What made Joe Pavelski such a special leader? (+)

“We were never the same again.”

Peter DeBoer experienced it firsthand after the San Jose Sharks let captain Joe Pavelski leave as a free agent in the summer of 2019.

The following year, the Sharks’ then-head coach was fired mid-season and the 2019 Western Conference finalist missed the playoffs, setting a franchise record for five years and also being eliminated from the postseason.

“On paper, people might have said we had as good a team as we had before,” DeBoer said, then repeated. “But we were never the same without him.”

Pavelski, who signed a three-year, $21 million contract with the Dallas Stars and then two more one-year deals, scored 121 goals during that span, eclipsing the 25-goal mark in a season four times. He also helped the Stars reach the 2020 Stanley Cup Final and the 2023 and 2024 Western Conference Finals.

Overall, Pavelski led the 2003 draft class with 476 goals and 1,068 points. With the Sharks, he was also part of a Stanley Cup final in 2016 and the Western Conference Finals in 2010, 2011 and 2019.

However, DeBoer did not only talk about Pavelski’s lack of scoring opportunities, as exceptional as he was.

“Sometimes you think too much about situations like this and forget that it wasn’t his physical attributes that made Joe so great. It was his attitude, his mind and his leadership qualities,” said the current Dallas head coach, who coached Pavelski in San Jose from 2015 to 2019.

The coach did not criticize then-GM Doug Wilson’s decision to let the 34-year-old Pavelski go.

“There was no doubt that we in the dugout recognized his value and wanted him back. I really think Doug recognized that, too,” he said. “It was like anything else, it was salary cap and term. Those are the decisions the guys up there have to make.”

So what made Pavelski so special as a leader? What were the Sharks missing after 2019?

DeBoer and Wilson are among those who spoke to San Jose Hockey Now about Pavelski’s leadership qualities following the former Sharks captain’s recent retirement.

Todd McLellan, Ryane Clowe, Brenden Dillon, Jason Demers and Kevin Labanc also shared their insights on “Captain America.”