounts for more than half of Vegas’ scoring. Without those guys scoring goals, Vegas would have had 13 goals in this entire series. Without goals that were directly assisted by two thirds of that line, Vegas would have had 9 goals in this entire series.

That is unacceptable for one line to completely torch us like that when we spend >$7M on Vlasic and almost $7M on Jones. Vlasic and Jones cost us this series. You pay those guys that much money and you expect to be able to deploy them in a certain manner that doesn’t allow this to happen.

Vlasic was on the ice for 2 goals for and 9 goals against. Burns was on the ice for 8 goals for and 12 goals against. Jones got pulled as many times as he had a save percentage that was equal to 90% or higher. The Sharks scored over 2 goals per game in this series. The Sharks never lost a series in the Nabokov era where they averaged over 2 goals per game. The defense and goaltending is a problem. Neither of these guys deserve a B or better.
 
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Lebanezer

I'unno? Coast Guard?
Jul 24, 2006
14,756
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San Jose
Their first line might be no fluke, but neither is Crosby, neither is McDavid, etc.; Vlasic gets paid far more than any other defenseman of his scoring ability and he gets paid that because of his ability to shut down top players. Had Vlasic been able to shut down William Karlsson’s line the way that he has historically been able to shut down the NHL’s true elites, we probably win games 2-4, giving us a 3-1 lead going into game 5.



If he really dies after 6 games of being leaned on then he sure as hell isnt worth his contract.

The Smith-Karlsson-Marchessault line had 9 goals. Just those 3 players. If you consider goals where a different player scored but two players from that line, they had 13. That accounts for more than half of Vegas’ scoring. Without those guys scoring goals, Vegas would have had 13 goals in this entire series. Without goals that were directly assisted by two thirds of that line, Vegas would have had 9 goals in this entire series.

That is unacceptable for one line to completely torch us like that when we spend >$7M on Vlasic and almost $7M on Jones. Vlasic and Jones cost us this series. You pay those guys that much money and you expect to be able to deploy them in a certain manner that doesn’t allow this to happen.

Vlasic was on the ice for 2 goals for and 9 goals against. Burns was on the ice for 8 goals for and 12 goals against. Jones got pulled as many times as he had a save percentage that was equal to 90% or higher. The Sharks scored over 2 goals per game in this series. The Sharks never lost a series in the Nabokov era where they averaged over 2 goals per game. The defense and goaltending is a problem. Neither of these guys deserve a B or better.
I agree with you, but I think the coaching staff deserves most of the credit for how bad the team is defensively. Vlasic and Braun were asked to do all the defending for the entire group of 6 dmen. I don't know what they were expecting from the other two pairings but it certainly wasn't any sort of defense. Especially after they changed the system to try and create more offense. If anything, the coaching staff learned how poor the 2nd and 3rd pairings were defensively, and decided there was nothing they could do about it, and just prayed that Vlasic and Braun would pull out some Herculean effort while the rest of the d corps scored some goals. The coaching staff, and Doug have to revamp the D, and fix the deployment. Deboer started running with the final lineup for essentially 3 months, he was preparing the team to fail. He didn't trust half of 4 out of 7 dmen that he played in the playoffs to defend.
 

TomasHertlsRooster

Don’t say eye test when you mean points
May 14, 2012
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I agree with you, but I think the coaching staff deserves most of the credit for how bad the team is defensively. Vlasic and Braun were asked to do all the defending for the entire group of 6 dmen. I don't know what they were expecting from the other two pairings but it certainly wasn't any sort of defense. Especially after they changed the system to try and create more offense. If anything, the coaching staff learned how poor the 2nd and 3rd pairings were defensively, and decided there was nothing they could do about it, and just prayed that Vlasic and Braun would pull out some Herculean effort while the rest of the d corps scored some goals. The coaching staff, and Doug have to revamp the D, and fix the deployment. Deboer started running with the final lineup for essentially 3 months, he was preparing the team to fail. He didn't trust half of 4 out of 7 dmen that he played in the playoffs to defend.

Yeah, I agree with the majority of this. The defense completely fell apart late in the season.

Realistically, this team peaked as a fringe Cup Contender around game 30. Joe Thornton had just begun to find his game on a line with Meier and Pavelski and with some improvements from those players, we could have been looking at another elite first line; all of them were scoring close to that rate. We were at the very bottom of the NHL in goals against, despite Jones, Burns, and Vlasic not playing up to their standards or their contracts. Dillon, Heed, and Ryan were all fantastic for those 25 games and were a big part of why we did so well defensively.

We traded for Kane, went on a tear against a bunch of non-playoff teams, and suddenly everybody thought that we looked the best we had all season. We really didn’t. I felt more confident in this team around game 25 of the regular season than I did in the playoffs. We all got caught up in the excitement of the Sharks dominating all of those non-playoff teams and then the excitement of the Sharks dominating a Ducks team that didn’t deserve to make the playoffs.

Dumbass DeBoer got caught up in the same excitement too when Burns looked marginally better with Paul Martin on his left flank in a game against Vancouver and decided that Burns needed Paul Martin. Yes, we all said that maybe Burns is best with Martin, but we are also HFBoards posters; if an NHL coach made the same dumb, inexcusable mistake as we did, it’s a lot more of a problem.

However, with all of that said...Burns, Vlasic, and Jones all get paid a lot. They make over $20M combined and when you spend over 1/4 of the cap on 2 defenseman and a goalie, they need to be better than they were in this series; regardless of deployment. None of those players deserve better than a C for their performance in the playoffs.
 
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TomasHertlsRooster

Don’t say eye test when you mean points
May 14, 2012
33,360
25,417
Fremont, CA
Couldn't agree more jtr, and I gave them that exact grade. No idea why people think vlasic rates an A.

Vlasic/Braun have had an extremely steep decline and I think it hurt us more this year than not having Thornton tbh.

Last year I could understand giving Vlasic/Braun a good rating because even if they struggled in the RS, had clearly declined, and got caved in in the playoffs, they still held McDavid to 2 goals and 2 asssists in 6 games, with one of those goals being an empty netter with one second left. As long as Vlasic-Braun kept shutting down top forwards in the playoffs, I could look the other way regarding their CF% completely falling off the map and the two of them generally looking worse. Now that they got absolutely creamed by Smith, Karlsson, and Marchessault, I’m a lot more inclined to be critical of Vlasic.
 

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