San Jose Sharks Individual Scoring Records

The San Jose Sharks entered the National Hockey League as an expansion team for the 1991-92 season. After two dismal seasons to start, the Sharks have become one of the most consistent regular season achievers in the NHL. However, the Stanley Cup finals have still been elusive for the California hockey club.

Along the way, the team has hosted some world class players with two going to the Hockey Hall of Fame and more to come. The individual single season offensive records of the team are pretty impressive for a team that didn’t compete during the high-scoring 1980’s.

 

Jonathan Cheechoo – Most Goals

In 2005-06, Cheechoo scored 56 goals for San Jose. It not only set a team record, it led the NHL, earning Jonathan the Rocket Richard Trophy. Playing all 82 regular season games for the Sharks that year, Cheechoo also assisted on 37 goals for a total of 93 points, good for tenth spot in the race for the Art Ross Trophy.

After just his first of three years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Belleville Bulls, Cheechoo was selected in the second round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft by San Jose, 29^th overall. In his final season with Belleville, Jonathan placed fourth in the league with 45 goals.

It took until the 2002-03 NHL season before Cheechoo saw his first action with the Sharks. He placed with the club until 2008-09, scoring 165 goals and assisting on 126 for 291 points over 440 regular season games. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, he played 58 more games, adding 35 points. Jonathan spent the 2014-15 season in the KHL with Dynamo Minsk.

Joe Thornton – Most Assists

In 2006-07, his first full season with the Sharks, Thornton led the league with 92 assists, eight more than Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored 22 goals, as well, for 114 points over 82 games. The season before, he assisted on 96 but 24 were with the Boston Bruins before being traded midseason to the Sharks.

Destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame, Thornton started his NHL career in Boston. After two stellar seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL, he was the first overall pick by the Bruins at the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.

Joe Thornton – Most Points

Joe’s 114 points in 2006-07 stand as a team record. He was second in the race for the Art Ross Trophy that year, six points behind Sidney Crosby. The previous year, his 125 points led the league, earning him the Art Ross. However, 33 points were with the Bruins and just 92 were with the Sharks. He also earned the Hart Trophy that year as the league’s MVP.

Thornton had one other 100+ point season. In 2002-03 with Boston, he totalled 101. In his second year of junior with the Greyhounds, Joe placed second in the race for the Eddie Powers Trophy with 122 points, eight less than leader Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals. He also placed second with 81 assists, six behind Savard.

Pat Falloon – Most Points Rookie

Falloon came into the National Hockey League expected to be a superstar. After his first season with San Jose in 1991-92, it looked like he might live up to the billing. His 59 points on 25 goals and 34 assists over 79 games in the franchise’s inaugural season remain the most by a rookie.

Unfortunately, that was the best offensive season put in during his NHL career. Pat played 575 regular season games in the league between 1991-92 and 1999-00, scoring 143 goals and assisting on 179 for 322 points. In the playoffs, he playing in 66 more games, adding just 18 points.

Pat was the second overall pick at the 1991 NHL Entry Draft by San Jose, behind just Eric Lindros who was selected by the Quebec Nordiques. Therefore, he’s an important part of San Jose Sharks Trivia, being the first player ever drafted by the club. Along with the Sharks, Falloon also played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

Sandis Ozolins – Most Points Defenseman

Ozolins totalled 64 points on 26 goals and 38 assists over 81 games in 1993-94. It was his first full season in the National Hockey League and he remained with the club until a trade seven games into the 1995-96 season sent him to the Colorado Avalanche. Sandis returned to the Sharks for 39 games in 2007-08.

Over his NHL career, Ozolins played 875 regular season games, scoring 167 and assisting on 397 for 564 points. Sandis played another 137 playoff games, adding 90 points. He has been in the Russia based KHL since 2009-10. Ozolins has played for Latvia at the Winter Olympics on three occasions, 2002, 2006 and 2014.

NHL Trivia: Vancouver Canucks Retired Numbers

The Vancouver Canucks have just four numbers that have been retired and permanently raised to the rafters. However, there are three other numbers that have been taken out of circulation. The last player to be honoured in this fashion was Pavel Bure in 2013. Bure's number 10 now hangs from the rafters of the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Interestingly, Bure switched to number 96 for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. Esa Tikkanen wore number 10 for parts of those two years. Tikkanen was traded to the Canucks shortly into to the 1995-96 season and was then shipped to the New York Rangers near the end of the 1996-97 season. Pavel is the only one of the four players to have a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 2012.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge with these four questions regarding the retired jersey numbers of the Vancouver Canucks, etc.

Q. Number 12 is retired by the Canucks in honour of what player?

A. Stan Smyl played his entire NHL career, from 1978-79 to 1990-91, in a Vancouver Canucks uniform. Smyl was team captain from 1982 to 1990 and had his number retired in the fall of 1991. Stan won the Cylcone Taylor Award as team MVP on three occasions.

An Alberta boy, Smyl played his junior hockey in the Vancouver area for the New Westminster Bruins. He was team captain and Memorial Cup champion with the Bruins in his final two years, 1976-77 and 1977-78. Stan then stayed in the area after retiring as a player and is still with the Canucks organization today.

Q. What two numbers have been taken out of circulation in honour of fallen hockey heroes that left too soon?

A. Number 11 was worn by Wayne Maki, a Canuck from 1970 to 1973. Maki died of brain cancer in 1974. The number 11 has since been worn by one other Vancouver player, Mark Messier. During the summer after his first partial season with the Canucks, Luc Bourdon succumbed to injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident. Bourdon’s number 28 has since been taken out of circulation. There is a third number, 99, that has been taken out of circulation by every team in the NHL in honour of Wayne Gretzky.

