Speculation: 2022-23 Sharks Roster Discussion Part II

[PacificOceanPotion]

Vlasic being the main defencemen/veteran in SJ, how realistic would it be that he hits 35-40 points this year? Is he really done as impact player for good, or is there some fuel left it the tank now that Burns and Karlsson are out?
I think he could find another gear, because of the pride and sake of his own value and be more involved. He is not going to make this team good, but I feel like he's going to see an opportunity to strike while there is no real competition at D-core.

No.

 

[jMoneyBrah]

Vlasic being the main defencemen/veteran in SJ, how realistic would it be that he hits 35-40 points this year? Is he really done as impact player for good, or is there some fuel left it the tank now that Burns and Karlsson are out?
I think he could find another gear, because of the pride and sake of his own value and be more involved. He is not going to make this team good, but I feel like he's going to see an opportunity to strike while there is no real competition at D-core.

Vlasic has scored over 35 points twice in his career, 8 years ago (39pts) and 15 years ago (36pts). I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if given more playing time Vlasic’s offensive output will not significantly improve, rather those on the ice with him will see their production suffer greatly.

 

[Gecklund]

On a team with guys who liked to keep it cool but too relaxed, or hot and too indiscriminate, someone like Boyle was a breathe of fresh air.

Regarding Vlasic...maybe I'm being revisionist, but I wonder how much we overrate him. His rookie season was fantastic; then he was very good stapled next to Rob Blake. Then he faltered somewhat until he and Braun clicked. After they were broken up, Braun continue to play quite strongly while Vlasic fell off a cliff. No doubt he brought a lot to the table and was instrumental to the team's success, but he always needed a talented player who complemented him well.

Vlasic and Hjalmarsson were legitimately the two best defensive D in the league for years. Vlasic had (has) no offensive game to speak of at all is the reason he never got love. His defensive game was always top notch though.

Hell I also think we saw glimpses of that this year. He obviously wasn’t at the level he was in the past and he definitely still is wildly overpaid but he was pretty good defensively this year.

 

[Cas]

Vlasic being the main defencemen/veteran in SJ, how realistic would it be that he hits 35-40 points this year? Is he really done as impact player for good, or is there some fuel left it the tank now that Burns and Karlsson are out?
I think he could find another gear, because of the pride and sake of his own value and be more involved. He is not going to make this team good, but I feel like he's going to see an opportunity to strike while there is no real competition at D-core.

He's done. He's a below-average skater now who has zero offensive capabilities and isn't physical. He has trouble getting into proper position to defend because he's slower and doesn't pivot well. He was the weak half of a defensive pairing with Matt Benning.

On a good team, Vlasic is a #7-8 defenseman - nothing more than emergency depth.

 

[one2gamble]

yea, anyone hoping for a vlasic renaissance is a bit misguided.

I do agree that when he plays a simple game, he looks better than when he doesnt but generally he still thinks hes better than he is.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I'd still put Vlasic on the top power play and get him some productivity even if it is completely artificial. Who else are they going to go with if they're not going to give it to anyone? Nobody they have has shown offensive instincts for the NHL. The only one with a reasonable amount is Gawanke and he may not make it due to his shortcomings everywhere else.

 

[PacificOceanPotion]

I'd still put Vlasic on the top power play and get him some productivity even if it is completely artificial. Who else are they going to go with if they're not going to give it to anyone? Nobody they have has shown offensive instincts for the NHL. The only one with a reasonable amount is Gawanke and he may not make it due to his shortcomings everywhere else.

Knyzhov has shown offensive ability. I dont understand how people keep forgetting he exists and should get more minutes as one of quote unquote, Vets.

 

[Saskatoon]

Yea peak Vlasic was great and the type of player you think about when people clamor for a defensive defenseman award. Two gold medals on the deepest country in hockey. Even when the Sharks lost to Pens in cup final Vlasic largely contained Crosby.

He just aged really poorly almost immediately after signing his big contract. His attitude has probably rubbed people the wrong way too

 

[one2gamble]

He just aged really poorly almost immediately after signing his big contract.

He was trending the wrong way prior to that contract, he should have been traded. I also dont get the impression that he puts in the work like others on the team at that point in time. It likely contributed to his decline.

 

[Saskatoon]

He was trending the wrong way prior to that contract, he should have been traded. I also dont get the impression that he puts in the work like others on the team at that point in time. It likely contributed to his decline.

Yea DW gave out questionable contracts to his older stars and the one player he let walk ended up being the best in his twilight years (Paveliski)

 

[neelynugs]

I'd still put Vlasic on the top power play and get him some productivity even if it is completely artificial. Who else are they going to go with if they're not going to give it to anyone? Nobody they have has shown offensive instincts for the NHL. The only one with a reasonable amount is Gawanke and he may not make it due to his shortcomings everywhere else.

figured sharks would've signed a guy like gustafsson, who was cheap and capable of running a PP.

 

[Patty Ice]

Yea DW gave out questionable contracts to his older stars and the one player he let walk ended up being the best in his twilight years (Paveliski)

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Knyzhov has shown offensive ability. I dont understand how people keep forgetting he exists and should get more minutes as one of quote unquote, Vets.

I agree that Knyzhov has shown offensive ability but the context we're talking about is beyond what he has shown. Offensive ability that lacks production associated with it isn't really practical for this context. Knyzhov's 10 point rookie season was the most he ever put up in a season. Benning is the only guy we have on the blue line that was over 20 points last year and that was with one whole goal. I wouldn't be surprised if he's our #1 D option on the power play. Right now, I think my pairings going into camp would be Vlasic-Benning, Ferraro-Rutta, and Knyzhov/Simek-Gawanke/Burroughs

figured sharks would've signed a guy like gustafsson, who was cheap and capable of running a PP.

