I'm sure rival teams will be lining up to take on the back half of Hertl's deal so that the Sharks can afford to sign their top 2023 and/or 2024 picks to big second contracts. Lindblom being slightly overpaid during meaningless seasons is a far more significant issue.
It's laughable to suggest that they need to move Hertl to do that at this stage. The point is that neither situation is significant and continuing to act alarmist over anything when they're not competitive for the foreseeable future is not constructive.
They need to move Hertl because there's absolutely no benefit to having him on the team. His presence on the roster hurts their draft lottery odds now while his long term contract has the potential to hurt the team's ability to compete in the future. Same reason they should move Meier, Karlsson and Couture.
How would you shelter the next generation of players? Would you just throw them in to key roles and expect them to thrive?
I think the first, second and third priority right now should just be acquiring that next generation of players. Nobody in the current prospect system, Eklund included, looks like someone you can build a Cup winning team around. We need to find those players and that's only possible at the very top of the draft through tanking. Once those players are in place you can always go out and sign mediocre veterans to take on tougher defensive assignments until the young core is ready to take over.
It is quite possible that we are going to draft our next 1C next draft. We can sign a bunch of Bonino, Nieto, Kunin type guys but that will not stop opposing coaches from focusing their best players on our new 1C. Having a guy like Hertl will. I do not agree with you that stripping the team of all its best talent is the best way to rebuild.
I don't find that reasoning to be all that convincing. They have sucked mightily with him without much of a problem and the only reason they're #3 instead of #1 in draft odds is because of Karlsson. They're actually trying to trade him and I think that would be sufficient if it gets done during the season. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of contractual circumstances. Hertl has an NMC the first three seasons of his deal that he just signed. He's probably not going to be willing to waive during the season so suck it up and wait until he wants out or has more trade flexibility.
There is a chance the cap goes up between now and the end of Hertl’s contract.
"The cap will go up" is always my favorite excuse for shitty long term contracts. First of all, the cap never goes up by as much as rosy media projections suggest. But even when it does go up, it goes up by the same amount for every team. The teams you're competing against for playoff spots and the Stanley Cup who are competently managed can use that cap increase to improve their roster rather than justify overpayments to aging, declining players.
Sharks sure are selling a lot of tickets these days.
The cap going up doesn't change the conversation on the contract itself but it does make other teams more flexible and more willing to take a chance on such deals. Hertl's contract is hardly shitty. As for the projections, the media has a good enough track record on it that you can reasonably suggest that when they say it will go up that it does. They may not get the precise number but they're typically in the ballpark. Part of using that cap increase is taking on players that they feel will help them potentially with the assistance of retention. Hertl probably isn't getting dealt anytime soon so I just see no need to complain about it when he's not the reason that they're #3 instead of #1 in the draft lotto. You're complaining for the sake of it and exaggerating its importance to do anything with Hertl.
It is already written in stone that the cap is going up to 92 million by the 25-26 season. And then it goes back to the yearly increase.
A couple months before the season started. Bettman said it will be going up to 92 mil by then. Especially with revenues hitting all time highs of 5 billion and the cap not changing any in the past 3 years. Even with the new tv deals and added revenue from seatle entering the league. Those 2 things will make a huge impact to the cap as soon as the negotiated 2 year halt ends to help the players pay back the pandemic escrow back pay they owe.
Sorry I only ask since everything I've seen online from the start of the season still lists those as projections. Never "written in stone".
Those predictions come from bettman himself. Someone that does not say a word unless it is all but guaranteed. Especially with something that does not usually get talked about until a few weeks before free agency starts for the upcoming season.
Maybe it's because we've kvetched enough about the Vlasic, Karlsson, Couture, and Hertl contracts? Pick any random gamethread from 2020-2022 and you'll probably find a half-dozen posts bemoaning them...
Precision of language is important...
Yet we have people in this very thread still defending the Hertl contract and assuring me it’s no big deal if he’s a 40 point player making 8 million a year when the Sharks are good again, we can simply trade him to some other team that presumably isn’t paying any attention. Plus the cap will be higher.
I don't remember seeing anyone defending the contract. I think you're confusing it with the idea that most are happy he's still a shark but a vast majority of those (including myself) would have preferred he been traded at the deadline.
Show me the post of someone defending a 40 point player making 8 mil. I doubt you will because nobody has done that. You made that up all on your own.
The last page and a half of this thread is full of you downplaying the risk of Hertl falling off in his mid 30s and hampering the Sharks cap situation. Something that is far more likely to happen than Lindblom’s contract ever becoming an issue, which is how this conversation started.
No, I've simply argued against your fallacious points. You haven't quantified the risk to begin with. You haven't accurately assessed what kind of hampering we're talking about or if it's even meaningful given the wide timeframe that we're discussing here. You're just flailing about with your alarmist takes pretending like it means anything when it doesn't. Hertl isn't going anywhere for a while. He's not really a reason to pretend like he's hurting their draft odds. On your end, we don't even have a foundation to begin competing so why are you even worried about his contract specifically? It's whining for the sake of whining. Just because you didn't want to stay on topic as it relates to Lindblom's status doesn't mean that your whataboutism sort of response is in any way convincing. Like I said originally when that was the topic, neither situation is at all meaningful to complain about when it comes to the grand scheme of the Sharks future.
Tbf I was one of them, and he's my favorite player of all time.
