Sharks Give Jones the Reins

The last move of Free Agent Frenzy Eve, according to my Twitter feed, was the signing of goalie Martin Jones by the San Jose Sharks.

Jones has already been well-traveled in this off-season, getting traded from Los Angeles to Boston, then Boston to San Jose, but at least he has found a home for the 2016 season and it looks like it comes with a starting job, as well.

Jones and the Sharks agreed upon a 3-year deal, worth $9 million and maybe by default, for a lack of a better term, he is penciled in to be the number one guy with the Sharks, come training camp and into the regular season.

Given his numbers and ranking among his goaltending peers, Jones may have been considered to be more of a fringe signing, but given the nature of the Sharks' goaltending situation, he gets his own post.

In 15 appearances last season, Jones picked up 4 wins, 3 shutouts and an assist for 15 points, behind a fairly tired Kings team, that wasn't nearly as dominant as they once were.  Jones was only able to be on the ice for 775 minutes in the 2015 season, so it should be no surprise that he came in 52nd among all goalies in scoring.

So, going from being a straight-up back-up for one of the biggest minute hogs in the NHL to the number one guy, just down the road, there are some pretty big gains to be had for his overall numbers.

A lot will depend on how the team concludes their free agency period, especially since they have quite a lot of work to do in this off-season.  By my count, the Sharks still have nine roster spots to fill, a good portion of those are on the blueline, so filling out that portion well will have a large impact on the point scoring rate that Jones will have next season.

I think there are going to be some games that Jones will be able to steal for the Sharks next season, but in order to be a top notch keeper, you're going to need defense.  Currently, I have Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun in pen on their roster, which is a decent start, but there isn't a great deal of confidence in only three blueliners.