# 2015–16 San Jose Sharks season

The 2015–16 San Jose Sharks season was the 25th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on May 9, 1990. The team began its regular season on October 7, 2015 against the Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, ultimately losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.

## Standings

Pacific Division :
| Pos | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | ROW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | y – Anaheim Ducks | 82 | 46 | 25 | 11 | 43 | 218 | 192 | +26 | 103 |
| 2 | x – Los Angeles Kings | 82 | 48 | 28 | 6 | 46 | 225 | 195 | +30 | 102 |
| 3 | x – San Jose Sharks | 82 | 46 | 30 | 6 | 42 | 241 | 210 | +31 | 98 |
| 4 | Arizona Coyotes | 82 | 35 | 39 | 8 | 34 | 209 | 245 | −36 | 78 |
| 5 | Calgary Flames | 82 | 35 | 40 | 7 | 33 | 231 | 260 | −29 | 77 |
| 6 | Vancouver Canucks | 82 | 31 | 38 | 13 | 26 | 191 | 243 | −52 | 75 |
| 7 | Edmonton Oilers | 82 | 31 | 43 | 8 | 27 | 203 | 245 | −42 | 70 |

## Schedule and results
### Regular season

Game Log 46–30–6 (Home: 18–20–3; Road: 28–10–3) :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Overtime/shootout loss (1 point) :

### Playoffs

The Sharks entered the playoffs as the Pacific Division's third seed and faced the second seed of the same division, the Los Angeles Kings, winning 4–1. In the second round they faced the Nashville Predators and advanced in seven games. In the Conference Finals, the Sharks met the St. Louis Blues, winning the series 4–2 and advancing to their first Stanley Cup Finals in history, where they lost in six games against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
2016 Stanley Cup playoffs :

## Player statistics
### Skaters

Regular season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Joe Thornton | 82 | 19 | 63 | 82 | +25 | 54 |
| Joe Pavelski | 82 | 38 | 40 | 78 | +25 | 30 |
| Brent Burns | 82 | 27 | 48 | 75 | −5 | 53 |
| Patrick Marleau | 82 | 25 | 23 | 48 | −22 | 10 |
| Tomas Hertl | 81 | 21 | 25 | 46 | +16 | 26 |
| Joel Ward | 79 | 21 | 22 | 43 | −15 | 28 |
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic | 67 | 8 | 31 | 39 | +15 | 48 |
| Logan Couture | 52 | 15 | 21 | 36 | +2 | 20 |
| Joonas Donskoi | 76 | 11 | 25 | 36 | +4 | 20 |
| Justin Braun | 80 | 4 | 19 | 23 | +11 | 36 |
| Chris Tierney | 79 | 7 | 13 | 20 | −16 | 20 |
| Paul Martin | 78 | 3 | 17 | 20 | +13 | 22 |
| Melker Karlsson | 65 | 10 | 9 | 19 | +5 | 16 |
| Tommy Wingels | 68 | 7 | 11 | 18 | −10 | 63 |
| Matt Nieto | 67 | 8 | 9 | 17 | −8 | 10 |
| Brenden Dillon | 76 | 2 | 9 | 11 | +8 | 61 |
| Dainius Zubrus | 50 | 3 | 4 | 7 | +4 | 20 |
| Nick Spaling$^†$ | 23 | 2 | 4 | 6 | +5 | 6 |
| Dylan DeMelo | 45 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 14 |
| Matt Tennyson | 29 | 1 | 3 | 4 | +1 | 0 |
| Mike Brown$^‡$ | 44 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −3 | 63 |
| Barclay Goodrow | 14 | 0 | 3 | 3 | +1 | 16 |
| Roman Polak$^†$ | 24 | 0 | 3 | 3 | −2 | 16 |
| Nikolay Goldobin | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 0 |
| Micheal Haley | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −2 | 48 |
| Bryan Lerg | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 |
| Ryan Carpenter | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| John McCarthy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mirco Mueller | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −4 | 7 |
| Ben Smith$^‡$ | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
Playoffs :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Logan Couture | 24 | 10 | 20 | 30 | +5 | 8 |
| Brent Burns | 24 | 7 | 17 | 24 | +11 | 12 |
| Joe Pavelski | 24 | 14 | 9 | 23 | +1 | 4 |
| Joe Thornton | 24 | 3 | 18 | 21 | +2 | 10 |
| Joel Ward | 24 | 7 | 6 | 13 | +2 | 16 |
| Patrick Marleau | 24 | 5 | 8 | 13 | +4 | 8 |
| Joonas Donskoi | 24 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 4 |
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic | 24 | 1 | 11 | 12 | +14 | 12 |
| Tomas Hertl | 20 | 6 | 5 | 11 | +8 | 4 |
| Chris Tierney | 24 | 5 | 4 | 9 | +8 | 6 |
| Melker Karlsson | 24 | 5 | 3 | 8 | +3 | 10 |
| Justin Braun | 24 | 2 | 5 | 7 | +7 | 6 |
| Paul Martin | 24 | 0 | 5 | 5 | +8 | 6 |
| Matt Nieto | 16 | 1 | 2 | 3 | +2 | 8 |
| Tommy Wingels | 22 | 2 | 0 | 2 | +4 | 21 |
| Dainius Zubrus | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 6 |
| Brenden Dillon | 24 | 0 | 2 | 2 | −5 | 11 |
| Nick Spaling | 24 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 6 |
| Roman Polak | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −5 | 15 |

