Who knows? If he’s the talent he’s predicted to be how is he different than Mcdavid or Crosby? Both were PPG players right out of the gate and both had their teams hitting 100 within two years and you certainly can’t say Edmonton had a better team around CmD at the time as we do now?
That’s basically what Connor and Crosby did.
We wouldn't have the talent on the team around bedard if hodge was running the team and got all of there wishes.
I wouldn't call them contenders again, but I could see them being a playoff team. It isn't him just doing it on his own. A player of Bedard's caliber also pushes subsequent players down the lineup into more suitable roles.
Pittsburgh was still last in the conference after Crosby's rookie season and drafted Jordan Staal 2nd overall.
You don't actually know that they won't be competitive team with Karlsson making 11.5 mil either but we both know the odds are long and you don't make decisions based on those long odds.
To clarify, I was saying they could use surplus picks and prospects to trade for established young NHLers on other teams. Dumping Karlsson, regardless of the return, gives Grier an additional 5.75-11.5M in cap space to add those types of players and/or to sign free agents. And if they don’t hit a home run with their lottery picks, that’s space they can monetize by taking on cap dumps.
A player like Bedard might also be a magnet to attract and negotiate with FAs. If what players say about SJ is true - that everyone wants to play in SJ for the lifestyle - then having an elite franchise talent might make more players consider the Sharks
The year after they were 100 point team. Staal Was decent but not a true difference maker (was he ever?) and Letang barely played as well. Hell, Mark Recchi was their third leading scorer that year
Edmonton was a garbage team that people thought were more stacked because of all the other picks that disappointed. RNH, Eberle, was Nail stil on that team?
Some guy named Evgeni Malkin making his NHL debut might have had a little to do with that.
But they could’ve done that already and chose differently. Let’s be real though. They couldn’t trade those extra picks for anyone of consequence because those typically available are Ryan Donato types.
Maybe if Doug Wilson is the one making the trades. Colorado added Toews, Burakovsky and Lehkonen for four 2nd round picks. LA got Arvidsson for a 2nd and 3rd. Seattle added Bjorkstrand for a 3rd and 4th. St. Louis traded a 2nd and a depth forward for Buchnevich.
The Sharks had the cap space to acquire them if they pursued it but didn’t. They did that with Luke Kunin so it’s not like they can’t. They chose not to.
It made zero sense for the Sharks to acquire any of those players. I’m talking about clearing as much long term cap space as possible by dumping Karlsson now so they can be in a position to make trades like that if they’re on a competitive upswing again in a few years.
They’ll be in that position with or without moving Karlsson is the point which is why that selling point for dealing him holds no weight.
It holds 5.75-11.5M (depending on retention) of weight since that’s how much extra cap space they’ll have to go after whoever 2024’s Bjorkstrand or Devon Toews or John Marino ends up being. Or if they still suck they can use that extra space to take on cap dumps for more picks. All of these options are more valuable than a 35 year old Karlsson taking up well over 10% of the cap.
It’s still relative and not every cap dollar is the same level of importance to each team and manager. The Sharks don’t use cap space like that and likely won’t so that’s just not a convincing reason.
Sure. That was it and as good as he was, he wasn’t yet the player he would become. Sidney was immediately a dominant focal point.
And yet the Penguins were still garbage in Crosby's rookie year and only made the playoffs when Malkin, Letang and Staal joined him. One player doesn't make much of a difference. This isn't basketball.
They were garbage because Fleury was godawful. The team was far and away horrible defensively and that team had next to nothing on offense unless you count the shells of John Leclair (37), Mark Recchi (36), Ziggy Palffy (34) and Mario Lemieux (40) as a core. The current sharks team is MILES better than that. Also, Letang played a whopping 7 games in that 06-07 season where they hit 100 points.
Yeah the current Sharks are so much better than the 05-06 Penguins. That's why they're currently on pace for the exact same point total as that team.
Mark Recchi still had plenty in the tank; he ended up winning the Cup that year with Carolina after becoming a rental at the deadline and again in 2011 playing a not-insignificant role with the Bruins.
