Look. It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong. And I’ll admit it. I was wrong about Joonas Donskoi.
I called out the likes of Donskoi and Melker Karlsson during our last podcast. I said they’d regressed to the mean, and are not the same guys they were two years ago when the team made the Stanley Cup Finals. And in my defense, they weren’t last season. But this season Joonas Donskoi looks much different. He looks like the guy who was such a key player on the team which won the Western Conference two years ago.
Donskoi’s advanced stats are off the charts. He’s second in the NHL in CORSI, and since my verbal drubbing, has added two goals, and is now getting some minutes on the top line. Donskoi’s relative goals for percentage is at 46% which is off the charts (don’t worry, we’ll explain). And other advanced numbers which we will get into, indicate that Donskoi is playing some of the best hockey of his career.
If he can keep this up then the Sharks will be in good shape. They still need more depth on the third and fourth lines, but if the Sharks can get Karlsson and Donskoi to make the impact they made on the Stanley Cup team then this team will be in a better position to succeed.