SAN JOSE, Calif. — Some guys have always scored goals in the NHL and seemingly always will, no matter what their skill level is, how they skate or what team they play on.
Tyler Toffoli is now 32, and it doesn’t feel like it’s been more than a decade since a fresh-faced finisher out of Scarborough, Ont., made his debut with the Los Angeles Kings and raised the Stanley Cup a year later.
Toffoli has had six more NHL homes since then, but the thing that he does best has yet to fail him. No matter where he is, the right wing scores goals. He’s already made that readily apparent with the San Jose Sharks, with a team-high six goals in his first 11 games after signing a four-year, $24 million contract in July.
“I think he’s just a goal-scorer,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “If I knew what made him so effective, I’d try and do it myself and maybe I’d score a few more goals. I don’t know, it’s just a goal-scoring touch. I’m starting to realize now having him on the team, it’s not just about what he does on the ice. It’s who he is off the ice, too, and (that) makes him such a great pickup.”
Think of the hitter who continually bats .300 or the basketball shooter who always drains three-pointers. In hockey, Toffoli is the embodiment of the complementary scorer. Rarely, if ever, is he the go-to option, but he’s always productive.
Calling him a specialist would be limiting and dismissive. Toffoli doesn’t just dine on power-play goals. He’s reached double digits on the power play in his two biggest scoring seasons, but he’s had no more than nine power-play goals in any other. Among his 266 career goals, 69 have come on some kind of man advantage. (He’s got nearly as many assists: 265.)
It isn’t because of blinding speed. Even when he piled up goals for the Ottawa 67s in the Ontario Hockey League, Toffoli was never known for his skating ability. According to the NHL’s EDGE statistical platform, Toffoli ranks below the 50th percentile when it comes to top skating speed or the number of speed bursts over 20 miles per hour.
It must be his blinding shot, right? Nope. His highest recorded shot speed this season is 86.80 miles per hour, which is above average but is far from elite.
Instead, Toffoli reads the direction of play, beats defenders to the spots that can make him dangerous and jumps all over scoring opportunities, such as on opening night with the Sharks, when he banged in a nice backhand pass from Macklin Celebrini. Or on Tuesday, when Jake Walman intercepted a failed clear by the Kings and Toffoli scored with a backhand finish around fallen goaltender David Rittich.
“He finds those areas,” Ferraro said. “He knows where to be around the net. … End of game, six-on-five situations. He’s a big part of this team and we’re excited to see what he can do.”
Even though the Sharks struggled to an 0-7-2 start before consecutive wins, Toffoli is already delivering a return on the Sharks’ investment. And while it’s early, he’s scoring at a rate higher than the last two seasons, when he scored 34 and 33 goals.
That last part provides some definition to his career. Toffoli has been a hired gun of sorts since his days with the Kings. When Los Angeles moved into a rebuild once its time of contending for the Stanley Cup was over, it traded him to the Vancouver Canucks in a 2020 pre-deadline deal.
Toffoli scored twice for the Canucks in the COVID-19-delayed 2020 playoffs. He then signed a four-year, $17 million contract with Montreal and, in the following 56-game season, he led the Canadiens in goals (28) and points (44) while adding another five tallies and 14 points in their surprising run to the Cup Final. The Canadiens couldn’t follow up that success and traded Toffoli to Calgary in Feb. 2022.
Reunited with former Kings coach Darryl Sutter, Toffoli scored 45 goals in his 119 games with the Flames — which included a team-leading 34 goals and 73 points in 2022-23, after Calgary traded Matthew Tkachuk and lost Johnny Gaudreau to free agency. Toffoli didn’t seek a future in Calgary, which traded him to New Jersey in June 2023, and after the Devils disappointed, they shipped him to Winnipeg this past March.
Six different teams in a four-year span. Toffoli changed addresses so often because he was wanted.
