Joe Pavelski

Joseph James Pavelski was born on July 11, 1984, in Plover, Wisconsin. His family is Polish, and the name was originally spelled Pawelski. He won a state title at Stevens Point Area Senior High in 2002 and then left home for Waterloo of the USHL, where he struggled at first.

They weren't. He scored 36 goals that first year in Waterloo, led the league, was the rookie of the year, and the Sharks drafted him in the seventh round in 2003, 205th overall. The next year Waterloo won the Clark Cup and he was USA Hockey's junior player of the year. Then two seasons at Wisconsin, 101 points in 84 games, and the 2006 NCAA championship.

He made his NHL debut on November 22, 2006, and scored in a 6 to 3 win over the Kings, the 11th Shark ever to score in his first game. He had 7 goals in his first 12 games. Randy Hahn started calling him Little Joe, a nod to Jumbo Joe Thornton.

By 2007/08 he was playing all 82 games, and in the 2008 playoffs he led the team with three game winning goals. In the 2010 playoffs he had multiple goals in three straight games, the first player to do that since Mario Lemieux in 1992. That February he'd been the only Shark on the U.S. Olympic team that won silver in Vancouver.

He kept climbing. In 2013/14 he scored 41 goals with 79 points, made the NHL second All Star team and finished seventh in the Hart voting. On October 5, 2015, the Sharks named him the ninth captain in team history, over Thornton and Patrick Marleau, who'd both worn the C before.

That first year with the C, he scored 38 goals and led the NHL with 11 game winners. Then he took the Sharks where they'd never been. He led the league with 14 playoff goals, 4 game winners and 5 power play goals, all Sharks records, and San Jose made the Stanley Cup Final for the first time before losing to Pittsburgh in six.

Every day before practice he'd stand in front of the net and tip pucks off Brent Burns' shots, until he was maybe the best deflection guy in the league. On December 1, 2017, he scored his 300th goal on a pass from Thornton, only the second Shark ever to get there.

His last year in teal was 2018/19, and he went out with 38 goals and the wildest night in Sharks history. In Game 7 against Vegas he was cross checked and hit his head on the ice, and while he was in the training room, the Sharks scored four goals on the major and won in overtime. He came back for Game 7 against Colorado and scored the first goal.

When he hit free agency that summer the Sharks wouldn't go three years, and on July 1, 2019, he signed with Dallas for three years and $21 million. He played five more seasons, went to another Final in 2020, had a career high 81 points at 37, scored his 1,000th point in 2023, and retired on July 16, 2024.

In San Jose he played 963 games and scored 355 goals and 761 points, second in team history in goals and third in points, plus 100 points in 134 playoff games. Across his whole career he scored 74 playoff goals, more than any American born player ever.

On December 10, 2025, he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in St. Paul, Minnesota. He and Scott Gomez were the first Sharks players to go in since Tony Granato in 2020.

Pavelski scored 48 playoff goals as a Shark and he was at his best when the season was on the line. As a second year player in 2008 he led San Jose with three playoff game winners.

In 2016 he carried the team. He led the entire NHL with 14 playoff goals, 4 of them game winners and 5 of them on the power play, setting Sharks records in all three, and San Jose made its first Stanley Cup Final.

And in 2019 he was the heart of the wildest comeback in team history without even being on the ice, then came back from that head injury to score the first goal of a Game 7 win over Colorado that sent the Sharks to the conference final.

He finished his career with 74 playoff goals, the most ever by an American born player.