How Is Burns Still a Top Defenseman? | SJHN+

When people talk about the bad contracts on the San Jose Sharks’ blueline, they gravitate toward Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

It makes sense: 31-year-old Karlsson is the most expensive player on the Sharks and the highest-paid defenseman in the league at $11.5 million dollars AAV — and he’s got six seasons left on his contract. 34-year-old Vlasic, arguably, has declined the most of San Jose’s big-ticket players — he was relegated to the bottom pairing last year — and he’s got five seasons at $7 million AAV remaining on his pact.

36-year-old Brent Burns — four years at $8 million AAV left — has escaped some criticism, despite his own decline.

From 2015-19, Burns tied with Karlsson for the highest Points Per Game Average (0.92) among all NHL defensemen. Over the last two years, he’s averaged 0.59 Points Per Game, losing almost a third of his productivity.

To be fair, that’s not all on Burns. The San Jose Sharks as a whole have declined around the 2019 Norris Trophy finalist, so it’s a definite chicken or an egg scenario.

Also, Burns has held up his end in other ways: He’s been San Jose’s most-used rearguard over the last two years, and he’s evolved — not necessarily by choice — into one of the Sharks’ two most relied-upon shutdown defensemen, at least in terms of deployment.

By the end of the season, per Natural Stat Trick, Burns and Mario Ferraro were charged with the most Defensive Zone Faceoffs Per 60 at 5-on-5 on the club — and the least Offensive Zone Faceoffs.

So while Burns deserves his share of criticism, it’s also fair for Karlsson and Vlasic to take the brunt of it.

So much as I did with Karlsson and Vlasic, I’m going to spotlight Burns with the help of SPORTLOGiQ: What are his current strengths? What are his current weaknesses?

Let’s start with the positive.

Surprise! Burns does a lot right defensively. He’s not perfect: He loses coverage too frequently. He can be too aggressive offensively. But here’s the good.

Stick Checks

Burns still has an active defensive stick.

Per SPORTLOGiQ, he’s still a top-15 defenseman in terms of successful Stick Checks — these are stick checks that separate opponents from the puck.

This is among all defensemen who have played 500-plus 5-on-5 minutes.

By my observation, Burns is still a tough defenseman to beat one-on-one because of his ranginess and stick — here’s the proof. There’s a reason why the San Jose Sharks still count on him defensively.

Blocked Passes

To that end, Burns’s defensive stick also shines when preventing passes.

Once again, Burns is not an ideal shutdown defenseman by any stretch. In the big picture, the San Jose Sharks are using the offensively-oriented blueliner wrong — but they also didn’t have much choice last year, what with Karlsson and Vlasic’s much sharper declines.

Between Burns, Karlsson, and Vlasic, Bob Boughner had to choose the lesser of three defensive evils so to compete — and that was Burns.

That’s a credit to Burns, by the way. He’s doing his best at a job that doesn’t necessarily accentuate his strengths.

Stretch Passes

In a couple days, we’re going to focus more on Burns’s offensive struggles.

But here’s one offensive category where he still flourishes:

The good news here? Burns is still trying big plays and succeeding at them, at least on a micro-level — that’s what you want from him. But there’s a lot to worry about with him on this side of the puck, which we’ll highlight soon.