The San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) announced today that forward Mikael Granlund has been selected as the "Sharks Player of the Year" for 2023-24 in a vote by the Bay Area media. The award is presented to the player who contributes the greatest amount of success to the Sharks in the 2023-24 regular season. This is the first season that he has been honored with this award.
Granlund, 32, has appeared in 66 games so far this season with a team-leading 56 points (12 goals, 44 assists). He ranks first on San Jose in assists and multi-point games with 13, which includes three consecutive multi-point efforts in December. Granlund ranked first in the NHL in road points (16), T-3rd in overall assists (14), T-11th in points (17), and posted six multi-point games in December. In March, he recorded at least one assist in seven of his 15 games and recorded a point in 11 contests (5g, 10a), which led the team and finished tied for first in goals.
After starting the season recording only a single point through the team’s first 15 games, despite missing seven due to injury, the forward then rattled off 55 points (12 goals, 43 assists) across his next 58 games played. During this run, he collected a six-game assist streak from Dec. 1-12 and a ten-game point streak (two goals, nine assists) from Mar. 23 through Apr. 11, which is still active heading into the Apr. 13 Fan Appreciation game vs. the Minnesota Wild. His streak is the 13th instance in franchise history in which a player has achieved a 10-game point streak or longer, and is the 11th different player to do so. Across the span of his 58 games from Nov. 14, , there were only four instances in which he did not register a point in consecutive games, the longest of which was only three games.
Among his several achievements this season, Granlund has reached both the 50-point and 40-assist mark for the fourth time in his career. He skated in his 800th career NHL game on Mar. 9 against Ottawa and leads all active Finnish skaters in games played (16th among all-time Finnish skaters). He was named the NHLPA Player of the Week after leading the league with both eight even-strength points and nine points overall in the first week of December, including matching his career-long with a six-game assist streak (2g, 10a) in the calendar month. He is only the second forward to have as many assists in the first season with the club in the past 10 seasons since Joonas Donskoi (25) during his 2015-16 campaign.
Granlund recorded his 500th NHL point on Dec. 7 against Detroit, scoring the overtime goal to cap San Jose’s four-goal comeback.
The five-foot-ten, 185-pound native of Oulu, Finland was acquired from Pittsburgh along with forward Mike Hoffman, defenseman Jan Rutta and a top-10 protected first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft in exchange for defensemen Erik Karlsson, forward Dillion Hamaliuk, and a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft on Aug. 6, 2023.
PAST WINNERS OF THE "SHARKS PLAYER OF THE YEAR" AWARD INCLUDE:
2022-23 Erik Karlsson
2021-22 Timo Meier
2020-21 Evander Kane
2019-20 Timo Meier
2018-19 Tomas Hertl & Brent Burns
2017-18 Logan Couture
2016-17 Brent Burns
2015-16 Joe Thornton
2014-15 Joe Pavelski
2013-14 Joe Pavelski
2012-13 Antti Niemi
2011-12 Logan Couture
2010-11 Antti Niemi
2009-10 Patrick Marleau
2008-09 Patrick Marleau
2007-08 Evgeni Nabokov
2006-07 Joe Thornton
2005-06 Joe Thornton
2003-04 Patrick Marleau
2002-03 Teemu Selanne
2001-02 Mike Ricci
2000-01 Evgeni Nabokov
1999-00 Owen Nolan
1998-99 Steve Shields and Mike Vernon
1997-98 Mike Vernon
1996-97 Jeff Friesen
1995-96 Jamie Baker
1994-95 Ulf Dahlen
1993-94 Arturs Irbe
1992-93 Kelly Kisio
1991-92 Jeff Hackett
