Speculation: 2022 Summer/off season Sharks Roster Discussion

[themelkman]

Or because his buyout costs next to nothing and we have way too many guys in that role (Gregor for example) that are cheaper.

Will never get how people complain about the team being bad and not doing anything and then expect changes to happen without opening positions (front office, roster, etc.) for changes to happen.

Balcers is a good player, whoever replaces him is very unlikely to be as good. Hence I think it’s a stupid move when your forward core is already weak.

 

[Used As A Shield]

Oof

 

[The Nemesis]

f*** this team and everything it stands for.

 

[mogambomoroo]

Balcers would be good 4th line and PK guy that can score sometimes. I think Grier is going for changes, that I hope are not only Kunin kind of deals.

 

[STL Shark]

Balcers is a good player, whoever replaces him is very unlikely to be as good. Hence I think it’s a stupid move when your forward core is already weak.

So who are you moving from the forward group to make room to upgrade that group? You can either have Gregor for ~$800k or Balcers at $1.55M. They're basically the same caliber player and there's not room on the roster for both. Pretty easy decision to me.

 

[fasterthanlight]

I'm down with changes to the culture, but... is rudy really the problem here? lol

 

[hohosaregood]

Really nickel and diming our way to more cap space

 

[STL Shark]

Balcers would be good 4th line and PK guy that can score sometimes. I think Grier is going for changes, that I hope are not only Kunin kind of deals.

$1.55M for Balcers on the 4th line is double what Nieto costs on the 4th line for essentially the same level of production. It's a tough business in the cap strapped world, but paying Balcers $1.55M to be a 3/4 tweener when you have next to no cap space doesn't make a lot of sense when there are cheaper alternatives.

 

[Saskatoon]

I can't decide if Grier is terrible or amazing. He is making big changes. Not sure I agree but maybe it will work out?

 

[Alaskanice]

$1.55M for Balcers on the 4th line is double what Nieto costs on the 4th line for essentially the same level of production. It's a tough business in the cap strapped world, but paying Balcers $1.55M to be a 3/4 tweener when you have next to no cap space doesn't make a lot of sense when there are cheaper alternatives.

Good point. Business is taking the front seat.

 

[KirbyDots]

f*** this team and everything it stands for.

The stony hands of Grier just gave Nem the finger.

 

[mogambomoroo]

I can't decide if Grier is terrible or amazing. He is making big changes. Not sure I agree but maybe it will work out?

I'm having the exact same feeling, like now we get news every minute and it seems he really wants to show the direction, another question is really will it work? From Sharks perspective I really hope it does.

Grier is tanking for Fantilli, I think his profile fits the new direction

 

[STL Shark]

Good point. Business is taking the front seat.

It sucks, for sure. I'd rather have Rudy than Nieto, but when you're up against the cap and are trying to retool the team you have to make business moves and take the cheaper guys when things are reasonably similar in terms of on-ice impacts. People would have had just as damning of a response if Gregor got dealt, but the truth is that there just is not room for both of those two guys on the NHL roster this year if you're trying to improve your forward group.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

$1.55M for Balcers on the 4th line is double what Nieto costs on the 4th line for essentially the same level of production. It's a tough business in the cap strapped world, but paying Balcers $1.55M to be a 3/4 tweener when you have next to no cap space doesn't make a lot of sense when there are cheaper alternatives.

Disagree with this sort of take and the earlier impression that you had to choose between Gregor and Balcers. Balcers produced at a pace adequate for a 3rd liner. Nieto doesn't do that. Gregor ended up in the same tier as Balcers which is above Nieto but did so in the most wildly inconsistent manner possible. They didn't need to make room at the depth levels for anyone. If cap space is this much of a concern or if lineup space is this much of a concern, you have a Kevin Labanc that is vastly overpaid for his services and butter soft to play against that could've been bought out to accomplish the same thing while actually giving you room to make an addition to the top of the lineup.

 

[Gecklund]

I’m surprised by the Balcers buyout in that I never really considered it but not so much in the act. There’s just too many bottom 6 forwards and he’s been pretty injury prone. I liked Balcers so sad to see him the person go but not so much the player. We’ve already replaced what he does with Gregor, Kunin, Chmelevski and Reedy.

 

[Mafoofoo]

Yeah let’s get rid of guys like Balcers so we can play Gadjovich and Kunin (while paying him like 2M+ to take tons of penalties)

Very smart move Grier. We may just finally win the UFC title this season

 

[weastern bias]

Grier has not made one single good decision yet

 

[Alaskanice]

It sucks, for sure. I'd rather have Rudy than Nieto, but when you're up against the cap and are trying to retool the team you have to make business moves and take the cheaper guys when things are reasonably similar in terms of on-ice impacts. People would have had just as damning of a response if Gregor got dealt, but the truth is that there just is not room for both of those two guys on the NHL roster this year if you're trying to improve your forward group.

Agreed.

 

[themelkman]

Yeah let’s get rid of guys like Balcers so we can play Gadjovich and Kunin (while paying him like 2M+ to take tons of penalties)

Very smart move Grier. We may just finally win the UFC title this season

I atleast can rationalize why you don’t qualify Dahlen, but Balcers is not the issue and was easily our best bottom six forward this year.

 

[Saskatoon]

I'm having the exact same feeling, like now we get news every minute and it seems he really wants to show the direction, another question is really will it work? From Sharks perspective I really hope it does.

Grier is tanking for Fantilli, I think his profile fits the new direction

As weird as it is to say the Sharks are too good to tank for Bedard anyways so probably good to set sights on someone else. Chicago, Arizona, Montreal are next level bad.

For us to get Bedard would probably need to trade Reimer and Burns plus have an injury to someone like Hertl or Karlsson.

 

[themelkman]

As weird as it is to say the Sharks are too good to tank for Bedard anyways so probably good to set sights on someone else. Chicago, Arizona, Montreal are next level bad.

For us to get Bedard would probably need to trade Reimer and Burns plus have an injury to someone like Hertl or Karlsson.

Well killing any depth we do have certainly helps get us closer to tanking, even if Grier doesn’t realize that

 

[Anomie2029]

So they decided it was more important to buyout Balcers for cap space rather than Vlasic?!

This club is going to be so bad for so long.

 

[Saskatoon]

Well killing any depth we do have certainly helps get us closer to tanking, even if Grier doesn’t realize that

Balcers is not what is dragging us up from being as bad as Arizona

 

[weastern bias]

I can't tell if this is a cheap-ass move, a dumb-ass move, or both

I'm leaning both

 

[mogambomoroo]

As weird as it is to say the Sharks are too good to tank for Bedard anyways so probably good to set sights on someone else. Chicago, Arizona, Montreal are next level bad.

For us to get Bedard would probably need to trade Reimer and Burns plus have an injury to someone like Hertl or Karlsson.

Bedard would the real guy to tank for, but I think Grier wants that #3-#4 spot to get Fantilli. Fantilli is just so obvious guy to build around, if we are going Power Forward first.