2006–07 San Jose Sharks season

Offseason

During the 2006 offseason, the San Jose Sharks made significant changes in order to bolster their defense and team grit. The Sharks signed Mike Grier from the Buffalo Sabres and former Shark Curtis Brown from the Chicago Blackhawks, two forwards noted for their defense prowess on both sides of the ice. After signing the two veterans, General Manager Doug Wilson traded their top offensive defenceman in 2005–06, Tom Preissing, to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for centre Mark Bell of the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-way trade involving Martin Havlat going from Ottawa to the Blackhawks. Wilson then traded underachieving winger Nils Ekman to the Pittsburgh Penguins. In August, to round off their flurry of trades, the Sharks signed veterans Mathieu Biron and Patrick Traverse. The Sharks also signed Graham Mink and Scott Ferguson to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Worcester Sharks. On October 2, 2006, the Sharks acquired Vladimir Malakhov and a first-round conditional draft pick in exchange for Jim Fahey and Alexander Korolyuk, who was playing in Russia at the time.

Regular season

The Sharks got off to a sizzling 20–7–0 start, the best in franchise history. Shortly after, however, several key players missed time due to injuries, and the Sharks continued to struggle with consistency as their results dropped off. At the end of February, they lost four games in a row, their longest losing streak of the season.

When the trading deadline approached, Wilson used some of his carefully acquired assets to address the team's areas of need, trading draft picks and prospects for Craig Rivet from the Montreal Canadiens and Bill Guerin from the St. Louis Blues. With Rivet playing quality minutes on defense and Guerin scoring goals on offense, the Sharks began winning at a torrid pace, finishing the last 16 games of the regular season with a record of 13–1–3. They concluded the regular season with a total record of 51–26–5 for 107 points, the most wins and points in franchise history. However, in a competitive Western Conference, their record was only good enough for the fifth playoff seed, and they had to open the playoffs on the road.

The Sharks spent the majority of the season rotating their two goaltenders, Vesa Toskala and Evgeni Nabokov, every other game. The only time either one played for an extended period of time was when the other was injured or otherwise unable to play. When Toskala injured his groin, Nabokov made 14-straight starts and played arguably the best hockey of his career, significantly contributing to the Sharks' late-season spate of victories. As a result, despite Toskala's return from injury, Head Coach Ron Wilson retained Nabokov as the number one goaltender to finish the regular season and enter into the playoffs.

The Sharks iced four rookies during the season: Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Matt Carle, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski, with each making significant contributions to the team's success. Vlasic, at just 19-years-of-age, was not expected to make the team, but put together an impressive pre-season performance and was on the Sharks' opening night roster. He went on to play 81 games, leading all NHL rookie defensemen in average ice time at over 21 minutes per game, and was arguably the Sharks' most consistent defenceman the whole season.

Season standings

Playoffs

The San Jose Sharks ended the 2006–07 regular season as the Western Conference's fifth seed.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Sharks met the Nashville Predators, and advanced to the second round after defeating them 4 games to 1 for the second-straight season. They then fell to the Detroit Red Wings in the semifinals in six games.

Schedule and results

Regular season

|- | 1 || October 5 || St. Louis || 4 – 5 || San Jose || OT || Toskala || 17,496 || 1–0–0 || 2 || |- | 2 || October 7 || NY Islanders || 0 – 2 || San Jose || || Nabokov || 17,496 || 2–0–0 || 4 || |- | 3 || October 9 || San Jose || 4 – 1 || Calgary || || Toskala || 19,289 || 3–0–0 || 6 || |- | 4 || October 12 || San Jose || 4 – 6 || Edmonton || || Nabokov || 16,839 || 3–1–0 || 6 || |- | 5 || October 13 || San Jose || 6 – 4 || Vancouver || || Toskala || 18,630 || 4–1–0 || 8 || |- | 6 || October 17 || Dallas || 0 – 2 || San Jose || || Nabokov || 16,380 || 5–1–0 || 10 || |- | 7 || October 19 || Detroit || 1 – 5 || San Jose || || Toskala || 17,496 || 6–1–0 || 12 || |- | 8 || October 21 || Minnesota || 4 – 1 || San Jose || || Nabokov || 17,496 || 6–2–0 || 12 || |- | 9 || October 23 || San Jose || 3 – 0 || Columbus || || Toskala || 16,067 || 7–2–0 || 14 || |- | 10 || October 25 || San Jose || 1 – 2 || Detroit || || Nabokov || 20,066 || 7–3–0 || 14 || |- | 11 || October 26 || San Jose || 3 – 4 || Nashville || || Toskala || 13,436 || 7–4–0 || 14 || |- | 12 || October 29 || San Jose || 4 – 2 || Tampa Bay || || Nabokov || 19,904 || 8–4–0 || 16 || |- | 13 || October 31 || San Jose || 2 – 1 || Florida || || Toskala || 10,081 || 9–4–0 || 18 ||

| Legend:

