Great to hear that perspective on this thank you, thats exactly what I was thinking when I thought Merkley would be a very desirable target for the Habs. I think Domi would end up being a C for us regardless considering Thornton isn't gonna be around much longer but thats great input. Other Sharks fans are telling me its too much to offer on our end so just out of curiosity, if you were to move Domi would you still accept the same trade but instead of the 1st its our 2nd? Keep in mind our 2nd is going to be very early in the round and basically just be a late 1st this year anyways.

No question the goalie situation is priority number one, but with how many goalies are on the market this offseason Im confident it will get figured out. Jones can still be valuable as a 1a/1b but we need someone that can play 40 games. However, we are actually not in as much of a cap crunch as a lot of the teams in the league are right now so Im not as concerned with moving one of the big D contracts just yet. I still see the value in keeping Vlasic and Burns around

If I were the Sharks I would be trading guys like Couture, Burns, and Karlsson for some young studs. In 3 or so years you guys will dry out...

In 3 years or so maybe, but it’s way too soon for that. We’re still in “win now” mode and can easily be a contender again next year with a few key moves

Who is trading for Burns and Karlsson though?
Maybe you can find a taker for Burns but Karlsson would be almost impossible to move in a flat cap, not to mention he has a full NMC.

They need to go all in as possible to win a cup and deal with the down years later.

Just an example of the older players. Doesn’t nessicarily mean Karlsson

ok but I highly doubt this team wins a cup

Any team can win a cup any given year, thats whats so great about hockey. But this lineup that I have posted here has enormous talent and very few holes in it, and would have as good of a shot as anyone

Probably yes, I’m interested in William Villeneuve RHD, and is around early 2nd rd pick and we could move up by trading one of our many mid/late round pick to make sure. So yes, 2020 2nd + Merkley + Sorensens + Ivan vs Domi is a good offer. This, Domi + little something vs 8th OA BUF is another good trade for Domi or Domi to WPG for their 2020 1st + Vesalainen or 2020 2nd + Heinola are trades I’ll make for Domi. Otherwise I’ll keep him and move Suzuki to the wing, Suzuki can take faceoffs

I fully agree this is a big overpay by the sharks. I'd say Domi is worth that package minus the picks. But I lost you when you said RHD is a position of need. Unless you want to put a 8 mil or 11.5 mil dman on the 3rd pairing.

That was also due to cap reasons with Goodrow being cheap and signed an additional year and we also sent Tampa Bay a 3rd rounder (that will be like a late 2nd) in the deal as well. So the difference in picks was basically a difference of 40 spots in the draft plus Goodrow. Disingenuous to categorize that deal as Goodrow = 1st round pick value.

I'm not opposed to giving up that sort of value in a trade, just think there are players better than Domi that I would be giving it up for instead. If he is a center, I'm fine to play him there but I'd rather it be a RH shot. If he is a wing, same deal. Meier took a major step back playing on his off-side and Kane is a definite LW as well. Finding some RH shots to balance out a very LH centric group up front is where I would be looking to spend trade currency as opposed to targeting Domi.

Fair point, that was my thought process exactly when I made sure to add MTLs 4th rounder in the trade as well. Perhaps that pick needs to be a 3rd though

But out of curiosity then, who do you see as being a better target? I like Domi because I think he would eventually be a center either way once Thornton retires and I want to prepare for that now, but I do see what you're saying there. I think whoever we go after needs to be someone around 25 years old as well, I want someone with experience but we have enough people pushing 30 as is. Also wouldn't mind having someone with a physical style of play, maybe take some weight off of Kane out there. Domi checked all of my boxes but if you had someone else in mind I would love to hear ideas

of course they can win, but I doubt it and I disagree about having very few holes

first off, the goaltending is weak. Jones has been under .900 for the past 2 seasons and I don't think it's very likely he's going to be able to turn that around. Greiss had a decent save percentage, but he was the backup for a team that had the lowest amount of goals against just a season before.

The second problem is that Middleton is in a starting role. He is somewhat reliable but is a 7th defenseman at best imo.

The 3rd problem is the 3rd line. You can make the case that Brassard is a competent 3rd liner, but Maroon and Noesen are not. Maroon played on one of the best teams 4th lines and averaged barely over 1/3 a point per game. He's also 32 so he's definitely not improving. Noesen averaged less than 1/4 a point per game. Definitely not viable for a top 9 forward.

The 4th and final problem is that you only have a 20 man roster and little cap space. You would need to make over a million in space just to have a 22 man roster.

Things were very different then.

There’s no question that it will all come down to goaltending at the end of the day, you’re absolutely right about that. I have faith that Jones can be better in a 1a/1b type duo and Greiss has proven to be extremely capable in that situation as well, so I do believe it would be a massive improvement to bring him in to take a load off of Jones. But yes, that will be the deciding factor.

However I entirely disagree with about the 3rd line, I think this would be more than capable enough. The scoring is going to come from our Top 6 and blue line, our bottom 6 doesn’t have to put up huge points. St Louis won the cup last year and their bottom 6 was far from special.

If one of our “biggest holes” is who our 6th D man is then we’re in pretty good shape. I put Middleton in because I think he hasn’t been given enough of a look yet, but that spot is of course interchangeable.

As well, there are a few ways to free up a little in space with the contracts here. I probably over paid Brassard a bit for one, but again if the biggest holes you see are that small then I think we would be in pretty good shape.

Our biggest problems this year were goaltending, lack of Top 6 scoring, and in my opinion physicality (even PDB said the team was soft). This could potentially fix them all

I think we're in the minority here, Papi. As usual it seems.

Its always an uphill battle for us