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With the San Jose Sharks’ season over, I’ll be taking the next few weeks or so to assess each player’s performance this season, as I’ve done with other teams I cover for HockeyBuzz. This article will focus on Brent Burns.

Offensively, Burns still produced at a higher rate than most forwards on the Sharks and most defensemen around the league. He scored 12 goals and 45 points in 70 games, a pace of 14 goals and 53 points per 82 games. Considering he’s able to produce that well offensively, however, the fact that he had a goals for percentage of just 46 per cent should say something about his defensive play this year. This happened despite the fact that San Jose’s shooting percentage while he was on the ice was 12.3 per cent and he also had the highest offensive zone start percentage of any Sharks’ defenseman who played at least 40 games. On top of that, his expected goals for percentage was the lowest of any of his seasons since joining the Sharks, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.



Even those point totals mentioned above slipped from last season. Here are his points per 82, shots per 82 and shot attempts per 82 averages in each season since turning 30 years old:

2015-16 (30 yo): 75 P/82, 353 S/82, 625 SA/82
2016-17 (31 yo): 76 P/82, 320 S/82, 608 SA/82
2017-18 (32 yo): 67 P/82, 332 S/82, 609 SA/82
2018-19 (33 yo): 83 P/82, 300 S/82, 562 SA/82
2019-20 (34 yo): 53 P/82, 264 S/82, 528 SA/82

Burns, who is usually in the league’s top ten or even five players in shots, was ranked 17th this season. All of his numbers were lower this year, despite the fact that he actually averaged slightly more ice time per game this year than in the three previous seasons.

He’s already 35 years old and while he’s done a great job avoiding injuries thus far, he’ll be testing his luck as he continues to age. Considering the fact that he still has another five years remaining on his contract, the last few years of the deal probably aren't going to be pretty.

While Burns can still produce at high levels offensively, his defensive play caused problems for the Sharks and as he continues to age, his play may not recover.



***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Sharks Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Sharks for updates on articles, Sharks news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***

Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):


OTHER SHARKS ARTICLES FROM JUNE

Reviewing this week's polls (June 14): Sharks Edition
Will Martin Jones bounce back next season?
Evander Kane helps to form Hockey Diversity Alliance
SHORT READ: Terms of Brinson Pasichnuk's deal have been reported
Sharks should have dealt Joe Thornton at the trade deadline
Reviewing last week's polls (June 3): Sharks Edition
SHORT READ: Lukas Radil signs in KHL

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