San Jose Sharks
Why Is Seattle Selecting Alex True?
The expansion draft won’t be televised until tonight, but San Jose Hockey Now has confirmed that the San Jose Sharks have lost Alexander True to Seattle.
Pierre LeBrun was the first to break the news.
The Kraken submitted their expansion draft selections to the NHL and the NHLPA at 7 AM PT this morning. Each NHL team, except for the Vegas Golden Knights, will lose one player to the expansion club.
At first glance, True’s selection was off the board. Most speculation centered around the San Jose Sharks losing Dylan Gambrell, Radim Simek, or Ryan Donato. SJHN thought that Matt Nieto would be the best pick.
Between Gambrell, Simek, Donato, and Nieto, that’s a lot more NHL experience than True’s 19 NHL games.
But reading between the lines, it’s clear that Seattle did not love San Jose’s exposure list.
The Kraken weren’t likely to do the Sharks a favor and eat Simek’s contract. The bottom-pairing defenseman has three years left at $2.25 million per. Donato can score, but the RFA’s qualifying offer has to be for over $2 million — too rich for a player of his caliber. Meanwhile, Gambrell and Nieto are considered marginal NHL players.
True may also end up being a marginal NHL player, but the 24-year-old does have some upside and is also solid organizational depth. In contrast to say fellow center Gambrell, True is cheaper and likely to be signed to a two-way contract, while providing a similar level of play. Gambrell is making $1.1 million, regardless of where he plays, while the RFA True made $700,000 in the NHL, $70,000 in the AHL in his last contract.
You can shuttle True back and forth between Seattle and your AHL affiliate without much risk of the 6-foot-5 centerman being claimed off waivers.
That’s my guess, at least. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s probably more a condemnation of the San Jose Sharks’ organizational depth than anything.
Marleau, Setoguchi, Ricci Welcome New GM Grier Back to Sharks
Give Grier a Chance: First Thoughts on New Sharks GM
REPORT: Kane Grievance Won’t Be Resolved Before Free Agency, Sharks Prefer To Keep Reimer?
On Sharks’ PR Problem, Best & Worst-Case Draft Scenarios
CONFIRMED: Grier To Be Named New Sharks GM
Why Sharks Must Trade for Pastrnak
Who Should Sharks Target in Free Agency, Trades? My First Thoughts
No Surprise Blichfeld Has Fled Sharks
SOURCE: Sharks Down to 3 GM Finalists, International Candidate Among Them? (+)
If Sharks Get Kane Back, Why Might He Refuse Trade to Oilers? (+)
On Sharks’ PR Problem, Best & Worst-Case Draft Scenarios
Sharks’ 3 Biggest Draft Questions
Profiling Mike Grier, Ray Whitney
Eklund Confirms He’s Playing at World Juniors, Talks About “Tough” SHL Season
Draft Prospect Charlie Wright Talks Saskatoon Teammate Tristen Robins
Your last sentence I think says it all!
yup!!
sadly, this.
except if Knyzhov or Ferraro were eligible to be taken we’d have lost one of them…so, we are actually lucky our youngsters aren’t eligible to be taken.
Plenty of deeper teams had both a lot of good players exposed and good players exempt — COL for example with Donskoi etc. available and Newhook/Byram exempt.
True will be for Seattle what he was here. Spot duty for injuries and end if the season.
Best of luck Alex!!
[…] the Seattle Kraken select RFA Ryan Donato in tomorrow’s expansion draft. (Update: The Kraken will select Alex True, which doesn’t affect these […]
Smart move by the Kraken. When Seattle had the choice from among the Sharks offerings, it made sense to go cheap and play for upside. True probably has the highest upside of any of the Sharks exposed players, and he comes with the lowest risk due to his low-end two-way contract. fwiw, True was the one guy I hoped they’d pass on. Even so, his most likely projection is 4th liner, which isn’t much of a loss to SJS. Alas, as Sheng points out (rather pointedly), the Sharks didn’t offer much of value and that is part of the problem… Read more »
100% this
total missed opportunity to potentially dump more than a marginal NHL player on a big contract. with all the cap space in the world, needing to reach the cap floor, and also get instant legitimacy, the Kraken could’ve easily absorbed any of the Sharks “stars” contracts.
the Hill move and this non move, has me concerned about DW.
As we’ve seen though, it looks like Seattle was reluctant to take on big money. Pure guess, but it’s no guarantee that Kraken would’ve touched Burns/Kane/Couture. We’ll see what they do with side deals — seems like they’ll take big money if you send them picks too.
perhaps Cooch and Burns would be a stretch w/o heavy incentives, but Kane’s been a big points producer with the Sharks on a reasonable contract for a player on the cusp of 30 with only 4 years left on the deal. maybe the off ice drama would make them hesitate, but it doesn’t seem to detract from his on ice play.
they paid Oleksiak 23M over 5 years, lol!
I guess I can’t say I’m concerned because I’ve come to a place of acceptance with the direction of the Sharks (it’s not like I can get on the horn with Hasso and persuade him to allow for a proper rebuild). With that in mind, I don’t expect any of those big contracts to be dumped or absorbed (except for Jones’, which needs to be bought out). I can see what Doug is trying for, and I don’t think it’ll get the team far, but I think Hill could be a good pickup and if other solid moves are made… Read more »
Alex played for the Seattle Thunderbirds in Juniors. He was a fan favorite and will bring some instant name recognition to fans in the area who only followed junior hockey prior to getting an NHL team (yes, there are many). He’s not an awful pick for the Kraken. He will give them some depth and/or anchor their AHL affiliate. I personally think Alex didn’t get the chance he deserved with the Sharks, and I wish him all the best.
Side note: I wish the Kraken picks had not been leaked. It ruins the excitement for the draft tonight.
I understand why fans aren’t fond of the leaks — and obviously, as a reporter, I’m biased — but we’re just doing our jobs. You leave 10 hours of lead time between Seattle submitting their picks at 7 AM to expansion draft at 5 PM — with so many possible leaks from NHL, NHLPA, agents and players that need to be informed — it’s going to happen. They should’ve known better, candidly. The other point: My opinion is the local connection thing is overblown. I didn’t get all the Gambrell projections that mentioned Bonney Lake — because Gambrell is selling… Read more »
I feel like we didn’t know the entire list of selections last time and it would have been the same process. Maybe I am mis-remembering. Or it could be because there were more player trades in the Vegas draft that added some mystery.
just more piss poor planning from the league. seems they’d rather generate false hype than actually have an event with some surprises. not sure why any of those people you mention need to know anything prior to the draft.
[…] San Jose:” So who is Alexander True and why did the Kraken draft him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You could not have heard of Alexander True. Somebody on the ESPN broadcast shortly slipped within the line, “He’s not assured to be on the Kraken roster subsequent season.” So who’s Alexander True, and why on the earth did Ron Francis choose him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] — Who is Alexander True and how did he end up leaving San Jose for Seattle? (SJHN) […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]
[…] San Jose: You may not have heard of Alexander True. Someone on the ESPN broadcast quickly slipped in the line, “He’s not guaranteed to be on the Kraken roster next season.” So who is Alexander True, and why in the world did Ron Francis select him? […]