NHL 2022 Offseason Guide: The San Jose Sharks
If you take a peek at my previous San Jose Sharks articles, it’s pretty clear I’m not a fan. I live in California with several Sharks fans around and I take great pride in every opportunity I get to put them down. However, even I must admit I’m starting to feel a little sorry for them given the current state of their franchise. Doug Wilson has ruined this team without a Stanley Cup to show for it. And even worse is it’s not getting better any time soon.
The Roster
… is old. Or at least the core is. Couture, Karlsson, Burns, and Vlasic, who take up nearly 42% of the cap, are all on the wrong side of 30 and in Burns’ case, closer to forty. They have good pieces in the likes of Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, and Mario Ferraro, but finding suitable pieces to go around them is going to be a challenge for whoever takes the general manager job following Wilson’s departure.
The good news is help is on the way. As long as they don’t mess up his development, William Eklund is going to be a star. There’s also Ryan Merkley who’s not at the point of giving up on yet, plus a high draft pick this year. Unfortunately, none of that matters with the rock that is those bad contracts holding you down.
Team Needs
… other teams to take Wilson’s bad contracts off their hands. The obvious one is the Erik Karlsson deal, which is one of the worst contracts in the league. How to remove the five more years at $11.5 million should be the first objective of the new incoming general manager. Speaking of which, it might be a good idea to get a move on announcing that too with the Draft under a month away.
As for the actual roster, the San Jose Sharks have a star defenseman in Restricted Free Agent Mario Ferraro. His partnership with Brent Burns was the most used defensive pairing last season, despite injuries, but with Burns’ advancing age (he’s 37) you’d have to think it’s time to look towards the future. Taking the experienced defensemen of Burns, Karlsson, and Vlasic out of the equation it’s hard to see where the future number two defenseman is. Ryan Merkley has always been spoken about as having the talent but not necessarily the attitude while Nicolas Meloche is also an RFA and might not be back.
Cap Situation
The reason I say Meloche might not be back is the San Jose Sharks’ current cap situation. $5,667,500 is what they currently have available, which you would think will mostly go to Ferraro. The Sharks need ELCs and team-friendly deals as of yesterday. And it’s not like Meloche will be the only casualty. Forward, John Leonard is also an RFA as is Noah Gregor who was third on the Sharks in iSCF (any scoring chance by a player outside of the shootout) 5v5 last season. These are depth pieces you can ill afford to lose, but without circumventing the cap in some way this is the exact position the Sharks will find themselves in. And all that is before you mention goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen who was quite possibly the Shark’s best goaltender after coming over from the Minnesota Wild in the Jacob Middleton deal. Kähkönen is another RFA this summer and given what teams would have to give up in compensation could be a realistic offer sheet candidate.
Things aren’t going to get better either with Meier, leading scorer last season, up for renewal next season. With just under a point a game in the 2021-22 season you can only hope Meier is content with his $6 million AAV and not looking for any substantial bump. I’ve said it before, the Sharks are in trouble and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.
The Draft
Last year several teams passed on William Eklund and the Sharks got lucky at No. 7. Upper management has to be hoping for the same again this year at the 11 spots. In his nine-game cameo, Eklund put up four points and showed a glimpse of what the Sharks can look forward to going forward.
The San Jose Sharks don’t have a second-round pick this year, making the 11th overall pick even more important, but do still have eight picks after the first round, including three in the seventh round. Sharks have been known for picking up gems in the later rounds like Dylan Demelo (2011, now with the Winnipeg Jets), Joe Pavelski (2003, now with the Dallas Stars), and Kevin Labanc (2014). Repeating this, although it would take a few years to determine, will be huge for the new management as they look to fix the cap crunch (see above) that Wilson left them in.
Conclusion
I don’t foresee the San Jose Sharks challenging any time soon. It’s not a situation like Ottawa and Buffalo where you can see the pathway to success. Wilson hurt this team bad on his way out and they will ultimately pay the price for another few years before being able to challenge. A lot of people talk about the Toronto situation with so much money tied up in Matthews, Marner, Tavares, and Nylander, but the Sharks are substantially worse off having $34.5 million tied up in Karlsson (32), Burns (37), Vlasic (35) and Couture (33) for at least the next three years unless they find a trade partner. Good luck with that.
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