Sheng Peng
Well, there’s no question who got the best player in the Timo Meier trade.
An NHL scout texted me: “The Sharks just traded a 35-goal power forward for a collection that doesn’t include anyone projected to score 10-plus goals a year in the NHL.”
Ouch.
I don’t think the San Jose Sharks’ portion of the Meier deal is that bad – but it’s not that good either.
Here’s the full baker’s dozen trade:
6:00pm – we have officially made a trade pic.twitter.com/m3DbRYmHeE
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) February 27, 2023
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier spoke for 25 minutes to the media – here are his thoughts, my takeaways from his availability, along with my trade analysis.
Sharks Are In a Rebuild
Grier: “I think there’s some realities at play here with the salary cap and the salary structure of our group. I think you guys can kind of see how great a year [Timo] was having, how great a year Erik’s having, and where we still are results-wise in the standings. So, to pay him the money he’s looking for and wanted, it just didn’t seem to line up with where we are headed as a franchise and where we’re at. We don’t want to just keep spinning our wheels here, we’re going to try and move this thing forward.”
Takeaway: While Grier pointedly said that the San Jose Sharks are not in a “full-on rebuild” later in his availability, I consider that semantics.