Late Night Thoughts

Team: 2020-21 San Jose Sharks

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 21, 2020

Published: Sep. 22, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I've spent a lot of time over the last 9 months trying to figure out what went wrong with the Sharks and how I would progress if I were the GM. I thought about at least 100 different factors and my hockey ideals and then I got really really freaking high and came up with this roster.

Is it perfect? Nope. Is it even close to being realistic? No way in hell. But I think it *is* more or less an outline of the philosophy I think the Sharks should follow, which is “Try and find a few reasonable pieces you can incorporate into the whole for several years, but try to avoid major trades, give your kids time to develop, and for the love of all that is holy stop trading away all our first round picks”

So. First of all, no, I did not address The Goalie Issue. Frankly, I liked the way that both Jones and Dell were playing in February and March, and I liked January too for Dell. I think the long break is going to be good for Jones’s mind, body, and play. I think working with Nabby has been extremely good for both of them, and I’d like to see what further work with him and being away from DeBoer’s pattern of “ride Jones until he dies, then start a cold Dell” can do for their games. And anyway, buying Jones out with the flat cap issue is a terrible idea and we should be able to get Dell cheap. Cheap is good.

I also didn’t do dick with the blue line, except re-sign Heed and make him the 6th D. He shouldn’t cost a lot and I felt like addressing the forwards issue was frankly more pressing. (I know there’s people who think that Merkley should be starting in the NHL but I think that would be a terrible idea. I paid serious attention to him at the prospect’s scrimmage last summer and I’ve watched a truly stupid number of clips of his play with the Knights on youtube and I just don’t think he’s ready for the show. He needs to put on some muscle, and he’s *got* to remember to keep moving after he makes a pass - I think tiime in the AHL is going to be important for him and I hope he gets it.)

Okay! So! The trades! I’m over Sörensen. He didn’t blow my skirt up in 18-19 and he sure as hell didn’t rustle my jimmies last season. But still, he’s an experienced NHLer with one year left on a fairly cheap contract and he’s proven that he can produce decent 3rd line numbers. Suomela still has a decent amount of promise and potential, and Viel could maybe make it? I don’t know, I just want another pick. Gimme prospects to develop!

I think Josh Anderson would be a smart target - Columbus is going to have a hell of a time keeping him *and* giving Dubois the raise he’s earned, and I strongly suspect that they’re going to have to move him to save cap room. I based both the trade and his salary on both the fact that his numbers last season were absolute dogcrap even before he was officially injured in March (do I think he was playing through an injury for the first half of the season? Yes, yes I do.) and that he just had surgery to repair his left shoulder and nobody knows what his play will be like going forward. Will he continue on his trajectory towards 30 goals and 50+ points in a season or will he wind up being more on the “four points in 26 games” path? It’s all a mystery at this point. I think that Columbus would be willing to deal for a couple of decent prospects and a 2nd round pick - given his injury I don’t know that they’d get a 1st for him. All of that said. he is arbitration eligible so I couldn’t go *too* low with his contract - based on his trajectory, injury, and last season 3x3.25 would be reasonable.

Which brings us to Labanc - while his numbers are actually not *that* bad, he had a pretty dramatic fall-off from where he was the season before and he’s still not figuring out how to play any kind of defense. That said, he has a lot of potential and is still pretty great on the PP. He should net a decent return - possibly better than this one, considering what we got for Goodrow :P. (this has been edited based on feedback)

Galchenyuk struggled mightily this last season, but prior to that he was a steady presence in Montreal. Sounds like he had a very Sharky year and here’s hoping for a rebound for us all. I like him, I think he could be a solid middle six winger again, and I based his salary on comparable numbers pulled from this here website.

I absolutely brought Jumbo and Patty back - if they want to play, they play. Ideally, John Leonard would be ready in 21-22 to take Patty’s place on the LW, and I’m confident that at least one of our baby centers will be ready to step up to 3rd line duties by that point. I also brought Melker and Noesen back because that fourth line really clicked towards the end of last season, Noesen was absolutely one of the best parts of last year and we barely had him at all, and Melker is absolutely needed for the PK now that Goodrow is gone. Also I like him. Hush.

ANYWAY. I wrote a novel. Sorry. Comments, critiques, etc etc are welcome - I love feedback on this kind of thing (and I also love mess, which is why I’m a Sharks fan, I guess.)

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