Meanwhile, Back At Someone Else's Ranch

by Diecast Dude on Jul 2, 2008 11:57 AM PDT in Sharks News

Dallas has signed agitator extraordinaire Sean Avery which will make them even more of a pain to play against. One can only imagine the high hilarity that will take place during every Sharks-Ducks game next year, given the latter team's penchant for pushing it whenever possible.

Detroit has landed probably the best offensive player in this year's UFA crop by signing Marian Hossa. Great, now they have even more firepower.

And the Sharks? You tell me. I might be able to hear you over the sound of a nearby wall splintering from me pounding my head against it after Doug Wilson's "if anything, we’re a better team now than we were at the beginning of the last season. . . . We’ve gained a year’s experience, there’s the excitement of Todd (McLellan) coming in" line following Campbell's departure. Come on. That's nothing more than an addition to all the lines repeated every summer:

"Look at the upside of the players we're developing from within. They're not there yet, but one of these years they will be. Honest."
"We're spending our money on re-signing our own players. That's the same thing as signing free agents. No really."
"We're already a championship-caliber team. We just need to play up to our talent level. Obviously it's all Ron Wilson's fault that never happened."

Uh, no. You're not good enough. Your kids aren't good enough. You're not doing anything other than maintenance work by re-signing players already on the team. It wasn't Ron Wilson's fault that the team has never been to the finals, has been in the conference finals once in franchise history, and has been two and through three straight years. So please don't insult the fans by telling us otherwise.

Your division and conference opponents have improved themselves. You haven't. You talk trade as a better way to bring in who you want than free agency. Fine. Who are you going to give up? Marleau? Oops, sorry, forgot. No-trade clause. Cheechoo? Good luck trying to convince other teams he's more than a one year wonder, and if he isn't why would you be trying to send him elsewhere when your team suffers from severe scoring deficiency? Mitchell and/or Pavelski? Too much genuine upside. Clowe? No way. Some of those kids you keep telling us are future Stanley Cup hoisters? Whatever.

I'm not of the "the Sharks have to do something in the next five minutes or all is lost" mindset. Training camp doesn't start for several weeks. However, San Jose had better do something if it wants to be something other than a vague approximation of a low speedbump to whoever gets them in the playoffs assuming the Sharks get that far. And whatever it does had better be really, really, really good.

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give it a rest...for now

doug has wanted avery for at least the past couple years, and the sharks were one of three teams redden was considering. sure, some of what were being told by management is fluff – it reminds me of the first year after the lockout when the sharks had virtually the same team, believing it was not only good enough to get back to the wcf, but could be a championship team.

bottom line, the D FA crop was pretty lame to begin with – we werent gonna find much help there. not sure what else is out there in terms of forwards, but all in all not a great year regarding the FA talent pool. doug can only do so much, if guys dont wanna play here then theres only so much he can do, ala bcampbell. the one thing that i do worry about is the possibility that management is reluctant to overspend on occasion to reel guys in – but we cant accurtely speculate on that yet.

lets see what happens in the coming weeks. doug is one of the most aggressive, active gms in the trade market – he wont stand pat. ill have some patience on the matter and then i think we can make a fair assessment of whether management is really full of…

by calhockey2 on Jul 2, 2008 1:07 PM PDT reply actions

I don't care when they do something...

.... although it’d be nice to have it wrapped up before training camp.

What I’m more anxious about is will it have the needed impact, although nothing’s a certainty. After all, the way Campbell played in the regular season led us all to believe he’d be a superstud in the playoffs.

It’s just frustrating.

by Diecast Dude on Jul 2, 2008 3:25 PM PDT up reply actions

re: hossa

detroit was the only team that could pull that off – otherwise youd see hossa in edmonton for 9 mill/yr over 5-6 years, along with possibily montreal amongst others. he aint worth that money, over that time period and wouldnt consider a “discount “(7.4/yr) from the sharks like he did the pens.

by calhockey2 on Jul 2, 2008 1:12 PM PDT reply actions

I can't help but echo your sentiments, man.

It is frustrating. We continue to come up short in the second round year after year, and when we finally shift things around, we don’t do anything in way of getting better players. (Unless you count Brian Campbell walking.)

by xcoma on Jul 2, 2008 3:44 PM PDT reply actions

Well. we THOUGHT Campbell was the real deal...

... ah well.

I’m almost more irritated about Avery. I don’t blame the Sharks for not getting him, but the thought of his antics along with Ott every time we play the Stars—GAAH!

But, y’know, Doug Wilson has forgotten more about hockey than I could even dream of knowing. He knows what the Sharks are up against in the division. I sometimes get the impression he believes his roster is better than it actually is, but hopefully he can get past that and view the team with full objectivity. And swing the necessary deals. And McLellan can hopefully do what Ron Wilson couldn’t, namely get it through the team’s head that it has to work for everything rather than sailing through on sheer talent alone.

by Diecast Dude on Jul 2, 2008 4:38 PM PDT up reply actions

boyle...

really seems like the best option to trade for at this point to replace campbell, and is being actively shopped. in some respects i like him better than campbell. tampa is trying to dump some salary, but obviously won’t take peanuts in return….so my question is, whats reasonable for the guy? off espn:

Dan Boyle | Lightning | Interested: Sharks? Devils? Flyers? Coyotes? Senators?
The Lightning have offered to trade D Dan Boyle to the Senators, according to the Ottawa Sun.

Boyle signed a six-year contract that averages $6.67M a season near the end of last season and would have to waive his no-movement clause for any deal to be done.

League sources tell the Sun that new Lightning owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules have talked to every team in the league about trading Boyle, but haven’t yet approached him about any proposed deal.

The Sun said the Lightning would want either F Antoine Vermette or D Andrej Meszaros in the deal.

also, what about jagr? he wants 2 yrs at 7 mill per…by all means id give it to him. media is giving all the attention to pitt and ny but id overpay to grab him at this point. guy still put up 71 pts last year, just a question of whether hes comfortable coming west. seems like a no brainer to me to throw some money at him with how far below cap we are, and a short contract wont harm the future at all – regardless of how much is offered.

by calhockey2 on Jul 2, 2008 5:07 PM PDT reply actions