Team: 2022-23 San Jose Sharks

Initial Creation Date: May 13, 2022

Published: May 14, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Lots of ifs and maybes here, but if everything in my plan came together I think fans and ownership would be happy!
Will (our Interm GM) has stated Burns and Karlsson are on the trading block, and I agree one needs to go. Prefer to deal Karlsson, but Burns will be easier to move. Simek and Balcers are moved for cap space and because we already have in house replacements for them, and Hill becomes the odd man out in net.
Draft we get either a C or D prospect, Lambert has the best raw skill in the draft but has fallen out of favor with a lot of teams, hopefully he falls to 11th and we can grab him and work with him. He has the ability and skill to be the top player from this draft but could also very easily bust and never play in the NHL so he is high risk high reward but at 10+ our choices really are either decent at best or high risk vs. reward. The rest of the draft is Best Player Available, with an emphasis on raw talent and and skill that we can work with to hopefully find another Diamond in the rough like years past (Laroque 21 Coe 20). another goalie prospect at some point in the draft wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Free Agency sees us picking up 2 serviceable short term D in Edler and Miller (there might be better options out there but they both provide a bit of offense while still providing decent Defense) both can hold their own in a top 4 setting but are not long term fixes. The goal for them is to fill in and for Edler to provide to us what he did this year for LA, and LA likely moves on and gets someone younger like Chychrun. for Miller he’s been injured a lot with Buffalo but is not long removed from 2 years of really good play in Vegas plus both are just stop gaps until Laroque, Kinazev, Hatakka, Cicek etc. will hopefully all be pushing for NHL time.
the biggest offseason acquisition is of course Forsberg! his 30-40 goals would have made us a playoff contender. Add in skilled rookies Bordeleau and Eklund allong with improvements from 2nd year players and Injury returns and this team looks playoff ready.
key losses: Hill, Simek, Balcers, Burns, Vlasic.
Key Additions: Forsberg, Bordeleau, Eklund, Edler, Miller, Lambert.
key returns from injury: Knyzhov Labanc
I would honestly prefer to Move Meier Burns and Karlsson and go full rebuild but Ownership doesn’t want that and we have enough youth that will be NHL starting to trickle into our lineup starting next year. sharks should be good next year with this lineup and we should be able to continue to grow.

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