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What’s Next Level to Bordeleau’s Game?

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Credit: Dean Tait/Hockey Shots

Thomas Bordeleau hasn’t shown his full arsenal in the NHL.



His last NHL stint suggests that it could happen in 2024-25.

“Just using my vision a lot more,” Bordeleau, just re-signed by the San Jose Sharks to a one-year, $874,125 contract, said on Friday. “I feel like I lost a part of that in my game somewhere along the way.”

The San Jose Sharks’ 2020 second-round pick scored five goals and four assists in 21 games in his fourth NHL stint, and most importantly, played a safer, more defensively sound game.

In parts of three seasons, Bordeleau has put up six goals and 12 assists in 43 games.

On a show-me deal, can the 22-year-old take his game to another level?

The San Jose Sharks prospect talked about why the first half of the season was such a struggle for him, more detail into how he’s hoping to evolve his game, and his ideal playing weight.

Bordeleau, on off-season video of him hitting post after post:

We have this 3-on-3 league every Tuesday night with all the NHL guys in the area. It’s really fun. It’s for a really good cause.

I’m keeping the goals for the season. (laughs)

Bordeleau, on what he’s hoping to add to his game:

It’s just how much I can use my speed in a game and how I can drive offense. I haven’t done that enough in the past. I’m excited to do it more.

I just wasn’t feeling 100% in my body and I was playing a little cautious in the past years. So now I’m kind of excited to have that out of the way and be all out.

Bordeleau, on his second half versus his first half:

I think the first half of the season, I was focusing on the wrong things in general. We were losing a lot. I wasn’t playing that well. Everything was kind of just a loop. I want to help this team win, but at the same time, I got to play better. But how do you play better?

Compared to the second half, I was just kind of in a different mindset. Felt like I knew more what I needed to do to succeed.

Bordeleau, gives more detail on what he’s hoping to add to his game:

Just using my vision a lot more. I feel like I lost a part of that in my game somewhere along the way. I’ve always been a playmaker, now I’ve been scoring more goals than being a playmaker. I don’t want to change that necessarily, but just saying, scanning more without the puck, knowing more what’s around me like at all times, compared to the past, I was able to get the puck, and then, because I had a good hockey IQ, I was able to make a good play after having the puck. But now, you gotta know what you’re gonna do before having it.

Bordeleau, on playing wing over center:

I’m comfortable, but I’m not just comfortable. I’m really enjoying it too. I miss taking faceoffs, but at the same time, I was able to take every faceoff on the power play, so it was a win-win for me.

Bordeleau, on his ideal playing weight:

I want to play around 180. I don’t want to be any heavier than that. If I’m any heavier than that, it’s gonna go to 185 and that’s it. My game is to be quick, strong, and powerful. My quickness and my twitch, how quick I can go from side to side, shift my weight, I don’t need to be heavy for that.

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