Who Should Sharks Pair With Hill? | SJHN+

Is there another goalie on the way to the San Jose Sharks?

On Saturday, the Sharks brought in Adin Hill. That answered one roster question. The next question: Who will they pair with Hill?

Could it be incumbent Martin Jones? Let’s look at the cap implications of keeping the embattled Jones:

Projected cap hits are in all caps.

This is presuming that the Seattle Kraken select RFA Ryan Donato in tomorrow’s expansion draft. (Update: The Kraken will select Alex True, which doesn’t affect these projections)

I’m also assuming that the RFA Hill’s cap hit clears $2 million dollars, which I touched on yesterday.

The total here is $77,971,667, leaving the San Jose Sharks with about $3.5 million to pursue a veteran third-line center or a “couple forwards,” which GM Doug Wilson alluded to over the weekend.

But of course, this story is about San Jose bringing in another new netminder. In that case, for cap reasons, they almost certainly need to buy out Jones if they’re serious about improving their team next year. The Sharks will have until Jul. 27 to buy out their long-time starter.

According to the Puckpedia, this is what a Jones buyout will look like:

After a buyout, Jones’s 2021-22 cap hit will be $1,916,667.

That gives the San Jose Sharks about $7.3 million to add at least one forward and replace Jones.

Let’s keep these projections in mind when thinking about a new goalie. You can bring in, say Philipp Grubauer for about $5 million a season, but if that leaves you just $2 million or so for a new 3C, is that the wisest way to allocate your money?

Clues for a New Goalie?

Wilson is famously tight-lipped, so we shouldn’t read too much into his Hill trade press conference on Saturday.

Regardless, it was an intriguing presser.

“We need to have a different look and a different approach to our goaltending,” Wilson noted.