The San Jose Sharks need more from Mikkel Boedker.
After signing a four-year, $16-million contract with San Jose after spending his entire career with the Arizona Coyotes - save for last year's trade deadline deal that sent him to the Colorado Avalanche - Boedker has yet to find a role with the Sharks, or much of the net.
The move to Silicon Valley reunited Boedker with coach Peter DeBoer, who he had previously played under while with the OHL's Kitchener Rangers, when he scored 73 points in 62 games. But the reunion hasn't yielded immediate returns, with Boedker recording just two points in 22 contests.
In Saturday's 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks, the Danish winger saw a season-low in ice time, coming in at 8:56 after being kept off the ice for the entire third period. DeBoer hopes the benching will spark the streaky winger.
"I would hope he's pissed off. (Benching) is always a last resort as a coach," DeBoer told Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area. "There's no doubt (he's squeezing his stick). He's a point producer, and his contract says he should be producing points."
Boedker scored 39 points in 62 games with the Coyotes last season before adding 12 in 18 with the Avs, tying his career-high of 51 points set in 2013-14.
"You've got to get out of that mindset. This is about winning games, and that stuff will follow," DeBoer added. "It's not an easy spot to be in where he's at, but you've got to battle through."
Boedker will be in the lineup Tuesday when the Sharks take on his former club, the Coyotes. As fate would have it, Boedker's last point on the season came in a Nov. 1 loss to Arizona.