Q. Number 16 is retired in honour of what long time Canuck?

A. Trevor Linden played nineteen seasons in the NHL, the majority in a Canucks jersey. Linden began his career with Vancouver in 1988-89 after being the second overall pick in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, behind just Mike Modano who was selected by the Minnesota North Stars. Along the way, Linden played for the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals before returning to Vancouver to finish out his NHL career. Number 16 was retired in December of 2008.

Interestingly, like Smyl, Linden is an Alberta boy and like Smyl, Trevor won consecutive Memorial Cup championships. However, it was with a team in Alberta, the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Q. Before Pavel Bure, who was the most recent Vancouver player to have his number retired by the club?

A. Number 19 belonging to Markus Naslund was retired in December, 2010. Naslund was originally the 16^th overall pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Markus played with Vancouver from 1995-96 to 2007-08. He played one more season in the NHL with the New York Rangers before retiring.

He was the Ted Lindsay Award winner in 2002-03. Perhaps the truer measure of the league's MVP over the Hart Trophy, simply because it's an award selected by the players. That year, Naslund finished second in goal scoring with 48, behind Milan Hejduk of the Colorado Avalanche. Markus finished two points behind Peter Forsberg of the Avalanche in the race for the Art Ross Trophy with 104 points.

When Naslund went to the Rangers, he wore number 91. At the time Scott Gomez was wearing 19 for New York and Markus lost the battle for the number.

1 NHL Rule Change To Bring Back Offence

Gary Bettman rolled into town in February of 1993 as the first ever Commissioner of the National Hockey League. Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins was the Art Ross Trophy winner in that 1992-93 season with 160 points. Since, the Art Ross Trophy winner has, with the exception of a few blips, scored less and less.

This year, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars won the award with just 87 points. That is the lowest total since Stan Mikita of the Chicago Blackhawks equalled that mark back in 1967-68.

Each and every year, the NHL's brain trust meets, frantically coming up with goofy ideas meant to increase offence. Almost every year, there are tweaks to the rules that do nothing to increase offence and, quite frankly, make a mockery of the game.

Well, one simple rule change has the potential to bring back some goal scoring. It wouldn't actually be a new rule. It would simply be reverting back to the way things were before the 1956-57 NHL season. I propose the league makes this change but with a twist.

As someone who has played hockey for the past 40 or so years and a who is Canadian, I do not like Gary Bettman. He may have rescued the NHL from financial disaster but he has done little for the actual game. The NHL that exists today is for idiots with short attention spans who are entertained by anything but what is actually going on on the ice.

However, the tweak I'm proposing might meet Bettman's approval because it is bastardized from basketball, Little Gary's first love.

The Two Minute Major

Well, it was never called the 'two minute major' in the olden days, just a minor penalty. Before the 1956-57 season, when a player was put in the box for a minor infraction, he remained for the full two minutes, regardless of how many goals his opponents scored.

The rule was changed to its present form because of the ridiculous success of the 1955-56 MontrealCanadiens. The numbers were crazy with the Habs accounting for more than a quarter of the entire league's power play goals. At the request of the other five teams, the rule was changed to allow the penalized player to leave the box before the two minutes were up if his team was scored upon.

I say, it's time to go back to a full two minute penalty. But, as mentioned, with a twist.

Fouling Out

I propose that the two minute major doesn't come into effect right from the start of the game. Stealing sort of from basketball, once a player has been called on his third minor of the game, then the rule goes into effect. Also, once a team is called for its fifth minor of the game, the hard two minutes apply. These numbers are arbitrary but you get the picture.

It has been suggested before, I believe by Stan Fischler, that the two minute major return but for certain types of calls like high sticking. That's not a bad idea, either.

One other twist ties in the two minute major and the penalty shot rule. I have issues with the penalty shot rule. Currently, which team is really at an advantage when a penalty shot is called? It's a one shot chance to beat a goalie who is wearing today's oversized equipment. Would not there be almost a better chance of scoring over two minutes with a man advantage? The numbers are actually not that far apart.

Of course, this goes back to Bettman trying to sell the game to people who don't play the game and don't know a thing about the game. 'The most exciting play in sport', it has been dubbed. Bullshit. In a time when half the games end in a shootout anyway, the penalty shot is nothing but a free timeout for both clubs.

Here's what I think. They NHL should allow a team to either accept or decline the penalty shot. If they decline, they get the two minute major, regardless of whether the offending player or team has 'fouled out'.

And Another Thing...

Want to make the game more exciting? Want to make teams play for the win in regulation time? Two things.

1. Do a shootout at the start of every game.
2. Make each game a proper three point game.

Fans love shootouts, no matter how impure they are. Run a shootout before each and every game to determine who will win in the case of a tie after the overtime. This means one team will have a reason to be in the lead from the get-go. There will be no dogging and playing for the point. If the game is decided in regulation or overtime, then the shootout means nothing but the entertainment it provided.

Item number two would probably eliminate the need for item number one. Most leagues in Europe play with a proper three points per game system. The IIHF World Championships are based on this. Before the days of overtime and shootouts during the regular season, each and every game was worth the same, two points. If a team won, they got both points. If there was a tie, each team got a point. Each and every game was valued exactly the same.

Then came overtime and shootouts. Now, some games are worth two points and some games are worth three. This is wrong. It just doesn't make any logical sense. Each game should be three points. Three points go to the winner and none to the loser if the game is decided in regulation. The split is two points / one point if the game is decided in extra time.