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Sharks' Henry Thrun shows 'poise' in NHL debut vs. Golden Knights

Sheng Peng
·4 min read

What stands out most from Thrun's NHL debut with Sharks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

What stands out about Henry Thrun’s NHL debut?

“I thought he had a lot of poise. Made some good passes,” Mario Ferraro offered after the Sharks’ 4-3 OT victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.

From the drop of the puck, Thrun looked confident with it.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that on just his second NHL shift, he got his first NHL point, assisting on a Ferraro goal.

But it was under duress where Thrun showed his true colors.

Ten minutes in, a Jacob Peterson (24) pass skipped on Thrun (3). But with William Karlsson (71) bearing down on him, Thrun collected the puck, kept his eyes up like he was going to go forward with the puck, then ripped a no-look pass through Karlsson’s legs to safety valve Radim Simek (51).

The key here is Thrun didn’t telegraph his intentions to the forechecker.

Later, on the same shift, Thrun picks up the puck, and it’s Karlsson on him again.

And again, Thrun has no hurry. He’s not going to just dump it in.

Instead, Thrun sucks the forechecker in until he has a seam open to Tomas Hertl (48), and, just as importantly, Hertl has a chance to turn up the ice with the puck.

The pass doesn’t connect, but the intelligence of the play Thrun designed is clear.

Here’s an intelligent play that does connect.

Thrun, with two Golden Knights forecheckers attacking, identifies the open man, Oskar Lindblom (23).

“[Thrun] makes a really good play on the second goal, quick-up to the weakside,” Sharks coach David Quinn recognized.

Ferraro and Lindblom do the rest.

Again, it’s Karlsson on top of Thrun. And, once again, Thrun takes a beat so the play can come together. Instead of hurrying the puck, he slows things down so he can execute a soft backhand rim and wait for receiver Martin Kaut (87) to get to the wall.

“I said on the radio there that my first game, I had the jitters. I was a little nervous,” Ferraro admitted, in contrast to Thrun’s debut. “[I] got rid of the puck pretty quickly.”

Not “Won’t Run” Thrun.  

Thrun wasn’t just impressive with the puck, he also was impressive without it.

The 22-year-old, just out of Harvard, does look NHL-strong.

Thrun pursues the 6-foot-2 Paul Cotter (43), then, impressively, stands the burgeoning power forward up.

The 6-foot-2 defender doesn’t give ground to Jack Eichel (9), forcing the star center to give it up to perimeter option Alec Martinez (23).

“He’s confident, comfortable. He’s out there defending Jack Eichel, doing a good job,” Quinn said. “He got tested tonight.”

All this fits with the general consensus of what I was told about Thrun when the Sharks traded for him on Feb. 28.

“He’s a very solid all-around defenseman,” an NHL scout told San Jose Hockey Now. “Physical, harder. Plays well on both sides of the puck.”

But that same scout noted Thrun’s skating had a hitch: “Small, short strides can look choppy a little.”

And you could see him laboring a little bit out there.

However, I saw a mixed bag when it came to Thrun’s skating, and nothing that should prove fatal to an NHL career.

He was choppy, doesn’t extend his stride, and could stand to strengthen his edgework.

On the other hand, his transitions, that is, his ability to change direction, so key to a defenseman, seemed to be a plus. When he turns, he has maximum speed forward.

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That quickness is crucial in small spaces, like when Thrun cut Cotter off along the wall. Thrun beats Cotter to the same spot -- that’s part of the reason why the defenseman stays upright and the Golden Knights forward gets rocked.

I can see a lot of smarts with just enough skating to form a very effective package. Here’s a good example of that:

Thrun reads off Hertl and dashes toward the net, just ahead of a puck-watching Nicolas Roy (10). Hertl executes a high-end pass, then Peterson just misses the net on a Thrun dish originally intended for Simek.

All said?

“He’s got solid, solid second-pairing potential,” the scout told SJHN.