San Jose Sharks' Joe Pavelski (8) warms up before Game 7 of his teams NHL second-round playoff series at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE – A furious Joe Pavelski walked into the visitor’s dressing room at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, nearly a decade ago and told his San Jose Sharks teammates to stop what they were doing.
With the Sharks desperately fighting to make the playoffs and down by two goals to the Arizona Coyotes, Pavelski commanded the room and spoke in no uncertain terms, saying, in part, “It’s going to be (expletive) hard for the other team. Get our (expletive) head on straight, and let’s (expletive) do it right.”
Pavelski scored twice in the next period and added an empty-netter in the third to complete the hat trick as the Sharks came back to win 4-2. The Sharks still missed the playoffs that season, a year in which they went without a captain after Joe Thornton had been stripped of that duty.
But after that night in Arizona, everyone knew the Sharks had their next leader.
“Joe is/was as close to the perfect teammate as you can get,” Sharks captain Logan Couture, Pavelski’s longtime friend and teammate, told Bay Area News Group via text message on Tuesday. “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say something negative about him.”
Tuesday, two days after he and the Dallas Stars were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference final, Pavelski said he’s likely played his last NHL game after an 18-year career.
Pavelski, who will turn 40 on July 11, had 67 points in 82 games for the Stars this season but was noticeably less effective in the playoffs, with four points in 19 games.
“This was it for me. It was known for a while, probably,” Pavelski said Tuesday. “The plan is not to play next year. We’re still moving back at some point here, decompressing and figuring all this stuff out and logistics and stuff. I don’t want to say this is official, but the plan is not to be coming back.”
Pavelski can easily be considered the best draft pick in the Sharks’ 30-plus-year history.
San Jose has, of course, taken cornerstones like Patrick Marleau, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Couture, and Tomas Hertl in the draft. But Pavelski was selected in the seventh round, 205th overall, in 2003 and is in the top five in franchise history in almost every meaningful statistical category, including games played (963), goals (355), assists (406), and points (761).
After winning an NCAA Division I championship with Wisconsin in 2006, Pavelski, listed at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, spent the first six weeks of the 2006-07 season with Worcester Sharks before making his NHL debut on November 22, 2006.
Pavelski, never the fastest skater, scored goals in four of his first five games and never spent another day in the minors.
“Never had anything handed to him. He worked for every single thing he got,” Couture wrote of Pavelski. “Undersized, late round pick, slower skater. He just outworked and outsmarted everyone. Elite-level hockey IQ. Crafty, always in the right spots. An obvious (Hall of Famer), in my opinion.”
Pavelski’s gaudy statistics only told part of his value to the Sharks.
The 2014-15 season was one of upheaval for the Sharks franchise. After a 40-33-9 season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, the Sharks and then-coach Todd McLellan mutually agreed to part ways. The new coach, Pete DeBoer, then made Pavelski the captain before the start of the 2015-16 season, and a new era was born.
With Pavelski wearing the ‘C,’ some key free-agent additions, and a clean slate for all involved, the Sharks would reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 2016. Over a four-year span, the Sharks had the third-best record in the Western Conference (183-113-32) and would compete in 60 playoff games, second-most in the NHL in that time.
“He made everyone feel a part of the team,” Couture wrote. “Tremendous leader. Lead by example and had the trust and respect of every single person in the dressing room. Guys would do anything to follow him. He pulled everyone into the battle.”
Including the fans.
In 2019, less than two weeks after he suffered a gruesome head injury in Game 7 of the Sharks’ first-round playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights, Pavelski, still unavailable to play, appeared during a stoppage in play in Game 5 of the team’s second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche. His appearance sent the sold-out Shark Tank into a frenzy.
Pavelski played in Game 7. Less than six minutes into the game, Pavelski scored, and the Tank exploded in applause. Pavelski then assisted on a Hertl goal for a two-goal lead. San Jose would win 3-2 to earn a spot in the Western Conference finals against the St. Louis Blues.
“It was nice, I’m not going to lie,” Pavelski said after the game. “I had a shot of adrenaline going since the drive into the arena.”
Pavelski was set to become a free agent in 2019 and was asking for a three-year deal from the Sharks, but it never came.
The Sharks didn’t have enough room under the salary cap to pay Pavelski fair market value after Couture, Evander Kane, Erik Karlsson, Vlasic, and Martin Jones signed lengthy contract extensions in the previous two years.
The Sharks also less than $15 million available in cap space in June of 2019 with several players still left to sign, including then-restricted free agents Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc.
Pavelski signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Stars on July 1, 2019, ending his prodigious 13-season run in a teal uniform. He would go on to sign two more one-year extensions with Dallas. The Sharks haven’t made the playoffs since and will be in the market this summer to add a few respected veterans, like Pavelski, to support their cadre of promising prospects.
Whatever happens, Pavelski’s impact in San Jose will never be forgotten.
“As great of a hockey player he is/was, he’s that good of a person,” Couture wrote. “Always had time for everyone, never shied away from hard conversations, but always wanted the best for everyone. Very selfless, caring person.
“Joe’s the man. Amazing career. Obviously. wished (the Stars) would have won for him.”
Originally published at Curtis Pashelka