Sheng Peng
To hoist a Stanley Cup for the first time, the San Jose Sharks will have to learn from past winners.
Something that the Sharks might learn from the 2010, 2013, and 2015 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks?
Hall of Famer Denis Savard, who coached Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as teenagers right before they won their first Cup in 2010, shared his thoughts about the most important Blackhawks forward in their dynasty not named Toews or Kane.
The San Jose Sharks, of course, are hoping that Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith are their Toews and Kane.
But it’ll take more than just one (hopefully) great duo to win a championship.
In Jul. 2009, Chicago signed 30-year-old Marian Hossa to a 12-year, $62.8 million contract.
That was a contract so outlandish, meant to game the salary cap by lowering Hossa’s AAV, the NHL would outlaw contracts of unlimited length in the next CBA agreement in 2012. Eight years is the maximum-length contract that you can give a player now.
The Blackhawks, unlike the Sharks, were on the cusp of winning a Cup, coming off a Western Conference Finals defeat in 2009.
But it’s not about the right timing, it’s about the right player.
Savard had coached Kane and Toews in their rookie campaign — Kane won the Calder Trophy and Toews was third in 2007-08 — but the third-year coach was let go early the next season in favor of Joel Quenneville.
“I didn’t coach him, but I watched, and he was incredible,” Savard said. “Marion was an older Toews, meaning he’d come practice hard everyday. He played harder than anybody on the ice.”
Imagine the Sharks adding an older Celebrini via free agency this summer!
Hossa wasn’t just a hard worker either. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020, Hossa was perhaps the premier two-way winger of his era, an eight-time 30-goal scorer who was regularly in the Selke Trophy conversation.
“He played hard, and he came back harder [defensively] than any player I saw playing in the NHL, even until this day. How he tracked the puck back, it was incredible,” Savard said.
Hossa was also a winner, coming off back-to-back Final losses with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings when he signed with the Hawks.
“Now [the other players] go, ‘Look at this guy, a veteran guy, he’s been around,’” Savard, who won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, said. “He showed a lot of our young players what it took to be an NHL player, and that includes Kaner, too. Not only in practice, but the way everyone played the game, they played the way Marian Hossa played it. They tracked the puck back to the neutral zone so hard.”
Hossa didn’t lead just by example either.
“[He] thought a lot about our kids,” Savard said. “They were still kids, even though we won the Cup in 2010, they were still young, they knew what it took [in part] because of him, what he [was] doing with the young players.”
That wasn’t just Toews and Kane. Savard also cited Dustin Byfuglien and Patrick Sharp as two players who benefited from Hossa’s presence.
“All the stuff that gives you a big W at the end of the night.”
That’s all in hindsight, of course. Chicago took a big risk on Hossa, giving a 30-something free agent a 12-year contract. Hossa was forced to retire after 2016-17 because of health issues.
But it was risk well worth it, because again, Hossa was the right player, on and off the ice, to take a chance on.
“I’m sure down the road here, when [the San Jose Sharks] get good again, they’re gonna have some veteran guy that’s gonna want to play there and make the difference for them,” Savard said.
So who’s going to be the Sharks’ Hossa?
Of course, Marian Hossa’s don’t grow on trees.
But if you have a chance to get one, even for an outlandish contract, the benefits well outweigh the risk, arguably even for the rebuilding Sharks.