SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier fielded calls before the NHL trade deadline on a handful of players who remained under team control past this season, including pending restricted free agent Luke Kunin.
Although Grier decided to trade Tomas Hertl last month, there was little chance he was going to deal Kunin, a player who helps set the competitive standard for a Sharks team that will be bringing in a handful of young players over the next few years.
“Those guys bring a lot of value to us, especially as we start to bring in some of these young players,” Grier said on March 8 of Kunin, Nico Sturm, and Mikael Granlund. “Those guys have expressed an interest in being here and helping us turn this around and working with young players.”
Kunin demonstrated his value in that regard again Saturday night.
With his team perhaps needing a bit of an emotional lift in a scoreless game against St. Louis, Kunin in the second period buried top-line winger Jake Neighbours against the boards right in front of the Blues’ bench.
St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk immediately came over to Kunin to stick up for Neighbours, and the two had a spirited tilt.
Along with the fighting major, Faulk got an extra two minutes for instigating the scrap with Kunin, who knew the Sharks were going on the power play. As he skated toward the penalty box, Kunin looked back at the Sharks’ bench, indicating it was time to get going.
His team responded, working it around with the man advantage before William Eklund one-timed a pass from Henry Thrun past Blues goalie Joel Hofer. It was the first of three goals for Eklund, who completed his first career NHL hat trick with an overtime marker in the Sharks’ 3-2 win at SAP Center.
“He’s bringing it every day,” Eklund said of Kunin. “He’s really good in the locker room. He always comes here, he always works and every guy sees that and we try to do as he does — because he always comes and competes every day.
“It’s huge for us to have him here.”
Kunin’s hardly the biggest guy on the roster at 6-foot-0 and 197 pounds. But he’s one of the Sharks’ heart and soul players, and his fight Saturday was fourth in the last seven games.
For added context, all of this is happening with the Sharks about to finish last in the NHL standings.
Quinn would like to have a few more players on the Sharks’ roster emulate Kunin’s no-nonsense approach and he got that message across between the second and third periods of Saturday’s game.
“We need more people doing that. And I’m not saying fighting, I mean playing with an edge and being all in,” Quinn said. “It can’t always be him. It’s got to be other people.”
Kunin had an assist Saturday on Eklund’s overtime goal, and he now has two points in his last 12 games. But without Logan Couture, who is injured, or Hertl, he’s filling as the Sharks’ second-line center, playing more minutes now than he has at any point in his seven-year NHL career.
Kunin had 18:41 of ice time on Saturday – his second-highest total of the season — despite the five-minute major.
He’s not a darling of the analytics community, but he’s beloved by his teammates and coaches. After Kunin came out of the penalty box, Marc-Edouard Vlasic was among those who stood up on the bench and tapped their sticks against the boards to show their appreciation.
“Don’t underestimate the impact he had on this game,” Quinn said of Kunin, who was named an alternate captain by the Sharks in February.
There’s little question that the Sharks will qualify Kunin, still just 26, in the offseason. It’s just a matter of what his next contract looks like.
A raise from the $2.75 million average annual value his current contract has – one that he signed with the Sharks in July 2022 shortly after he was acquired from the Nashville Predators – could be in order. As would a multi-year deal that buys up a UFA year or two, especially if the rebuilding Sharks figure he can be one of their leaders going forward.
Nights like Saturday would seem to make that obvious.
“That’s what makes him such a valuable player for us, or any team he’s on, and he’s been that way his whole life,” Quinn said. “I mean, it’s him every night, and every time we need it, it’s him.”
