10 Thoughts at the All-Star Break

We talk about Tomas Hertl, William Eklund and much more!

The San Jose Sharks have a game tonight, after which they’ll be on the All-Star break while Tomas Hertl goes to represent them during the festivities in Toronto. There’s a lot going on with the Sharks at the moment, so here are 10 thoughts on the current state of the Sharks.

1. The Eklund at Center Experiment

William Eklund played center at the NHL level for the first time on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken. The young Swedish forward was officially drafted as a winger, but had played down the middle earlier in his career as well. Given the importance of depth down the middle and the Sharks’ constant struggle to keep centers healthy this season, currently, Tomas Hertl and Mikael Granlund are out of the lineup, it’s a worthwhile experiment during a rebuilding season.

Logan Couture and Hertl are on the back end of their careers while Granlund and Nico Sturm likely won’t be with the team for much longer themselves. There are some key center prospects in the system such as Will Smith and Filip Bystedt, and they may add another to the mix at this year’s draft but that remains to be seen. With that being said though, many players who come through the junior levels as a center are unable to perform the role properly at the NHL level, as a result seeing if Eklund can do it is a great backup plan as well in case one of the others ends up turning into more of a winger. 

2. A New Marc-Edouard Vlasic

Marc-Edouard Vlasic has been playing a game that’s certainly not what you’d expect from him as of late. The 36-year-old has been known for being a quiet, defensively solid defenseman who doesn’t get the respect he deserves. That tends to come with the territory for defensive-minded defensemen, it’s an important job but in the modern NHL, points are often more valuable than anything else. The Norris trophy often goes to an offensive defenseman and you need the blue line to join the rush more than ever to be successful. Vlasic has apparently taken that to heart in the last ten games. After being a healthy scratch multiple times this season and being arguably one of the worst defensemen in the NHL, he rejoined the team earlier this month and now he’s scored four goals in the last eight games with two coming in back to back games. According to Sheng Peng, he’s done this once before in his career during the 2017-18 season.

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