Yes, to a degree, but the post you quoted is extreme hyperbole all around.
Let alone the Preds fired their coach, they've never fired a GM and neither have we (and neither did the Blues) so I don't know how that's relevant to anything.
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Yes, to a degree, but the post you quoted is extreme hyperbole all around.
Let alone the Preds fired their coach, they've never fired a GM and neither have we (and neither did the Blues) so I don't know how that's relevant to anything.
Reality is there was a ton of luck too in the first year. How many times did they tie it or win it in the last few minutes of the game that year. That almost never happened last year and really wasn't happening until the Nashville game this year. The comeback against the Blues was quite a bonus, I figured the team was due for a bad game. They just delayed that one game and pulled out the bad effort against the Pens.
I think you surmised correctly, the bad game was the Blues, they just managed to get a win.
The team played quite well yesterday but Fleury did not. There was a shot or two Fleury normally saves (of 15!) then the team wins or goes into OT, and I would have liked our chances in OT. I was generally pleased with the performance besides Fleury, and a few Schmidt mistakes that he has seemed to have all season.
LadyStanley
Registered User
Statement from Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson on Logan Couture
Sharks lose their captain for "several weeks" due to fractured ankle.
Sharks lose their captain for "several weeks" due to fractured ankle.
I've been hearing six weeks. I think that's fully their playoff chances then. Although they probably weren't making it before the injury.
I bet Wilson wishes he could blow the team up right now. Problem for him is they have a bunch of unmovable guys. Kudos to GMGM for not getting stuck with 5 huge anchor contracts like the Sharks.
They also have to re-sign Hertl or Meier, right? Didn't one of them sign 1x1 thinking they were going to compete to help the team.
They have to try to go all in the next two seasons but don't have any assets for trade or cap space for free agents.
CupInSIX
My cap runneth over
You're thinking of Labanc, who is due for a hefty raise after a 1 year team friendly deal that he probably now regrets.
Oscar Meier has another 3 years, but when his deal is up at 26 he's an RFA that needs to be qualified at 10 million.
LadyStanley
Registered User
I don't take your bet. There are guys he has signed long term that he'd like to keep (more than want to get rid of).
NTCs: Jones, Burns, Couture, Kane; NMCs: EK65, Vlasic, Thornton. So, "technically", there are 15 guys that could be moved easily.
If EK65 signed with VGK, perhaps he'd be earning $12-16m/year and you'd love it.
To acquire (a player who can make a significant difference and guarantee them into the playoffs)? Probably not. Future assets - definitely!
Pending UFAs: Dillon, Heed, Simek; Brodzinski, M Karlsson, Marleau, Noesen, Radil, Thornton
Pending RFAs: Shortridge; Meloche, J Middleton, Roy, Sund, Dahlen, Halbgewachs, Kellman, Labanc, Letunov, Suomela, Wiederer
Expiring AHL deals: Crawford, K Middleton; Ivanyuzhenkov, Kosorenkov, Langan, Weinger
The guys that the Sharks could be willing to move that would have the best returns are: Dillon, Heed and M Karlsson.
5 2020 draft picks. 6 2021 picks. All picks from 2022 and beyond.
Estimated $62+m cap space used for 12 players next season .
The last time the Sharks didn't make the playoffs, DW didn't make any moves until TDL day.
I do expect the Sharks to re-sign pending UFA Simek; and at this point, probably Dell. The other UFAs - will depend on cap space (especially if they plan on buying out Jones) and if the Sharks know the guys can make a positive impact going forward.
I don't take your bet. There are guys he has signed long term that he'd like to keep (more than want to get rid of).
NTCs: Jones, Burns, Couture, Kane; NMCs: EK65, Vlasic, Thornton. So, "technically", there are 15 guys that could be moved easily.
If EK65 signed with VGK, perhaps he'd be earning $12-16m/year and you'd love it.
To acquire (a player who can make a significant difference and guarantee them into the playoffs)? Probably not. Future assets - definitely!
Pending UFAs: Dillon, Heed, Simek; Brodzinski, M Karlsson, Marleau, Noesen, Radil, Thornton
Pending RFAs: Shortridge; Meloche, J Middleton, Roy, Sund, Dahlen, Halbgewachs, Kellman, Labanc, Letunov, Suomela, Wiederer
Expiring AHL deals: Crawford, K Middleton; Ivanyuzhenkov, Kosorenkov, Langan, Weinger
The guys that the Sharks could be willing to move that would have the best returns are: Dillon, Heed and M Karlsson.