### Goaltenders

Regular season :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Martin Jones | 65 | 65 | 3785:52 | 37 | 23 | 4 | 143 | 2.27 | 1734 | .918 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James Reimer | 8 | 8 | 481:26 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 1.62 | 208 | .938 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Stalock$^‡$ | 13 | 9 | 674:08 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 33 | 2.94 | 285 | .884 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Playoffs :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Martin Jones | 24 | 24 | 1473:18 | 14 | 10 | 53 | 2.16 | 684 | .923 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James Reimer | 1 | 0 | 29:05 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.06 | 7 | .857 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Sharks. Stats reflect time with the Sharks only. $^‡$Traded mid-season

## Awards and honours
### Awards

Regular season :
| Player | Award | Awarded |
| M. Jones | NHL First Star of the Week | November 23, 2015 |
| B. Burns | NHL All-Star game selection | January 6, 2016 |
| J. Pavelski | NHL All-Star game selection | January 6, 2016 |

### Milestones

Regular season :
| Player | Milestone | Reached |
| J. Donskoi | 1st career NHL game 1st career NHL goal 1st career NHL point | October 7, 2015 |
| P. Martin | 700th career NHL game | October 13, 2015 |
| N. Goldobin | 1st career NHL game | October 16, 2015 |
| N. Goldobin | 1st career NHL goal 1st Career NHL point | October 17, 2015 |
| J. Ward | 100th Career NHL goal | October 24, 2015 |
| T. Wingels | 100th Career NHL point | October 31, 2015 |
| J. Braun | 300th career NHL game | November 5, 2015 |
| N. Goldobin | 1st career NHL assist | November 5, 2015 |
| J. Thornton | 1,300th career NHL game | November 10, 2015 |
| J. Pavelski | 500th career NHL point | November 14, 2015 |
| M. Jones | 10th career NHL shutout | November 19, 2015 |
| P. Marleau | 1,000th career NHL point | November 21, 2015 |

### Suspensions and fines

| Player | Explanation | Length | Salary | Date issued |
| Raffi Torres | Illegal check to the head of Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg | 41 games | $440,860.29 | October 5, 2015 |

## Transactions

The Sharks have been involved in the following transactions during the 2015–16 season:

### Trades

| Date | Details | Details |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | To Dallas StarsAntti Niemi (rights) | To San Jose Sharks7th-round pick in 2015 |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | To Vancouver CanucksTBL's 7th-round pick in 2015 | To San Jose SharksPatrick McNally |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | To Colorado Avalanche2nd-round pick in 2015 COL's 2nd-round pick in 2016 6th-round pick in 2017 | To San Jose SharksBUF's 2nd-round pick in 2015 |
| June 29, 2015 (2015-06-29) | To St. Louis Blues Konrad Abeltshauser | To San Jose Sharks Conditional 7th-round pick in 2016 |
| June 29, 2015 (2015-06-29) | To Boston Bruins Sean Kuraly 1st-round pick in 2016 | To San Jose Sharks Martin Jones |
| February 22, 2016 (2016-02-22) | To Toronto Maple Leafs Raffi Torres 2nd-round pick in 2017 2nd-round pick in 2018 | To San Jose Sharks Roman Polak Nick Spaling |
| February 27, 2016 (2016-02-27) | To Toronto Maple Leafs Alex Stalock Ben Smith conditional 4th-round pick in 2018 | To San Jose Sharks James Reimer Jeremy Morin |
| May 26, 2016 (2016-05-26) | To Detroit Red Wings Dylan Sadowy | To San Jose Sharks 3rd-round pick in 2017 |
| June 20, 2016 (2016-06-20) | To Arizona Coyotes 4th-round pick in 2016 DET's 3rd-round pick in 2017 | To San Jose Sharks Maxim Letunov 6th-round pick in 2017 |

