Kat Pitré
Acting San Jose Sharks general manager Joe Will held an extensive media availability this afternoon, touching on a wide variety of topics, including Tomas Hertl’s contract, Evander Kane’s termination/grievance, Doug Wilson’s health, Kevin Labanc and Nikolai Knyzhov’s injury situations, William Eklund’s potential return this season, Bob Boughner’s job status, and other Sharks prospects that have popped this year.
Here’s a short story about the Sharks and Hertl’s mutual desire to stay together:
But Will had plenty to say besides that. Here’s the full transcript from Will’s availability today.
Joe Will, in his opening remarks on the San Jose Sharks overall this season:
I like the position we’re in, and our team is kind of an upward trajectory, as far as we’re a competitive, accountable team that plays hard.
We’re going to be able to be in a competitive race here in the second half. And, on the other end, we’re able to accomplish some organizational goals of getting our rookies into the lineup, as you’ve seen with the number of rookies and number of rookie games we’ve had this year.
Will, on where things stand with Doug Wilson’s health, and how it affects daily operations:
Doug’s doing fine, he’s taking care of the medical things at home. He’s on medical leave…there’s some privacy concerns with that, so I’m not going to elaborate on anything. As far as that goes, it’s status quo.
I texted him yesterday, I’m going to talk to him today. We talked about the team and we talked about various things…we collaborate like we always have. I talk daily with Tim Burke, Doug Jr., and Bob Boughner like we would normally.
Will, on if there is a timeline for Wilson’s return:
There’s no timeline.
Will, on if the San Jose Sharks have met expectations this season:
What we’re looking for this year is to get back to an upward trajectory…this year, what we need to establish are some basics that start in the locker room with competing and accountability. And that’s really came through and that’s actually how this team is staying in games and winning games, by playing hard for each other and sticking to a plan.
It’s a team game, that is strong defense, penalty killing, goaltending, blocking shots, all those types of things. And when we stick to that we do well, and that’s something we wanted to re-establish, which is just our competitive nature and that type of formula for winning hockey games.
The other part is that we’re going to have to integrate the players we’ve drafted over the past few years and use our development system to replenish…the players that are ready now have been integrated into the lineup. We’ve led the NHL with most rookies playing this year in our line-up and most rookie games in our line-up. On the other hand, too, is our prospect pool…independent sources out there, [it’s] taken a rise. I think I saw somebody had [us] from like 22 to 14, another one was up around 12. There’s been a rise in that prospect pool development. So I look at all of those things as an upward trajectory.
Will, on where things stand with contract negotiations with Tomas Hertl:
I’ve talked numerous times to Craig Oster, Tomas’ agent…The one thing we have in common is that Tomas loves being a Shark and we love having Tomas here. So now it’s finding a way to have that happen, through negotiation and talking about the next contact for him.
He’s a player we want as part of our team and we’re going to do everything we can to try and make that happen. It’s challenging in an environment where there’s a flat salary cap…It just makes it a little bit more complex in how you get to the end result, but right now we’re engaged.
Tomas is a big part of our team, and we’d like to keep him.
Will, on Evander Kane’s termination from the team:
It’s in grievance right now, I can’t elaborate on the situation itself. We made the decision to terminate the contract for valid reasons, we’ve vetted it through the league and everything else. The NHLPA is exercising their right to grieve this. We’re not even sure when it’ll be, some time in the upcoming months.
I’m not counting on anything to happen within that to move on something else.
It’s something we have our eye on. We have a valid termination in our eyes, and we’ll see where that goes.
Will, on the lower attendance at games and the potential long-term fiscal effect on the organization, including re-signing players:
Most years that we’ve been here, we’ve been a cap team, we kept our star players, kept our featured players here. So that’s always been our approach to things. Revenues and the business side, that’s not really my area on there. But right now, I’m building a plan to move forward with Tomas in it.
Will, on if Wilson still makes the final decision for the San Jose Sharks on big hockey decisions:
As far as day-to-day operations, we collaborate like we always have.
Doug is focused on his medical, so in day-to-day operations, we’re moving on with a group of Tim Burke, Doug Jr, Bob Boughner, myself, and other people that we have in personnel and development and management.
We’ve been together for a long time, most of us, and Doug’s tenure is about 20 years, [so] a lot of us have been there. We’re doing what we’ve always done under his guidance. We keep him apprised of things here. But no, he has the space to take care of his medical needs.
Will, on if Wilson is still involved in big decisions like terminating Kane or re-signing Hertl:
He is aware of it. A lot of things were in place…Doug’s in there, and all the way up through management and ownership. So Doug’s aware of things, not really in a day-to-day type of managerial way…In big decisions, a lot of things are plans in place that we already had before he went on his leave.
Will, on if the San Jose Sharks have offered Hertl a contract yet:
We’re in the parameters of discussing things. I’m going to keep that negotiation between Craig and myself.
We’re in a position that we want him back and we’ve talked and we’re going to narrow that into more specific negotiations. That’s where we’re at.
Will, on if he thinks Hertl wants to stay long-term in San Jose:
I certainly believe so. He’s always loved it here and he’s a big part of our leadership and a big producer here. I believe the feeling is mutual.
