The Sharks And Free Agency

rework those numbers man MAKE CLOWE FIT! MAKE HIM FIT! Nooooooooo not only did the loss versus the Hawks come back to pain me but the little trade Clowe you put in what seems like a disclaimer just stabbed me in the heart. Oh no…please just some semblance of the team left. Oh please…no selling the Clowie.

Sell Seto?

:(

I suspect Staubitz is gone…but you can fill in McLaren in his spot for 550k, and that’s fine. I’d also assume Ferriero will be ready to come up…put him on a lower scoring line, and his cap hit is 850k. In your scenario, now, that leaves a little under 4 mil for 2 Dmen. Which would mean we could pony up for one good shutdown guy (Michalek, Hamhuis), and then get a 7th D man for cheap (Joslin at 550k, anyone?).

Not bad, although, after the year Clowe had after the olympics and into the postseason, I suspect we’ll want to keep him around. I agree with the potential numbers for resigning Seto and Pavs, though…which is where I think a lot of people are undervaluing just how much money it will take to resign those two…

Under by 100K :)

I imagine there are 29 teams (Philly already found theirs) looking for a Chris Osgood goalie who elevates his game in the playoffs, even if he’s only mediocre in the regular season and takes a low cap hit. Most franchises hang on to the secret weapon, though, so we’re going to have to breed our own, if he’s not already here.

If I recall correctly, Greiss is here and Boucher is gone because of the play of Greiss in the AHL playoffs last year. I’m not saying we should have pulled Nabby, but we don’t really know what he has to offer for the “big game” until he plays in the “big game”.

I don’t see Philly letting Leighton go after this run. No way, no how.

I can’t see why he wouldn’t.

Philly loves the guy, regardless of what happens over the next couple weeks. They won’t let him go. He seems happy there, too, and gets along with the guys. He’s said in recent interviews that he’s tired of moving around, too. It seems that he found a good home and team in Philly; he’s comfie with them and the other way around as well.

Any goalie can go on a hot streak. I’m still super skeptical about Leighton. I mean, remember Dwayne Roloson and whats-his-name Markkannen?

Plus, Leighton has faced the New Jersey, Boston, and Montreal offenses. Even if their fans occasionally set things on fire, their offenses don’t. Reserve judgement on him until after the SCF, when Leighton will face a real tough offense.

I think that it may be hard to get market value because of his cap hit during the off season. however should next season go south I feel you could definitely move him as a rental at the deadline since I think this is the last year of his contract and at that point you have more leverage to move him.

All in all I think moving Joe would a) send the wrong message to the team and fans and b) signal a major rebuild and I’m not sure that the sharks will go that route. Its going to be an interesting summer.

I don’t see that happening…at all.

First, there’s no way, on the trade market, you get fair value for one of the top Cs (and arguably the top set up man) in the entire NHL. Not going to happen.

Thus, if you were to move Jumbo, it would basically mean DW is looking to clean house, calling this team a failure, and committing to rebuilding (and thus losing for a few years, most likely)…and IMO, this is not the time to be rebuilding. We still have a solid core of players…both veterens and young guys coming up. Even with having to let one of (or, gasp, both) Nabby and/or Patty go, this team will still be a Cup contender. You start trading guys like Joe Thornton, though, and all of a sudden the Sharks start looking like an also-ran in a very tough Pacific division.

3.625M + 1.700M = 5.325M coming off the books for us, with Regehr’s 4.02M coming in…

Gives us room to sign Patty, pairs Regehr with Pickles for what we would hope will be a shutdown D pair, and lets Demers settle into a bottom pairing. Plus some FTFers would start creaming their pants (/ahem).

Now… would the Flames do it? They don’t really need another D, right? But they could use the offense Clowe could potentially generate. Include a pick to sweeten the deal? 3rd rounder, maybe? Thoughts?

Hal GILL as a Shark! Now that’s funny!

We need a stronger defensive corp of players. Demers is going to turn into a good defensive player, but I am sure we can get rid of wallin and Huskins.

I think Beauchemin is unlikely, and same with Gill. However, Gill seems more likely of the two as MTL needs to shed some space.

Gill basically turns into a pylon except when playing against Crosby or Ovechkin, from what I can tell. It’s really weird. He’s a risky type.

If you head on over to PPP (where I assume the foremost experts on the Leafs are), well, they all trumpet Kaberle as a completely one-dimensional defenseman, which is misleading because he can’t really play D in the first place. Beauchemin is less touchable I think than Kaberle since the guy is just flat out better, having been under the tutelage of Scott Niedermayer in Anaheim.

Corvo in DC didn’t perform as advertised, but then again, he’d been funky since he his ligament in his knee got sliced by a skate. Main thing with Corvo is he brings good skating, offensive instincts, a bomb from the point, and raises his game in the playoffs. His lack of physicality though is maddening.