“Personally, that’s how I looked at it,” the winger told The Athletic. “There was always competitive teams that were trying to add a scorer and go deep in the playoffs. Moving from Montreal to go to Calgary, which was an amazing team that lost to a really good Edmonton team. From then on, going to Jersey, there was high expectations, and going to Winnipeg was obviously the same thing. Another team that was playing really well and was looking to go deep in the playoffs. I definitely looked at in that sense.
“With my contract and how teams can eat 50 percent and all that stuff, I felt like it was relatively easy to move.”
That was one thing Toffoli wanted to fix in this latest chapter of his career. He didn’t have trade protection in the four-year deal he signed with Montreal. It felt good to be coveted by successful teams, but that also meant being away from his wife, Cat, particularly during his Calgary and Winnipeg stays. He wasn’t around when their beloved dog died. It was difficult to see their relatives on both sides during the season.
This summer, Toffoli was determined to put down roots. The Sharks had plenty of cap space and general manager Mike Grier was set on upgrading the team’s talent after a dreadful 19-win season. Not only did Grier offer a $6 million salary, but he included a full no-movement clause. Also, the fact that Cat, who previously worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers and met Tyler at a Kings-themed event, is a Monterey native meant that they could be near her parents.
“The stability of me having a no-trade and all that was extremely important,” Toffoli said. “It was hard on myself — my wife, obviously, but my parents, too. There’s a lot of emotions that go into it, and it’s not easy moving around as much as I did.
“I think it’s just one of those things where we kind of set our grounds here. We’ve got a house and stuff. Everything’s pretty much settled. It’s definitely a good feeling.”
The Sharks offered the stability that the Toffolis craved. They live in the tony Willow Glen section of San Jose, a popular enclave among past and current players. Fellow wives and significant others immediately welcomed Cat with an outing to Napa.
And while victories only arrived recently, the Sharks are already benefitting from Toffoli. Four goals in your first five games with a new team will leave an impression.
“He’s a veteran who’s won,” Grier said in July after signing him. “He’s always produced. He’s been good in the room. He’s been in situations like this in Montreal and to a lesser degree in Vancouver, playing with young players there with (Elias) Pettersson and Quinn Hughes and kind of helping those guys grow. I know Jack Hughes speaks the world of him about helping his growth.
“The opportunity to add him was really exciting for us, with what we have here as young players to be able to help them come along and help their game offensively and help them kind of stay even-keeled through the grind. There’s going to be ups and downs, and someone who’s won a Cup knows that. His leadership and goal-scoring and all that stuff is really important to us.”
While Toffoli said the Sharks “want to prove a lot of people wrong” as a retort to the consensus expectation that they’ll lose a lot of games this season, the reality is that they’re in the initial stages of a build-up. But bringing in Toffoli also helped send a message to those who have been part the difficult teardown.
“It shows the kind of person that he is,” Ferraro said. “I figured that out the first day I met him. He’s a good guy. A good teammate. Obviously, his play on the ice speaks for itself. It just speaks to who he is as a person. He wants to come in here and he wants to make a difference. He wants to be a leader amongst this somewhat younger group that we have in this room.
“It’s a good feeling for us other guys that have been here, like myself for five or six years, to see guys that want to come in and help turn this thing around.”
Toffoli said San Jose also was attractive because of the arrival of Celebrini, whom the Sharks drafted with the No. 1 pick this June. First-year coach Ryan Warsofsky immediately put the two together on a line, and they took the chemistry that they generated in their first exhibition game into opening night.
“That’s kind of the goal in this league, right?” Warsofsky said. “You’ve got to score goals.”
But that’s the thing with Toffoli. What jersey he wears doesn’t impact his ability to put the puck in the net. Nor does his linemates. Celebrini hasn’t played since his debut because of a hip injury, but with or without the teenager beside him, it feels like you can jot down another 30-goal season for Toffoli.
Some guys, big stars or not, will just score goals.
(Photo of Tyler Toffoli: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
