Speculation: 2019-2020 Sharks Roster Discussion

[JeremyTB]

Would we do:
RNH
Lucic 50% retained

Labanc
Braun
Ryan/Heed

Only if we can then trade Lucic for any draft pick. Lucic at 3 million is still too much. He is Done and has been done for a few years now.

 

[PackShark]

Would we do:
RNH
Lucic 50% retained

Labanc
Braun
Ryan/Heed

It’s late. Someone may have had a few beverages.

 

[JeremyTB]

Sharks biggest move is they have to fire Spott. How do you have the two best offensive dmen in the NHL along with our talented forwards and have the PP be that horrible? You should be able to put EK65 and Burns with 4th liners and still have a decent PP.

 

[WTFetus]

Would we do:
RNH
Lucic 50% retained

Labanc
Braun
Ryan/Heed

Giving you props since I had to actually think pretty hard about this. Nugent-Hopkins is better than Labanc, and I don't care about losing Braun or one of Ryan/Heed. But Lucic at 3m for another 4 years is too big of a pill to swallow.

 

[Doctor Soraluce]

Would we do:
RNH
Lucic 50% retained

Labanc
Braun
Ryan/Heed

Heed is a UFA so we can't trade him and won't if we resign him.

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

Giving you props since I had to actually think pretty hard about this. Nugent-Hopkins is better than Labanc, and I don't care about losing Braun or one of Ryan/Heed. But Lucic at 3m for another 4 years is too big of a pill to swallow.

I think Lucic at $3M has positive value if you’ve got Jim Benning on the other line.

 

[Doctor Soraluce]

Florida trading Reimer and retaining salary. Wonder if Boogie could advocate bringing him back to SJ if enough salary is retained. If the team is all in next season I wouldn't mind having another veteran as a backup incase jones has a bad spell.

 

[Celly4Celebrini]

Yea, I don't think they would want to take salary back . I wouldn't be opposed to Merkley and Chmelevski/Chekhovich since Ehlers is a youngster himself. Not sure how Jets management feels about Merkley but I think its good value for Ehlers.

curious as to why you dont think theyd want salary back? Seems theyre trying to compete and have a harder time than most attracting players to play there. Seems if anything theyd want a player with more years left than Braun, who in this scenario i believe theyd see as a Myers replacement,not a cap dump

 

[Barrie22]

curious as to why you dont think theyd want salary back? Seems theyre trying to compete and have a harder time than most attracting players to play there. Seems if anything theyd want a player with more years left than Braun, who in this scenario i believe theyd see as a Myers replacement,not a cap dump

Because the reason they are trading myers and ehlers is because they are up against the cap and need space.

They have 5 defensemen signed and 7 forwards with 25 mil in cap space.

1 of the said forwards is laine so thats a good 10 million of that 25 gone.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Because the reason they are trading myers and ehlers is because they are up against the cap and need space.

They have 5 defensemen signed and 7 forwards with 25 mil in cap space.

1 of the said forwards is laine so thats a good 10 million of that 25 gone.

Myers is a UFA.

 

[WSS11]

I'd have to ask. Why on one hand you believe him to be done yet believe he will still return a 2nd?

I believed Murray was done and he fetched us two 2nds. That was at the TDL but there is always a tight market on Dmen and Braun at 3.8MM would draw interest regardless of how I feel about him.

 

[stator]

Sharks biggest move is they have to fire Spott. How do you have the two best offensive dmen in the NHL along with our talented forwards and have the PP be that horrible? You should be able to put EK65 and Burns with 4th liners and still have a decent PP.

I would think so, but it looks like GMs leave the firing of coaches to the head coach, and prefer not to intervene. I don't see PDB firing Spott. So perhaps it's time for DW to intervene?

The other problem is the Sharks are not built for the playoffs. Before you guys jump all over that statement, I'll clarify. They're built to qualify for the playoffs, but not built to win it and get a cup. The roster is not balanced but has too many under 6' players (including EK65 if you ever stood near him, although he is listed as 6').'

Having some is fine, and one like EK65 great. But that has to be balanced out with bigger, physical player which is where the issue is. There's no physical players on the defense other than Burns who doesn't hit like a handful of seasons ago. When DW does trade for a larger defenseman, he gets one that doesn't play as physical as his size would seem (Dillon).

Rounding out the remaining big defensemen are Braun and Vlasic, both over 6'. However, neither play a physical game. The physical defenseman is actually Simek who is listed as 5'11" but is probably 5'10.25".

Heed, Ryan, and even Merkley are all under 6'.

Contrast that to the Blues. They won the cup because they are built to play a physical game, and head hunt on the borderline of getting penalties and suspensions. They won even with a weak goaltender. They only played the last half of the season as well. Bruins are another hard hitting team.

Teams built for winning in the regular season don't fair well in the playoffs. Since the last playoff format change, no president trophy winner has made a SC appearance. They usually fall in the 2nd round after beating the weakest WC team.

Since the lockout season, only 3 president trophy teams made it to the SCF, and only one won... Blackhawks.

 

[Groo]

I would think so, but it looks like GMs leave the firing of coaches to the head coach, and prefer not to intervene. I don't see PDB firing Spott. So perhaps it's time for DW to intervene?

The other problem is the Sharks are not built for the playoffs. Before you guys jump all over that statement, I'll clarify. They're built to qualify for the playoffs, but not built to win it and get a cup. The roster is not balanced but has too many under 6' players (including EK65 if you ever stood near him, although he is listed as 6').'