### Lost via waivers

| Player | New team | Date claimed off waivers |
| Mike Brown | Montreal Canadiens | February 29, 2016 |

### Player signings

| Date | Player | Contract terms (in U.S. dollars) |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | Melker Karlsson | 2 years, $3.25 million |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | Jeremy Langlois | 1 year, $610,000 |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | Petter Emanuelsson | 1 year, $800,000 |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | Karl Stollery | 1 year, $600,000 |
| June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | Troy Grosenick | 2 years, $1.2 million |
| June 30, 2015 (2015-06-30) | Brenden Dillon | 5 years, $16.35 million |
| July 2, 2015 (2015-07-02) | John McCarthy | 1 year, $600,000 |
| July 2, 2015 (2015-07-02) | Micheal Haley | 1 year, $600,000 |
| July 2, 2015 (2015-07-02) | Bryan Lerg | 1 year, $600,000 |
| July 2, 2015 (2015-07-02) | Patrick McNally | 2 years, entry-level contract |
| July 8, 2015 (2015-07-08) | Timo Meier | 3 years, entry-level contract |
| September 13, 2015 (2015-09-13) | Jeremy Roy | 3 years, entry-level contract |
| March 4, 2016 (2016-03-04) | Adam Helewka | entry-level contract |
| March 9, 2016 (2016-03-09) | Kevin Labanc | entry-level contract |
| March 11, 2016 (2016-03-11) | Alex Schoenborn | entry-level contract |
| April 9, 2016 (2016-04-09) | Danny O'Regan | entry-level contract |
| April 9, 2016 (2016-04-09) | Michael Brodzinski | entry-level contract |

## Draft picks

Below are the San Jose Sharks' selections at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, to be held on June 26–27, 2015 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida.
| Round | # | Player | Pos | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
| 1 | 9 | Timo Meier | RW | Switzerland | Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) |
| 2 | 31 | Jeremy Roy | D | Canada | Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL) |
| 3 | 86 | Mike Robinson | G | United States | Lawrence Academy (USHS–MA) |
| 4 | 106 | Adam Helewka | LW | Canada | Spokane Chiefs (WHL) |
| 5 | 130 | Karlis Cukste | D | Latvia | HK Riga (MHL) |
| 5 | 142 | Rudolfs Balcers | LW | Latvia | Stavanger Oilers (GET-ligaen) |
| 6 | 160 | Adam Parsells | D | United States | Wausau West High School (USHS–WI) |
| 7 | 190 | Marcus Vela | C | Canada | Langley Rivermen (BCHL) |
| 7 | 193 | John Kupsky | G | United States | Lone Star Brahmas (NAHL) |

### Draft notes

* $^a$ The Buffalo Sabres' second-round pick (from Colorado) went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of a trade on June 27, 2015 that sent a second-round pick in 2015, a second-round pick in 2016 and a sixth-round pick in 2017 to Colorado in exchange for this pick.
* The San Jose Sharks' second-round pick went to the Colorado Avalanche as the result of a trade on June 27, 2015 that a second-round pick in 2015 to San Jose in exchange for a second-round pick in 2016, a sixth-round pick in 2017 and this pick.
* The San Jose Sharks' third-round pick went to the Philadelphia Flyers as the result of a trade on July 2, 2014 that sent Tye McGinn to San Jose in exchange for this pick.
* $^b$ The St. Louis Blues' third-round pick (from Edmonton) went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of compensation for Head Coach Todd McLellan.
* The San Jose Sharks' fourth-round pick went to the Nashville Predators as the result of a trade on June 28, 2014 that sent Detroit's second-round pick in 2014 to San Jose in exchange for a second-round pick in 2014 and this pick.
* $^c$ The Calgary Flames' fourth-round pick went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of a trade on July 2, 2013 that sent TJ Galiardi to Calgary in exchange for this pick.
* $^d$ The New York Islanders' fifth-round pick went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of a trade on June 5, 2014 that sent Dan Boyle to New York in exchange for this pick (being conditional at the time of the trade). The condition – San Jose will receive a fifth-round pick in 2015 if Boyle is not re-signed by the Islanders for the 2014–15 NHL season – was converted on July 1, 2014.
* $^e$ The Dallas Stars' seventh-round pick went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of a trade on June 27, 2015 that sent the rights to Antti Niemi to Dallas in exchange for this pick.