The San Jose Sharks are on the right track, Logan Couture believes. The captain intends to stay with the team for as long as he feels they are trying to take the necessary steps to reach the playoffs.
One would think that Couture, who saw the club’s heyday in the 2010s with Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and other Brent Burns, would be tempted to abandon ship after several years of failure. After all, the 34-year-old center has never won the Stanley Cup.
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It would be a misunderstanding of the Ontarian. Couture wants to find the way to success with the Sharks.
“If it was a five, six or seven year rebuild, obviously there would have been changes. But I believe that [le directeur général Mike Grier] did a good job giving us back tools with some very good draft picks. It’s hard to predict what will happen in a few years, but I’m looking forward to this season. I want to be in San Jose to make a difference,” he promised in an interview with NHL.com on Wednesday.
San Jose lost top defender Erik Karlsson to a trade on Sunday. Several veterans like Couture, Marc-Édouard Vlasic and Tomas Hertl are still there to lead the team and young stars are knocking on the door. The 2023-2024 season could be the breeding season for a William Eklund or a Thomas Bordeleau.
With the family
Since making his National League debut in 2009-2010, Couture has only known the Sharks. He became their captain in 2019 and will no doubt play his 1000th career game for them in a few months. He’s regularly one of his most prolific forwards and has exactly 700 points to his tally.
Obviously he and his family are committed to California, but the victories have to come. He could certainly be tempted to look elsewhere at the end of his current contract, in the summer of 2027, should the Sharks’ plan fail.
“Change is hard, and when the day comes that it has to happen, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s better for my family and I. I’m sure by the end of my career my responsibilities on the ice will have lessened, but right now I want to do whatever I can to help the team and be the best player I can be for the Sharks can,” he assured.
“It’s hard to lose,” Couture continued. Losing isn’t why you play hockey. You play every night to win and [l’entraîneur-chef David Quinn] is a guy who really wants to win. In most of our games over the past year we have performed very well from start to finish, although we have finished where we finished.
With just 22 wins in 82 games, the lowest total on the entire Bettman circuit, the Sharks finished second to bottom in Pacific Division standings. They’ve missed the playoffs for the past four years.