Tucked away in a piece about how former Shark Dany Heatley is ineligible to be bought out this offseason due to the tragic lightsaber injury he sustained at the hands of Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Minnesota Wild beat writer Michael Russo included a morsel relevant to San Jose’s interests:
Ironically, I’m hearing the man he was traded for – San Jose’s Martin Havlat – also has offseason abdominal surgery and thus can’t be bought out.
As you’d expect in this situation, there has never been any sort of indication from the organization itself that it’s interested in using one of its two compliance buyouts on the two remaining years of Havlat’s contract. But given the Czech winger’s lack of production and frequent time on the shelf since being acquired by the Sharks in exchange for Heatley two summers ago (as well as the reportedly acrimonious relationship between player and team this past postseason) the writing was just about etched into the wall. Per this report (which, I should stress, has yet to surface elsewhere but Russo is a reliable source), a buyout won’t even be an option.
As we mentioned in our review of Havlat’s season, he had an impressive run down the stretch in the regular season alongside Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture on the Sharks’ shutdown line so keeping him around for one more season (especially since the Sharks don’t necessarily need the cap space until next summer anyway) isn’t crippling. At the same time, if “abdominal surgery” is code for “sports hernia,” San Jose could be without Havlat’s services for the first few months of the 2013-14 season and without many viable options for filling his spot. That discussion decidedly constitutes jumping the gun but anyone who was counting on Havlat’s time in teal ending as soon as this summer’s buyout period begins might want to lower their expectations.
As many of you know, Fear the Fin is an independent site run by Sharks fans for Sharks fans. Help keep Fear the Fin independent by contributing to our