Utterly Irrational Trade Thought Involving Other People’s Stars
I was just looking at San Jose’s numbers.
They have a cap hit of $55.4 with seven players left to sign, to get to 23. That’s simply not doable, even if they populate the rest of their team entirely with entry level prospects. With the players they have, it’s reasonable to assume signing the remaining 4-7 players will take them up at least another $4MM.
Which will put them about $3MM over the cap, at minimum.
There are several possible salary dumps that would get them back under the cap. In descending order of salary: Thornton, Boyle, Marleau, Cheechoo, Michalek, Ehrhoff. (I assume Blake and Clowe, just re-signed, will not be traded.) I think it’s likely that they will end up needing to dump slightly more than the salaries of the last three guys, which narrows the field down to Thornton, Boyle and Marleau. (They’ve been trying to trade Ehrhoff, I believe I read that somewhere, but to no avail and not as a salary dump.) My guess is they’re happiest with Boyle and it’s going to come down to the oft-rumored trade of one of the two big forwards. I think this because of all the talk in San Jose about this version of the Sharks not working, and the blame falling squarely on the shoulders of Thornton and Marleau. It just makes sense that they won’t both be with the team next year. I don’t know what DL’s opinion of Thornton is.
But DL drafted Marleau.
San Jose has only three centers on its roster. Those two, and Pavelski. So they’re going to be amenable to taking a center back. Or two. Which is why I think it’s not crazy to imagine that the Sharks would deal Marleau to the Kings…
…for Stoll, Richardson and a pick.
I know. Stop laughing. But, really: Smyth for Quincey and Preissing??
The Sharks get two centers, one with a nice manageable contract and one who is dirt cheap, both of whom can play. And they get about $2.7MM in cap relief. The Kings get a legitimate top-six center. Whether this happens or not, it is a fact that the Sharks have to deal $3MM worth of contracts to somebody. And somebody like Stoll is about the most they can afford to take back.
I can’t imagine DL isn’t thinking the same thing.
[and yes, I know that Marleau has a NTC. Do I think he would waive it to come to LA and play for Lombardi? By George, yes I do! It's more likely than he would waive it to be traded to Ottawa for Dany Heatley, which is by the way a rumor making "the rounds."]
[late update: if you prefer, the whole exercise works just as well with Thornton, but you would have to throw in another piece to make the cap work for the Kings: Johnson, maybe.]
[p.s. the other ingenious thing about this move is, if the cap plummets next summer, Marleau walks: he's a UFA. Normally, that would be horrible, right? But in this case, it's leverage. It lets DL rent the asset for a year, gives him more room next summer, not less, and then if the cap doesn't drop precipitously, he can re-sign Marleau if he wants to. And Marleau will want to sign here by then, because the Kings will be better than the f'ing Sharks. You heard it here first.]
[p.p.s. I'm sorry, Sharks fans. I used to like the Sharks. But loyalty-challenged Rob Blake's ass checks and Roenick's Roenickyismnessitude(ity) forced my hand. (I know he's gone, but the stench lingers.) I rooted for you two seasons ago in the playoffs. Does that count for anything?]
Match the Pathetic Quote to the Pathetic Shark or Flame (with bonus Cammalleri “tell”)
Both the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames went into the playoffs with hopes of playing deep into the post-season. For the Sharks, they thought a President’s Trophy and a dynamic regular season was a sign that they were on the right track. For the Flames, they thought the addition of Olli Jokinen gave them a talented final piece.
Whoops. A day after both teams found themselves on the outside looking in, members of both teams started spouting out pretty much the same cliche. See if you can figure out which team each quote came from. Answers after the jump.
1: “This was the best team, no question. The organization gave us the opportunity to go deep and to win and we didn’t get it done.”
2: “It’s tough—I really enjoyed [note past tense] playing here, and I really thought we had a lot of hockey left. I thought we were going to do something special.”
3: “It’s really disappointing with the expectations we had this year and we didn’t come through again.”
4: “You don’t expect this to happen when you have such a good team. We expected more out of ourselves and we didn’t live up to that.”
5: “This is something I didn’t expect. I figured to be playing a lot longer than this. We really thought we had a special team. And to end the season the way we did, it’s not fun.”
6: “I was pretty disappointed in what happened and in my play, too. I really don’t have answers to anything, right now. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t do more individually.”
1: Calgary, Jarome Iginla
2: Calgary, Michael Cammalleri
3: San Jose, Evgeni Nabokov
4: San Jose, Patrick Marleau
5: San Jose, Jonathan Cheechoo
6: Calgary. Todd Bertuzzi
via KuklasKorner : Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog : Shark or Flame? .
So when is Sharks’ Presidents’ Trophy parade? – San Jose Mercury News
So what positives can the Sharks draw from the fact that the darn puck just somehow decided on its own to go into the net more times for Anaheim?
They can finally schedule that Presidents’ Trophy parade.
Doug Wilson needs extra time to figure out how to trade two guys with no-trade clauses.
Joe Thornton wants to avoid reporters for the next five months, so now that’s a lot easier to do.
(Side note: Thornton skipping the media session after the last two losses should say a ton. Barry Bonds might have blown past everybody after he hit two home runs, but he was there after elimination games, even Game 7 of the World Series. Terrell Owens talks when it all goes up in flames, or did you forget the “that’s my quarterback” tear-jerker? Rich Gannon and Tim Brown talked after the Super Bowl humiliation. The stars stand up.)
After the Sharks boosted payroll by $15 million and played four fewer home playoff games than a year ago (at an estimated $1 million a pop in revenue), someone might actually believe them when they say they lost money again.
They are living up to expectations, dummy. As the anchor for Canadian network TSN noted at the end of the highlights package Monday night, “No one picked the Sharks to go to the Cup final, I don’t think, and there’s a good reason.”
via So when is Sharks’ Presidents’ Trophy parade? – San Jose Mercury News.
Kukla’s Korner: McLellan requests to return to Wings, Retroactive to April 1 (hilarious)
In a stunning turn of events, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Monday accepted the request of San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan to return to the Detroit Red Wings.
Unaware that the playoffs had even started, Bettman admitted that McLellan’s request was unprecedented and caught him off guard.
“This was a surprise,” Bettman said. “But in the end, the league determined that it would be best for the NHL if McLellan returned to a city where people actually care about the sport.”
via KuklasKorner .
Boo hoo hoo: Hockey News Says Sharks Are Suffering from (drum-roll) ROTTEN LUCK!
The turning point in this year’s playoffs for the San Jose Sharks occurred on the last day of the regular season. The Sharks now know that was the day their playoff fate was sealed.
When the St. Louis Blues defeated the Colorado Avalanche 1-0 in Game 82, it ended an improbable run that vaulted the Blues into sixth place in the Western Conference. It also dropped the Anaheim Ducks down to eighth place in the West and gave the Sharks their worst possible opponent in the first round.
The article goes on to say that the Ducks “aren’t really ” an eighth place team. Ha ha (ha).
Petty Schadenfreude Update: Sharks Lose Two at Home Not Necessarily Because Rob Blake is an Idiot
Although it’s almost too much to take, listening to those insufferable Ducks announcers blathering on, especially when they’re reading the Sharks the Last Rites with six minutes to go in the game. I nearly forgot I was rooting for them to win.
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