With the Sharks’ old guard of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic only getting older, it was only a matter of time before the Sharks became Logan Couture’s team.

While that old guard still exists, the combination of Couture’s breakout year with his new eight-year, $64 million contract extension signals that this is really Logan Couture’s team, both for now and the future.

And that’s not a knock against the Sharks’ grizzled veterans, not in the slightest. But the truth is that Logan Couture is probably the team’s best player at this point in time. When you’re the only 30-goal scorer on a team that ranked 13th in goals scored, especially when the next player only has 22, you should probably be considered the team’s best player. Emmanuel Perry’s WAR model agrees with this sentiment, placing Logan Couture as the Sharks’ best player by a country mile with a WAR of 5.27 and .21 WAR per game. Couture’s WAR last season was also the 9th-best in the NHL and the fourth-best among forwards.

Couture’s 34-goal, 27-assist season was arguably the best of his career, which is not something you would ordinarily say about a player who was 28 at the start of the season. He surpassed the 30-goal mark for the third time in his career and the first since 2011-12. His 34 total goals and 24 goals at even-strength last season were both career-highs as well. At the same time, he was taking plenty of defensive draws (45.56 ZSR) to allow the Pavelski-Thornton-Burns trio to receive more offensive starts. There’s a lot to like about Couture.

Which is important because the Sharks are basically tied to Couture for the rest of his career as a result of the aforementioned contract extension. Will Couture be worth $8 million in even five years? No, probably not. But considering that this roster is constructed to contend for the Stanley Cup for the next three to four years, this extension was necessary. It’s also important to remember that Couture is only receiving a $2 million raise, so it shouldn’t dramatically alter the Sharks’ cap situation.

My only knocks on Couture are that while he is easily the Sharks’ best goal-scorer, he isn’t an elite possession producer and he isn’t necessarily a great playmaker. While his CF% are usually above 50%, his relative CF% hasn’t been positive since 2011-12. Obviously, the fact that he produces at a first-line rate (see below) offsets these issues, but they are still issues nonetheless.

But Couture is a capable, all-around center who is defensively responsible enough to play more defensive minutes without allowing his team to be punished while still being a top-notch goal-scorer himself. I would regard him as one of the more underrated centermen in the league.

2018-19 Outlook

However, while Couture is still a really solid player, be a little careful in your expectations for him. As with any career year, Couture’s shooting percentage was well off his career total. He is a career 12.5% shooter who has shot 14.4% and 16.7% over the last two seasons, respectively. Granted, he’s still technically in the prime of his career, but he is towards the end of it at the age of 29.

That being said, another season around the 30-goal mark shouldn’t seem unreasonable. Even if his shooting percentage sees a slight dip, which is likely, he should still be somewhere between 25-30 goals as long as he stays healthy, which, outside of his two scary injuries in 2015-16 and at the end of 2016-17, hasn’t been a problem for him.

Couture will most likely continue to play on what I would call the “1B” line alongside Tomas Hertl and either Timo Meier or Joonas Donskoi. He’ll probably still be listed behind Thornton on media guides, but Couture will still start games alongside the Vlasic-Braun pairing against the opposition’s top line. This is one of the reason why I think the idea of having a designated “1C” is outdated and useless, but I digress.

Along with everyone else on the top power-play unit, Couture will likely receive a small boost in terms of power play production with the return of a (hopefully) healthy Joe Thornton. The power play just wasn’t the same without the bearded centerman in the lineup, and his return should benefit everyone involved.

Expect Couture to still be one of the team’s top forwards and a significant presence on whatever you want to call his line. The Sharks’ season depends on it.

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