The Karlsson trade complicated those efforts, imo. If they had gotten the deal done by July 1 like they almost did, they may have gone that route because I think the Sharks would've accommodated Petry going to Detroit eventually like Montreal did. But seeing as it didn't get done until August when a lot of those options went away, I think they're just sucking it up and going with what they got now and hope for the best. They know this season is probably going to be the worst season of Grier's tenure and the true bottoming out of the franchise from the DW days. They at least shortened a lot of their more long term commitments to limited retention and short term contract dumps but remaking that blue line is going to take a good long time with only two kids at this point with a real chance of being players on this team for a decent amount of time. That's really only Mukhamadullin and Thrun. I'm for cleaning the cap sheet as much as you can but I'm not for using that cap space until we have a young core in place.

 

[Hodge]

Sounds like Elias Pettersson isn’t too keen on re-signing with Vancouver. If he’s open to signing with us we should have the assets and cap space to make it happen next summer.

 

[Pavelski2112]

Sounds like Elias Pettersson isn’t too keen on re-signing with Vancouver. If he’s open to signing with us we should have the assets and cap space to make it happen next summer.

Might as well; he'd fit the timeline.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Sounds like Elias Pettersson isn’t too keen on re-signing with Vancouver. If he’s open to signing with us we should have the assets and cap space to make it happen next summer.

I don't see why he'd be open to signing with us.

 

[Pavelski2112]

I don't see why he'd be open to signing with us.

I don't imagine he would either, but you could make the case to him that he'd immediately be our best player and a big part of a team on the upswing.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Vlasic, so high IQ, Vlasic

 

[Hodge]

I don't see why he'd be open to signing with us.

He would need to be sold on a quick upward trajectory powered by Smith, Eklund and the 2024 1st (assuming we don’t need to trade it for Pettersson).

We should also be able to comfortably outbid the competition in terms of his contract.

 

[one2gamble]

I don't see why he'd be open to signing with us.

money

 

[LilLeeroy]

Vlasic and Hjalmarsson were legitimately the two best defensive D in the league for years. Vlasic had (has) no offensive game to speak of at all is the reason he never got love. His defensive game was always top notch though.

Hell I also think we saw glimpses of that this year. He obviously wasn’t at the level he was in the past and he definitely still is wildly overpaid but he was pretty good defensively this year.

The funny thing is young Vlasic was extremely underrated offensively, and the perfect example of how you don't need to be the stereotypical offensive defenseman to be good on offense. Just for some reason when his skating started to rapidly decline, he completely abandoned what made him good to try to play like he is Bobby Orr.

I feel like we're going to see his worst season yet with him trying to cement himself as "the man" on D this year.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I don't imagine he would either, but you could make the case to him that he'd immediately be our best player and a big part of a team on the upswing.

He's Vancouver's best player and we're in a worse position and/or further behind on the upswing than they are. I just don't see a convincing case to be made there unless we have some connection that he values beyond competing or getting the best deal for himself.

He would need to be sold on a quick upward trajectory powered by Smith, Eklund and the 2024 1st (assuming we don’t need to trade it for Pettersson).

We should also be able to comfortably outbid the competition in terms of his contract.

I don't see how one can really sell anyone on a quick upward trajectory. We're not on that trajectory. We're still on the decline.

money

If it comes down to money, 9 out of 10 times, we're going to be behind the 8 ball on it due to our current tax structure. We're one of the few locations that would be worse on that front than Vancouver is. If we're taking his comments at face value, he wants to compete. That ain't happening here and it would be a bad idea to send assets Vancouver's way to make a trade-and-sign happen when we're still stripping away at the old team and have no semblance of a blue line yet.

 

[CupfortheSharks]

I'd still put Vlasic on the top power play and get him some productivity even if it is completely artificial. Who else are they going to go with if they're not going to give it to anyone? Nobody they have has shown offensive instincts for the NHL. The only one with a reasonable amount is Gawanke and he may not make it due to his shortcomings everywhere else.

I would not be surprised to see the Sharks experiment with 5 forwards on the PP.

 

[Hodge]

He's Vancouver's best player and we're in a worse position and/or further behind on the upswing than they are. I just don't see a convincing case to be made there unless we have some connection that he values beyond competing or getting the best deal for himself.

I don't see how one can really sell anyone on a quick upward trajectory. We're not on that trajectory. We're still on the decline.

If it comes down to money, 9 out of 10 times, we're going to be behind the 8 ball on it due to our current tax structure. We're one of the few locations that would be worse on that front than Vancouver is. If we're taking his comments at face value, he wants to compete. That ain't happening here and it would be a bad idea to send assets Vancouver's way to make a trade-and-sign happen when we're still stripping away at the old team and have no semblance of a blue line yet.

The entire point of a rebuild is to end up with players like Pettersson. I would gladly buy his 25-33 year old seasons for $100M. Good luck to actual contenders, almost all of whom are already near next year’s cap ceiling, on matching that.

Unfortunately this just screams Detroit.

 

[Gecklund]

The funny thing is young Vlasic was extremely underrated offensively, and the perfect example of how you don't need to be the stereotypical offensive defenseman to be good on offense. Just for some reason when his skating started to rapidly decline, he completely abandoned what made him good to try to play like he is Bobby Orr.

I feel like we're going to see his worst season yet with him trying to cement himself as "the man" on D this year.

I don’t think he was underrated offensively actually. I think people heard defensive D and said he can’t pass. He had a good exit pass but was otherwise pretty useless offensively.