Kubina and Seidenberg are highly underrated. I think Seidenberg led all defensemen traded this past season in blocked shots. Hamhuis is a similar type.

Nicklas Lidstrom is also UFA…(but no way he leaves Detroit).

Would love Weber like crazy, but we can’t afford him. He will get huge money. Gill would also be great and would love to see it. I like all the guys on this list and one or two of them would be perfect for the Sharks.

We need more than one guy. I would like to see Huskins and Wallin replaced for sure. The Hawks exposed their lack of speed
and puck handling. We have some holes to fill

I don’t think many people on this board are calling for Nabby to not be resigned due to them blaming him for us not winning a Cup. It’s just, we have limited cap space, and its a question of where to best spend our resources. Many here may believe that in net is one place we can save some cap space, sign someone cheaper than Nabby to do almost as good a job, and then upgrade the defense around the goalie to provide some extra protection.

Well, obviously, if we can have whoever we want, we’d want to keep Nabby. I don’t mean to throw him out like you mentioned, but it’s the problem of maximizing your dollars while staying under the cap and also preparing for the future. Stats and highlights can be tailored to meet the needs of whoever’s massaging them and may not necessarily tell the whole story.

The way I see it, I feel like the Sharks have decent (cheap) goalies waiting in the wings, which allows us to spend money which would otherwise to go re-signing Nabby on players who may fill a position of more need.

For example, if we are able to land Regehr with the extra dollars, I think the upgrade to our #3/4 Dman spot would outweigh the potential drop in goaltending going from Nabby to Greiss/Stalock/whoever. Plus, it also allows us to evaluate the talent we have in between the pipes. Is it a risk? Yes, but that has to be weighed against any other help the team may receive.

I’m actually in favor of not re-signing Nabokov. Even if he takes a substantial hometown discount, I wouldn’t be in favor of it. So there you go, for me, it’s not the cap reason. For me, it has to do more with planning for this club’s future.

With Nabby dictating his starts and playing 70+ games season after season, we’ve really had little opportunity to see what kind of a future goalie crop we have. Greiss looks good in his few starts. Stalock won’t be ready for at least another year, and I don’t see DW urging him into the NHL until he’s ready.

Now, I know ya’ll are worried that without Nabokov, this club won’t have a chance in competing for a Stanley Cup. That’s just not simply true. Teams adjust. Players develop. And having Dan Ellis, Carey Price, or whomever as our next #1 goaltender is really not that bad an option.

Very few goalies have played for one club. And those goalies that have, were considered invaluable to the team: Richter, Brodeur, Billy Smith (five games with the Kings) aka they won a Stanley Cup. The problem with Nabokov and this is true of most goalies is that with age (Dwayne “Benjamin Button” Roloson being exception) their reflexes die hard and they become less effective in net. The facts support this. Nabokov will be 35 in two months. Very few starting goaltenders age of 35 or older have won a Stanley Cup. the last? Osgood. Before him? Patrick Roy. Both were 35. And then it’s a very long way up the list. But Osgood and Patrick Roy both were previous Cup winners.

We’ve grown attached to Nabokov for sure in San Jose. He was our first elite goaltender, but in the same way that Vachon moved on from the Kings, Hextall from the Flyers, Belfour from the Hawks, it’s just the nature of this sport. Nabokov is gonna be done in 3-5 years anyway, why delay the inevitable?

I doub either of them are in danger. I’d be seriously beside myself if either of those two did not return next year.

Jameson was quoted in the Merc saying it would be a few days until they started their internal evaluation.

But I have to think they have to do it quickly. If they plan on resigning Marleau or Nabby they only have 35 days until July 1.

I bet DW pulls a trade between the end of the finals and July 1. They have to figure out which direction they are going before they can evaluate whether to resign players under contract.

I agree with basically everything you’ve said here, especially all this:

Sign Patty, Scotty, Manny, and maybe a couple of others if they are good enough and cheap enough.
Let Nabby go, for what he is, he’s too expensive.
Let Blake retire.

I’d be okay with losing Seto, though. Not a popular thing to say around here, I know. I like him and he is really good, but I don’t think he’s a must-sign.

Wow! Negative one percent? He was worth the money, but it was obvious that DW didn’t have faith, since he didn’t see the ice in the playoffs.

That’s sad. I almost want to go vote for him, just to help the poor guy out!

I prefer this, whether this is by the undesirability of San Jose as a future team or just shrewd decision-making by DW.

There’s a good reason behind making your big moves via trades: it ensures that you don’t over-pay for what generally is a thin corps of quality players and assign them to fat, bloated contracts. But San Jose has been fortunate enough that many of the players that did come over in trades ended up signing with SJ before free agency (for example: Damphousse, Ricci)

Some of it may also just be that San Jose has been historically proficient at developing from within. Hence, the lack of necessity to go after the free agent.