Having some is fine, and one like EK65 great. But that has to be balanced out with bigger, physical player which is where the issue is. There's no physical players on the defense other than Burns who doesn't hit like a handful of seasons ago. When DW does trade for a larger defenseman, he gets one that doesn't play as physical as his size would seem (Dillon).

Rounding out the remaining big defensemen are Braun and Vlasic, both over 6'. However, neither play a physical game. The physical defenseman is actually Simek who is listed as 5'11" but is probably 5'10.25".

Heed, Ryan, and even Merkley are all under 6'.

Contrast that to the Blues. They won the cup because they are built to play a physical game, and head hunt on the borderline of getting penalties and suspensions. They won even with a weak goaltender. They only played the last half of the season as well. Bruins are another hard hitting team.

Teams built for winning in the regular season don't fair well in the playoffs. Since the last playoff format change, no president trophy winner has made a SC appearance. They usually fall in the 2nd round after beating the weakest WC team.

Since the lockout season, only 3 president trophy teams made it to the SCF, and only one won... Blackhawks.

Winner

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I tend to side more on the idea that the Blues actually played with a defensive identity and structure. The physicality is secondary at best. And if there was any real truth to that being the way to win, why did it only click this year for them? You don't need a particular identity to succeed for the playoffs.

 

[STL Shark]

I tend to side more on the idea that the Blues actually played with a defensive identity and structure. The physicality is secondary at best. And if there was any real truth to that being the way to win, why did it only click this year for them? You don't need a particular identity to succeed for the playoffs.

Because they actually got good goaltending this year and had actual forward depth. When Hitch was there they played a very sound defensive structure, but didn’t have a top 6 center on the whole roster. Over the last two years they added Schenn and ROR to go along with Binnington actually making big saves and steal some games that Elliott/Halak/Miller/Allen had been unable to do.

 

[STL Shark]

Are any of these UFA's PF types?

Browse - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

I am thinking that DW targets those types of players this off-season for the top-9. Based on AAV, maybe 1 or 2.

I think there are a few interesting names on that list that we haven’t talked a ton about here:
- Connolly is a typical DW type guy in that he’s steady two way guy and good skater, has “winning pedigree”, and will fit the want to get bigger style at 6’3.
- Semi-worried DW brings in Wayne Simmonds given the rumored interest pre-TDL. He’s pretty washed and would at best be Joel Ward or Jannik Hansen caliber. Guess if he’s cheap then I’d be intrigued, but feel like he’s going to get overpaid somewhere and hope it’s not here.
- Fan of Richard Panik, but he seems to be more of a Sorensen replacement than he does an option on the RW with Sorensen so likely not happening since Sorensen likely is not traded and is going to be cheaper anyway.

 

[Cappuccino]

I tend to side more on the idea that the Blues actually played with a defensive identity and structure. The physicality is secondary at best. And if there was any real truth to that being the way to win, why did it only click this year for them? You don't need a particular identity to succeed for the playoffs.

They were also close to losing to Dallas in round 2 and then we would have a different conversation. I guess they had a bit more luck this year (not to take anything away from them) than years before. The beauty of sports.

 

[Alaskanice]

I doubt we would have anything they want, but the Jets are taking offers on Nikolaj Ehlers.



He was Timo Meier’s linemate in junior and would be a perfect fit with Meier and Couture. I know they need centers and LHD, and they want to clear cap space, so I might offer something like Brenden Dillon and Sasha Chmelevski. They probably wouldn’t do that, though.

Wouldn’t it be just like our resident magician to start next season with EK65 AND Ehlers in teal?

 

[Patty Ice]

curious as to why you dont think theyd want salary back? Seems theyre trying to compete and have a harder time than most attracting players to play there. Seems if anything theyd want a player with more years left than Braun, who in this scenario i believe theyd see as a Myers replacement,not a cap dump

With what some of the deals young guys are getting these days, Connor and Laine might see some hardy paydays and they want to bring Myers back. All three of those guys could see contracts north of 7 million (especially if the young guys are signed to longer term deals) which would quickly eat their cap space. Admittedly, after his season, Laine is a prime candidate for a bridge deal though.

Plus the fact Merkley holds more trade value than Braun and Ehlers is a very good player. Doug is a miracle worker but I doubt he could pull of an Ehler deal with Braun as a main piece (of course, Sasha being the other...should go without saying but HF...)

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Not surprising news.

 

[WSS11]

Not surprising news.

Nope. He played well in the playoffs but Pete benching him for the likes of Haley would cause me to look elsewhere too. I don’t blame Donskoi one bit

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Nope. He played well in the playoffs but Pete benching him for the likes of Haley would cause me to look elsewhere too. I don’t blame Donskoi one bit

That plus the fact I am pretty sure we don't want to pay him as much. Donskoi is kind of an interesting dude though. He has lots of skill but is still not very strong on his skates. He gets pushed around too easily.

He made 1.9M last year. If we could get him for 2.5M AAV but give him term (up to 4 years) I would not be opposed to that kind of deal. I am pretty sure though that he makes in the 3-3.5M if he goes the UFA route. Not sure about term in that case though.

 

[WSS11]

That plus the fact I am pretty sure we don't want to pay him as much. Donskoi is kind of an interesting dude though. He has lots of skill but is still not very strong on his skates. He gets pushed around too easily.

He made 1.9M last year. If we could get him for 2.5M AAV but give him term (up to 4 years) I would not be opposed to that kind of deal. I am pretty sure though that he makes in the 3-3.5M if he goes the UFA route. Not sure about term in that case though.

I agree. I definitely see a team giving him something like 3 years 10.5MM on the open market.

 

[Barrie22]

Not sharks related but, dion phaneuf is being bought out by the kings.

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

Not surprising news.

Also not good news.