Joe Pavelski: The Guru of the Deflection
With recent news that Joe Pavelski’s career may be coming to a close after an incredible 18 seasons with the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars, it only makes sense to recap a tremendous career that he had in the NHL and beyond. Pavelski will round up his career after posting 1068 points (476 goals, 592 assists) across the two franchises in 1332 regular season games. In addition, Joe accumulated 143 points in 201 games played in the postseason and reached the Stanley Cup Final twice (Sharks in 2016 and Dallas in 2020). His only down-year of showing ‘his age’ in the postseason was this past year having 4 points in 19 of the Stars’ games. Are his stats and accolades enough to get him inducted into the Hall of Fame?
2003 Draft Class
It’s no secret that the 2003 draft class is one of the best of all time; headlined by Marc-Andre Fleury going 1st overall. This class is full of future hall of famers and those who had a tremendous career in the NHL. Pavelski, a 7th round pick at 205th overall, ended up being one of the greatest steals of all late round-draft picks in NHL history. Other featured players from this class include Eric Staal, Patrice Bergeron, Shea Weber, Ryan Getzlaf, and Corey Perry — to name a few.
Accolades
Joe Pavelski, known as ‘Captain America’, was a part of the 2010 Olympic roster for the United States where they eventually ended the Olympic games with a silver medal after Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal for the Canadians in the city of Vancouver. Joe was invited to join Team USA in the 2014 Olympics games that was hosted in Sochi where USA fell just shy of receiving a medal where the team ended in fourth place. Pavelski later was invited to the World Cup of Hockey tournament nearly two years later in 2016 to captain Team USA. The team unfortunately did not have the results they were looking for as they went 0–3 in the group stage.
Pavelski served as an Assistant Captain for the San Jose Sharks in 2014–2015 after taking on the role of Captain from 2015–2019. His 4x All-Star appearances come after posting a career-high in points (‘21-’22) and near points-per-games played (‘15-’16 and ‘21-’22). His last All-Star appearance, he was voted Captain of the Central Division where he represented the Dallas Stars in 2021–2022.
Pavelski is worldly-known for his mastery of the deflection. He was a man on a mission every time he step foot in front of the net — noted by a NHLPA player poll last season, he was named the most-effective player around the net clocking in over 21% of the votes from his peers. If I was putting together a fantasy lineup for a powerplay I want on the ice, I would take Pavelski in his prime to be my net-front guy every single time.
