Hetl? Couture? Who is the Sharks Number One Center?

Over the past few seasons, there has been a bit of back and forth as to who is the “go-to” center for this team. The question remains, “Who is the Sharks 1C?”

I can’t quite give an exact answer right this second. Logan Couture has only skated once over the past few weeks, as a result of a lower-body injury he suffered during offseason training. It is unclear as to what exactly this injury is and we don’t know how long it will take for him to get his conditioning and timing back to 100%.

Tomas Hertl is likely to be the Sharks' main center this upcoming season. At least for the time being. He has looked sharp and in great shape since returning to the Bay Area. He is also significantly younger than Couture, whose time is winding down.

But, Logan Couture has been the Sharks' best center the past few years, despite the Sharks continuously placing Tomas Hertl in that role. Let’s rewind back to just the past two seasons. In 2021-2022 Logan Couture scored 56 points in 77 games. Tomas Hertl scored 64 points in a full 82 games.

(I am going to ignore plus/minus statistics because of how awful the Sharks have been. Every player is going to have a minus rating).

Continuing on, you may be wondering why I decided to look at those numbers considering the fact Hertl contributed more offensively than Couture. But let’s take a deeper dive into those numbers. Couture played five fewer games than Hertl where he definitely could have reached the 60-point mark. Along with that, Hertl played the majority of that campaign with Timo Meier on his right wing. The same Timo Meier who scored a career-high 35 goals and 76 points. There have been games that season where Alexander Barabonov even joined those two over stretches of the season.

Logan Couture? Well, sometimes he played with Barabonov. Others? Noah Gregor? Nick Bonino? Jonathan Dahlen? My point is, that the Sharks gave Hertl a consistent elite NHL player to play with while they rotated Couture’s wing throughout the entire season. Some of those players would not have cracked 90% of other NHL rosters or aren’t even in the league anymore. 

Couture still finished, right behind Hertl in the points column. After playing with mid-AHLers and with a handful of fewer games.

Fast forward to 2022-23. Couture primarily played with Alexander Barabonov on his wing. He played all 82 games for the first time since 2014-15 and recorded the second-best season of his career, point-wise with 67. 27 of which were goals.  

Hertl on the other hand, recorded 22 goals and 63 points. Still playing the majority of the season with Timo Meier until Meier was eventually moved to New Jersey. Once Meier was gone, Hertl was stuck in a slump and it took a while for him to get out of it. 

It’s not just about who they are playing with. It’s who they are playing against, that matters more. Logan Couture is always placed against the other team’s best lines and is the Sharks’ go-to guy for shutdown defense. He was among the league’s elite two-way centers during his younger years. He still carries the burden of defensive responsibilities. Many of Couture’s zone starts begin in the defensive zone. While Hertl’s are primarily started in the offensive zone.

If you take all of this into consideration, it is really impressive how Couture still manages to put up similar, or even more points than Tomas Hertl at this stage in Logan’s career. I genuinely believe if the Sharks gave Logan more offensive minutes, with someone like Timo Meier on his wing, he could have easily put up a few more 70-point seasons. 

It’s not that Tomas Hertl isn’t a good player. He absolutely is. I just think Sharks fans and sometimes even the front office tends to overrate him. They act like he is some superstar player in the league. Though he is not. Over the course of Hertl’s 664 NHL games, he managed to produce 450 points. Which comes out to 0.67 points per game. Throughout Couture’s 927 NHL games, he’s put up 700 points, exactly. Couture’s points per game comes out to 0.75. 

Logan Couture has had a bit of bad luck during his NHL career. And I’m not talking about the injuries. That’s a conversation for another day. I’m talking about the fact that when he broke into the league as a rookie, he played behind Joe Thornton for several years until Jumbo’s decline became apparent. Once he managed to become the Sharks’ true number-one centermen, it wasn’t too long after they began giving Hertl those starts. 

Perhaps it was just poor timing. Should we blame Jumbo? Darn it Joe!

Anyway, I feel that Couture was asked to do so much defensively that he was never given enough leash offensively to produce more offense than he did. 700 NHL points is no easy task, however, I definitely feel it could have been more if he wasn’t overlooked so much.

Again, people may think I’m crazy. I know he’s played his entire career with the Sharks. I know he’s the reigning Team Captain.

I just think the Sharks replaced him as the number-one center prematurely. That’s all. 

Coming into this season, which begins this week, Tomas Hertl will obviously take on the number one role. And as he should. Couture is going to turn 35 years old this season. Hertl will turn 30. It was going to happen eventually. I do hope Hertl has a comeback season. He’ll probably play with Eklund on his wing to fill in Timo Meier’s absence. Hopefully, the two are able to build chemistry together and Eklund can have a strong start to his NHL career.

When Couture returns which will likely be the second game of the year, I just want him to remain as healthy as possible, and put together another strong season. I hope nothing but the best for the Sharks 1-2 punch down the middle.

Who do you think the Sharks' number one center is? And has been over the past few seasons? Hertl? Couture? Let me know in the comments!