Will, on Kevin Labanc and Nikolai Knyzhov’s injuries:.
Kevin Labanc is doing great in his rehab and all indications are he’s pressing along, may even be a little bit ahead of schedule. Mid-March, that’s a good target.
Once you get to that point, you go back to the doctor just to make sure everything is healed and in place. That’s what we’ll find out, probably early to mid-March, and hopefully [there’s a] return there.
With Knyzhov, it’s been a slow-go in his process. It’s going to be a little bit longer. I don’t necessarily have a timeframe. We’re hoping that things would have been quicker with that. It’s ongoing. I’m going to check in with Ray [Tufts] on that.
But right now with Nikolai, I don’t have a plan for his return in the near future.
Will, on if there’s a deadline to re-sign Hertl, before they have to start considering trade offers:
I have no interest in doing anything outside of working on that negotiation and signing him.
Will, on if trading Hertl would open the door to the San Jose Sharks going to a rebuild:
I’m not going to go down that path until that would occur. Our goal is to re-sign him.
Will, on the potential for William Eklund to return to San Jose this season:
With Eklund, we sent him back for a number of reasons, and a lot of it was to do with the history of 18, 19-year-olds in the league.
As we saw this year, there’s only one 18-year-old player in the league. (CBJ, Cole Sillinger) The last two sent back were McTavish and Eklund.
There are usually very few 18-year-olds that stay in the league and a few more 19 year-olds but that’s even still limited. It takes a physical toll on players and there’s an adjustment period to get there.
In William’s case, we felt better to be back another season with his peer group. He is playing in a men’s league, so he’s playing against older players…right now, I’d characterize this as a slow play, a long-term play, to let him develop, on what’s best for him in the long term.
I don’t think there’s a big push to get him back here right away.
Will, on the potential for Thomas Bordeleau turning pro soon:
That’s something we’re going through our organizational meetings right now and talking about a number of things from players that we have in the system, how they’re doing, if we’re going to sign, re-sign, prospects, things like that.
With Thomas, he’s done very well in Michigan and is a player we’re very high on. We are talking about what we’re going to do with him and it’s a two-way street on what he wants to do.
I think he would be capable of coming out and going into pro, and it’s a matter of whether he wants to or not.
Will, on Krystof Hrabik’s status with the organization, given his ability to apply for reinstatement soon:
The status is he’s suspended for a very serious offense. I can’t say if he’s going to be welcome back into the organization at the end of that.
Will, on what he foresees for the San Jose Sharks as the Trade Deadline approaches:
It’s interesting because our internal clocks are off a little. It’s because [the Trade Deadline is] about a month later this year and we’ve played, to this point, only 46 games, and we have 36 left and we’re in a race that’s pretty tight.
We’ve seen when we’re playing well, we can go on little runs here and stay in this thing.
Right now, I see us as a team that’s in a solid playoff race that our players, our staff, we’re all excited about that. We believe that we’re in that, and that’s what we’re doing day-to-day.
Where are we sitting in two weeks? Where are we sitting in three weeks? There’s about five weeks until the Deadline. It gives us some time to see what we’re doing.
If we hang around, if we’re in that playoff spot, or in that playoff race, then we build and we adjust accordingly. If we’re not, then we adjust accordingly. That’s where I see us right now.
Will, on the San Jose Sharks prospects who have stood out this season:
I think of the prospects that are outside of the Sharks and Barracuda right now, it’s a group of six.
I’d say Eklund and Bordeleau, Brandon Coe, who’s been first or second in scoring in the OHL during the year, to Daniil Guschin who’s also in the OHL and a very dynamic player. Tristan Robbins who’s been scoring in the WHL, and Ozzy Wiesblatt, our first-round pick from a few years ago, with plays with a combination of grit and scoring. I think all six of them, they’re players that we look at that, they all have legitimate chances to be top-nine forwards in the NHL
We’re bullish on all those players.
There’s defensemen that we have in Gannon Larocque and Kashnikov and Guryev. Benjamin Gaudreau and Magnus Chrona amongst goaltenders.
Within the Barracuda, you’ve seen a number of them. Scott Reedy is still amongst the goal leaders in the American Hockey League, he’s having a heck of a year there, and then the players that we’ve rotated in from the Barracuda this year.
Organizationally, prospect-wise, we’re a bit deeper than we were.
At the top-end too, there’s still a competition going this year. Barabanov and Dahlen, they kind of grabbed a couple of spots or two, which shifted some guys that based on last year might have been in there.
We’ve attacked the depth a little bit, through the draft, through the prospects here, through some of the players with the Barracuda.
Will, on his evaluation of Boughner and the San Jose Sharks coaching staff:
I’m really pleased with what they’ve done this year. What they’ve instilled is a pathway to win through accountability.
He holds players very accountable, and you can see it in the players going out on this last road trip. Their willingness to block shots or come back in the zone and defend, their willingness to play a hard PK and protect the goaltender and things like that. Those are buy-ins.
You don’t have buy-in unless the team cares about each other, unless they respect and listen to what the coaches put out there. So I’m very pleased with what they’ve done this year.
Will, on why things couldn’t work out between Kane and the San Jose Sharks:
It’s something that we’ve moved on from. The team has responded. And they play a really hard team game right now.