Playoffs

|- | 1 || April 11 || San Jose || 5 – 4 || Nashville || 2OT || Nabokov || 17,113 || 1 – 0 || |- | 2 || April 13 || San Jose || 2 – 5 || Nashville || || Nabokov || 17,113 || 1 – 1 || |- | 3 || April 16 || Nashville || 1 – 3 || San Jose || || Nabokov || 17,496 || 2 – 1 || |- | 4 || April 18 || Nashville || 2 – 3 || San Jose || || Nabokov || 17,496 || 3 – 1 || |- | 5 || April 20 || San Jose || 3 – 2 || Nashville || || Nabokov || 17,113 || 4 – 1 ||

| Legend:

Player statistics

Scoring

• Position abbreviations: C = Center; D = Defense; G = Goaltender; LW = Left wing; RW = Right wing
• • = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Sharks only.*
• • = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Sharks only.*

Goaltending

Awards and records

Awards

Milestones

Transactions

The Sharks were involved in the following transactions from June 20, 2006, the day after the deciding game of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, through June 6, 2007, the day of the deciding game of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals.

Trades

Players acquired

Players lost

Signings

Draft picks

San Jose's draft picks at the 2006 NHL entry draft held at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Notes

References

References

1. "2006-07 San Jose Sharks Schedule".
2. "Postseason All-Star Teams".
3. "NHL All-Star Game Starting Lineups by Year (since 1986)".
4. "NHL All-Star Game Historical Summaries - 2007".
5. "NHL Three Stars of the Week".
6. "NHL Rookies of the Month".
7. "NHL Three Stars of the Month".
8. "2006-07 NHL Young Stars Rosters".
9. 2014–15 San Jose Sharks Media Guide, p.255–58
10. (April 7, 2007). "Marc-Edouard Vlasic Voted PlayStation "Sharks Rookie of the Year"".
11. "2006-07 NHL Debuts".
12. "Hockey Transactions Search Results".
13. (June 25, 2006). "Sharks pick defenseman / San Jose trades up to grab 'ecstatic' youngster Wishart".
14. (July 10, 2006). "Sharks Acquire LW Mark Bell In Exchange For Preissing And Hennessy".
15. (July 20, 2006). "PENGUINS ACQUIRE EKMAN AND EHELECHNER".
16. (October 1, 2006). "Cap call: Devils deal Malakhov to Sharks".
17. (December 15, 2006). "Canadiens acquire defenseman Biron for Traverse".
18. (February 24, 2007). "DEVILS’ KOROLYUK TRADE FALLS THROUGH".
19. (February 16, 2007). "Devils trade Korolyuk back to Sharks for draft pick".
20. (February 26, 2007). "Sharks try to fill defensive void / Gorges to Montreal for Rivet".
21. (February 27, 2007). "Sharks Acquire Forward Bill Guerin From St. Louis".
22. (February 27, 2007). "Sharks Acquire Sixth Round Selection In 2008 Draft".
23. (February 27, 2007). "Penguins acquire defenseman Kwiatkowski, goalie Schaefer".
24. (July 3, 2006). "Sharks Add Veterans Curtis Brown and Mike Grier to Fold".
25. (July 10, 2006). "Traverse, Darche to swim with Sharks".
26. (July 15, 2006). "Sharks sign seven, including Cup champ Mink".
27. (August 9, 2006). "Briefing, 8/10".
28. (March 8, 2007). "Sharks Sign Forward T.J. Fox".
29. (July 1, 2006). "NHL RELEASES FREE AGENT LIST".
30. (July 1, 2006). "Kings Sign Free Agent Scott Thornton".
31. (July 3, 2006). "Kings Reach Agreement With Center McCauley".
32. (July 21, 2006). "CONBOY, ANGELIDIS AND KELMAN AGREE TO TERMS WITH CAROLINA".
33. (July 23, 2006). "PENGUINS SIGN DEFENSEMAN MATT CARKNER". Pittsburgh Penguins.
34. (August 14, 2006). "Panther im Sturm komplett".
35. (September 29, 2006). "NO HEADLINE".
36. (October 12, 2006). "Falcons Sign Prudden and Leisenring".
37. (July 15, 2006). "Sharks Agree To Terms With Seven".
38. (July 24, 2006). "Avery among NHL signings".
39. (July 26, 2006). "TRANSACTIONS".
40. (September 21, 2006). "Sharks sign right wing Ashton Rome".
41. (October 6, 2006). "Thanks but no Tank? Sharks goalie may return even after demotion".
42. (December 29, 2006). "Transactions".
43. (March 20, 2007). "Vermont's Mitchell signs with NHL's San Jose Sharks".
44. (March 31, 2007). "Penalty killing bails out Sharks / Win sends San Jose to 100-point mark".
45. (April 24, 2007). "An old playoff foe returns / San Jose, Detroit will meet for first time since '95".
46. "2006 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com".