Sharks acquire Eric Fehr from Maple Leafs, for some reason

Per Pierre LeBrun, San Jose has traded their seventh-round pick in 2020 to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization for forward Eric Fehr.

Leafs trade Eric Fehr to San Jose for a 7th RD pick in 2020. Sharks were looking for a 4C.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) February 20, 2018

Fehr, a 32-year-old center/winger, has played four games in the NHL this year for the Leafs. He has scored 28 points in 34 games while on loan to the San Diego Gulls of the AHL.

The move was likely Doug Wilson’s attempt to shore up the team’s fourth-line center position. Though why someone would opt for a player who seemingly can’t hack it in the NHL anymore rather than someone who, I dunno, gets regular minutes on an NHL team is beyond me.

Eric Fehr once scored 23 goals, believe it or not, and has finished on the Selke ballot three (3!) times during his career.

Last year, Fehr played 52 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins and one game for the Maple Leafs. During those 53 games, he:

• Played just 11 minutes (all strengths) per game
• Scored primary points at the rate of a fourth-liner
• Took more penalties than he drew
• Was outshot routinely by the opposing team. I mean, like out-of-control ridiculously outshot kinda thing. Like, it’s amazing the Penguins were able to generate any shots with him on the ice sort-of material./

Talk about tilting the ice in your favor!

The best part about this whole thing is that Fehr isn’t going to be anywhere near an upgrade on Barclay Goodrow.

Seventh-round picks typically don’t pan out. But in this case, I’d take the mystery box over the boat, as it appears Fehr might not even be NHL quality anymore.

Anyway, good luck with that, Pete DeBoer.