San Jose Sharks have high expectations from veteran Martin Havlat -NHL Update
The San Jose Sharks had been reaching the Western Conference semi-finals for the past two straight years prior to the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season. Last season, San Jose struggled to get their game straight and saw an early ousting
by the St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 knockout in the quarterfinals.
Finishing the season of at the seventh number spot with 96 points and 43 wins out of 82 games played, the Sharks were predicted to keep the momentum going, but an unfortunate pairing with a hot St. Louis team meant they had no chance of advancing this time
around.
Martin Havlat, a veteran right winger acquired by San Jose prior to the 2011-2012 regular season from Minnesota Wild, is one of the best players in the league for sure, but this past hockey year was just not one of his best. A player who can easily get 60-plus
points a year had just 27 (7 goals, 20 assists) in 39 games played.
Due to an unforeseen injury, the San Jose Sharks suffered without the All-Star performance of one of their most experienced forwards, but are certainly expecting a much better turnaround next time.
"Marty is an important player for us," San Jose general manager, Doug Wilson, said. "If you look at our record with him in the line-up, it was very good. We missed him."
"He's very excited to get back at it because it's almost like he didn't really have a chance to integrate with our team," Wilson added "He got in, got going, was playing well when he got hurt and the next thing you know he's gone for a while with this hamstring
thing. "We expect him [to integrate fully] now that he's had a full summer to train and rehab. He looks tremendous."
Havlat was picked up by Ottawa Senators as the 26th overall pick during round-one of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and has been a top level forward ever since. Next season will be definitely demanding as San Jose has also not made any exceptional acquisitions
during the offseason, but hope to use what they have to the best of their potential.
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