How longtime rival Toffoli hopes to help Sharks’ turnaround originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Editor’s note: Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
Tyler Toffoli appears to be a great fit for the Sharks.
Chatting with the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast in late August, Toffoli touched on some of the reasons why the Sharks’ investment in him this summer, a four-year contract worth $24 million, made sense for both sides.
That’s actually the most lucrative free-agent contract that the Sharks have ever handed out to an outside player.
Getting better with age
The 32-year-old has enjoyed three 30-goal campaigns over his 12-year NHL career, two of those three in the last two years, 34 in 2022-23 and 33 last season.
Since 2020-21, Toffoli has averaged 1.43 Goals Per 60, 22nd out of 279 forwards (3,000-plus minutes). In the previous eight years, he averaged 1.04 Goals Per 60.
Toffoli credits well-earned experience for his late-career spark.
“I feel confident,” Toffolo told San Jose Hockey Now. “There’s a stretch of games where I won’t score. At the end of the day, I look back to when I first came to the league and look at the little things that I was doing that would make me successful and I try and bring that back. I know when certain things are going well in my game, goals and points and all that stuff will follow.”
The Sharks, the NHL’s second-lowest scoring team last year, could use a true sniper, and they’ve got that in Toffoli.
Great vs. Good
Toffoli has also become a better leader with age, coming to the Sharks with a reputation for being a very positive locker room presence.
Of course, the NHL is full of good guys. What’s the difference between being a good or great leader?
“Just trying to come to the rink everyday, some days are harder than others, but if you can keep the emotions around the same,” Toffoli opined, “younger guys, especially now that I’m a little older, younger guys look at that and try and bring that consistency into their game and their day-to-day routine. That’s something for me that I’ve gotten better at throughout my career.”
Toffoli will be a valuable resource for youngsters Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund and others, as the Sharks try to stay even-keel to navigate their way out of the rebuild.
“If that makes me a great teammate, then I’ll just go with that,” Toffoli said with a smile.
Seen it all
Toffoli has been a part of a rebuild too, though a different type.
Toffoli came up with the Stanley Cup-winning Los Angeles Kings, hoisting the Cup in 2014. But his career in black, silver and white ended in 2020, in the midst of a teardown.
Instead of being part of the descent to rock-bottom, like he was in LA, Toffoli is hoping that things are looking up for the Sharks.
“I feel like in San Jose now, we’re looking to go up,” Toffoli said. “I don’t think it’s a teardown anymore. I think we’re trying to get better and we’re trying to compete. Whereas in LA, it felt like it was going the opposite direction. It was definitely frustrating.”
Either way, Toffoli has been through it. The cellar-dwelling Sharks need as many battle-tested players as possible.
Full circle for Sharks-Kings rivalry
In the middle of last decade, Sharks-Kings was one of the NHL’s great rivalries.
Toffoli shared great stories from those days, including how the Kings chirped star defenseman Drew Doughty about his “friendship” with Ontario neighbor Logan Couture.
“It’ll definitely be funny going into LA and playing against Kopi and Dewey and Lewie and all of them in the Sharks jersey,” Toffoli said of playing against holdovers Anze Kopitar, Doughty, and Trevor Lewis.
The Sharks, of course, have fallen on hard times. Wouldn’t it be something if long-time King Toffoli, part of the 2014 and 2016 San Jose-Los Angeles postseason clashes, led the Sharks back into the playoffs?
Toffoli also spoke about when the Kings knew they “had” the Sharks during the 2014 “Reverse Sweep” and falling to San Jose in the 2016 playoffs.
That 70’s sequel?
When Toffoli came up with the Kings, he was part of one of the most memorable lines from that decade, That 70’s Line.
Youngsters Toffoli (No. 73) and Tanner Pearson (No. 70) flanked star center Jeff Carter (No. 77).
Could the Sharks repeat that Tinseltown magic with Toffoli and Eklund (No. 72), surrounding rookie center Celebrini (No. 71)?
“Hopefully, we can be as successful as what we did in LA,” Toffoli said. “That was a lot of fun.”
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