Sheng Peng
When free agency began on October 9th, the question was, “Who would the San Jose Sharks sign?”
After almost two weeks of relative inactivity — besides adding familiar faces Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto and losing franchise icon Joe Thornton — the question became, “What’s Doug Wilson doing?”
San Jose Hockey Now has good news for Sharks fans: Wilson is still active in free agency. So who’s he looking at — Conor Sheary, Erik Haula, or Mikael Granlund? We’ve got the scoop!
At the beginning of free agency, we broke that San Jose had reached out to Michael Grabner’s camp. However, per Elliotte Friedman, the speedy penalty-killing winger told teams that he wanted to make a decision about his playing future closer to the beginning of next year.
Knowing that the Sharks had interest in Grabner, however, ultimately proved instructive: It wasn’t any surprise, when a week later, they signed Nieto…a speedy penalty-killing winger.
They also inked Nieto to a one-year, $700K deal — at the time, arguably the “biggest UFA bargain so far” in free agency.
Looking at Grabner, a buy-out, and Nieto made sense considering the team’s cap crunch.
Another forward who the San Jose Sharks have been attached to is Bobby Ryan, who eventually signed with the Detroit Red Wings for one-year, $1 million.
So like Grabner was the framework for Nieto, does the interest in Ryan suggest that San Jose might still be in the hunt for a budget scoring winger?
The answer is yes: San Jose Hockey Now can confirm, from a source, that the Sharks and Conor Sheary’s camp are talking.
The left winger does fit the profile of a San Jose Sharks squad that needs more scoring and wants to get faster.
For a Sharks organization that has about $3 million dollars of cap space to play with, the 28-year-old might also come at the right cost. Sheary scored just 10 goals this year, in the last season of a three-year, $9 million dollar contract. However, he scored 23 goals in 2016-17 and was a key member of back-to-back Pittsburgh Penguins championships.
San Jose is one of a few teams in pursuit of Sheary.
Are the Sharks chasing any other free agents?
Doug Wilson has stated, on multiple occasions this off-season, that he’s staying away from a “longer-term contract for an older player.” Now exactly what “longer” means in this buyer’s market, who knows?
On this front, however, I think Wilson is being transparent.
San Jose Hockey Now has received confirmation that San Jose has not reached out on Erik Haula or Mikael Granlund, two of the higher-profile, more expensive UFA forwards still available.
One note about Granlund — the source offered, of the versatile center-winger: “He can play both positions, but on the wing he can drive and create more in transition. That was the original reason for Minnesota moving him to the wing, so he would be able to use more energy in the offensive zone.”
So indeed, Haula may be the only high-profile center option left in an arid market.
All this suggests that the Sharks were never a player for Tyler Toffoli, Evgenii Dadonov, Craig Smith, you name it, though I cannot confirm either way regarding those forwards.
Now, let’s look at the back-end.
Wilson has given, in some people’s minds, conflicting statements about whether or not he’s looking for another defenseman.
On October 9th, he said: “You want to have a spot of competition for people. Pasichnuk signed with us. Merkley is obviously a first-round pick. [Middleton] is a quality veteran who’s paid his dues. So you want them to be able to compete. But you also want to have competition.
“You don’t want to give spots away. We’ve got five NHL-quality d-men.”
However, after Thornton’s departure, Wilson noted, “I like our defense. I want to leave a spot open for some competition for some of the younger guys.”
Here’s probably a good time for this public service announcement: Don’t read too much into a GM’s public proclamations.
But my interpretation? These two statements do not conflict.
There isn’t just one open spot on the San Jose Sharks blueline, there are two — unless you think Jake Middleton and his 13 games of overall NHL experience is a shoo-in.
However, unlike Grabner or Ryan or Sheary, I don’t have a UFA player comp to provide a framework for who San Jose might be looking at on defense. I’ve guessed a bargain right-side defenseman.
Last week, I did learn of two right-side blueliners who actually reached out to the Sharks but hadn’t heard back.
I’m not at liberty to divulge names here, but these two defenders, at face value, don’t really have much in common besides being bottom-pairing defenders comfortable on the right side.
Regardless — and this is purely my intuition — San Jose has a need and the financial wherewithal for a veteran bottom-pairing right-side option who can provide “competition” for Middleton, Brinson Pasichnuk, and Ryan Merkley.
We’ll see what happens — but there’s still time and talent for Wilson to upgrade the San Jose Sharks on a shoestring.