LetsGoDU

NHL: Carle May Be Final Piece Of Sharks Puzzle

(left) Former Pioneer Matt Carle is one of the brightest young stars in the NHL

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From: San Francisco Chronicle
Ross McKeon, Chronicle Staff Writer

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One minute, he's sliding down on the opposite side of the puck and setting up in front of the net on the power play. The next, he's back at the blue line, pinching along the boards to keep an opponent from chipping out of the zone or stretching his wingspan to its maximum to keep a puck alive.

In his own end, he angles a forward to the boards, applies a stick check and comes out with the puck. One step and bang, the outlet pass is on the stick of a teammate and out of harm's way.

In the span of one shift in a recent game, rookie Matt Carle demonstrated why the Sharks' franchise-long search for an elite, game-breaking defenseman finally might have come to an end.

Carle just might be that good.

"This franchise has really never had a defenseman who was able to do the things he can," coach Ron Wilson said.

Try as the Sharks have for years -- through the draft, trades or the free-agent market -- they simply have not found a cornerstone defenseman every team needs to win the Stanley Cup. Until maybe now, that is.

"It's all about reading situations and reading the play," Carle said of his impressive hockey sense. "The more I play, the more confident I am. The coaches are pretty good about letting me move up in the play."

Carle, a 6-foot, 205-pound slick skater with soft hands, vision and the knack to control play, burst on the scene late last season after turning pro with six points in his first 12 NHL games. Steady and not intimidated, too, in the postseason, Carle was trusted in all situations despite his inexperience and the fact he was only months removed from college hockey.

"His panic threshold is very low," Sharks assistant coach and former defenseman Rob Zettler said. "Matt has great offensive instincts, but what I look at, too, is how he and our guys are going to compete against other teams' top lines. We know we can count on him not only offensively but defensively, and that's a big step for him."

He has picked right up where he left off. Carle, who scored the team's first goal of the season, has two goals and three points in five games, is averaging 18:22 in ice time and quarterbacks the team's potent power play, which has clicked at 25 percent and has multi-power-play goals in four of its first five games.

Carle, who won last season's Hobey Baker Award as the best college player, is the top rookie scorer among defensemen in the NHL.

"If he continues to play the way he has, Rookie of the Year is definitely within his reach," defense partner Kyle McLaren said.

The Sharks' search for this type of player can be traced to almost each of their 16 drafts. Previous high-round picks have come and gone, including Sandis Ozolinsh, Mike Rathje, Brad Stuart, Andrei Zyuzin, Jeff Jillson and Vlastimil Kroupa.

Free-agent signees or players acquired in trades, including Gary Suter, Jeff Norton, Doug Bodger, Al Iafrate and even current general manager Doug Wilson, had their chances, but all were on the back sides of successful careers.

Suter came the closest of the experienced group to filling the role as an offensive threat from the blue line. Suter, who led the team in scoring among defensemen twice, scored 22 goals and 79 points from 1998 through 2002, modest numbers by any team's standards. Suter spent most of his earlier years with elite partners, including Al MacInnis in Calgary and Chris Chelios in Chicago.

In San Jose, Suter was paired often early with Stuart, the team's first-round pick taken third overall in 1998, and was as much as playing a mentor role as anything else. Stuart arrived in 1999-2000, and as a 19-year-old, led the Sharks in blue-line scoring with 36 points and was runner-up for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.

Stuart endured injuries during his early offseasons and didn't seem to develop or progress to the point many projected. He was packaged with Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau to acquire Joe Thornton from Boston last season. Stuart became expendable because the Sharks had players with more potential coming.

Players such as Matt Carle.

"We've had guys who have tried, but it's been more like volume," Ron Wilson said. "He just seems to naturally seem to be in the right spots. With offensive-minded people who can find him, he can pile up some points."