5 2020 draft picks. 6 2021 picks. All picks from 2022 and beyond.
Estimated $62+m cap space used for 12 players next season .
The last time the Sharks didn't make the playoffs, DW didn't make any moves until TDL day.
I do expect the Sharks to re-sign pending UFA Simek; and at this point, probably Dell. The other UFAs - will depend on cap space (especially if they plan on buying out Jones) and if the Sharks know the guys can make a positive impact going forward.
Lots of blue sky thinking here. EK65 wasn't going to get any more than $11m from VGK, that's why they didn't trade for him because they told GMGM their expectations were as you say. In any case, only the Burns and Couture deals are good contracts right now. Couture is great, underpaid really for a guy that produces when it counts. I think they could be in for a really ugly stretch without him.
No issue with MEV contract price now, but that's an albatross in a couple of years. He's well on his way to becoming a Duncan Keith problem. Can't be moved, but teams would balk anyways knowing what's coming. I appreciate what they guy is as much as anyone, but I'm still shocked his agent could get DW to sign him to something similar as Burns who is just a whole different commodity.
Kane at $7m is a bit too much and once again it feels like its never going to end. Maybe it feels less impactful if the cap goes up to $100m, but right now too much for a guy that's pretty much a 2nd line winger to me. His shooting % comes down and he's certainly not worth the money. As it is his production is a lot of 5v4, while his 5v5 numbers are just ok, which at his cost is not ok. This one just feels like a bad deal Wilson signed, no one would have offered the term he did, he negotiated against himself and seems kind of the same with EK. But Jones is the real problem, he's not bouncing back and his age suggests he never will be able to recover to be a dependable #1. So his contract is an utter disaster and could hardly be moved even without the NMC.
Now put all this together and see how much is going away with the FAs and the retired guys and what does this team look like next two years? At best a barely into the playoffs squad, at worst out of the playoffs and hoping young guys get better. And how much is Labanc going to cost to keep around? I'd blow it up if I could, take the medicine of a few bad years to rebuild, but with all 5 bad deals its hard to do. You can't waste the prime years of the guys you have, but you probably don't have enough behind them to do much. Wait out for the young/cheap guys to get better and the big contracts will still be around and past their prime. Its an ugly spot, but I get it all GMs in that situation have to do it. You get chased out of town with pitchforks if you don't try to keep as much as possible together a year after a final 4 season.
What I'm hoping VGK sees from this is if you can only give a couple of guys 10%+ of the cap and you can't give it too many years out. I think they handled the Stastny situation well and Patches is right where he needs to be in term. Karlsson's deal was fantastic and all the young guys who have been extended are cheap enough they can't really hurt the team if they stop producing. Fleury is the closest to getting a bad deal where the team negotiated against itself, but its for a guy they clearly were going to keep around and its not so far into the future where you could have years of problems. Not to say things don't get ugly in the future, but seems to me the Sharks are in a bad place and if KMGM keeps his cool and cycles young talent into the roster they won't be there anytime soon.
I don't take your bet. There are guys he has signed long term that he'd like to keep (more than want to get rid of).
NTCs: Jones, Burns, Couture, Kane; NMCs: EK65, Vlasic, Thornton. So, "technically", there are 15 guys that could be moved easily.
If EK65 signed with VGK, perhaps he'd be earning $12-16m/year and you'd love it.
To acquire (a player who can make a significant difference and guarantee them into the playoffs)? Probably not. Future assets - definitely!
Pending UFAs: Dillon, Heed, Simek; Brodzinski, M Karlsson, Marleau, Noesen, Radil, Thornton
Pending RFAs: Shortridge; Meloche, J Middleton, Roy, Sund, Dahlen, Halbgewachs, Kellman, Labanc, Letunov, Suomela, Wiederer
Expiring AHL deals: Crawford, K Middleton; Ivanyuzhenkov, Kosorenkov, Langan, Weinger
The guys that the Sharks could be willing to move that would have the best returns are: Dillon, Heed and M Karlsson.
5 2020 draft picks. 6 2021 picks. All picks from 2022 and beyond.
Estimated $62+m cap space used for 12 players next season .
The last time the Sharks didn't make the playoffs, DW didn't make any moves until TDL day.
I do expect the Sharks to re-sign pending UFA Simek; and at this point, probably Dell. The other UFAs - will depend on cap space (especially if they plan on buying out Jones) and if the Sharks know the guys can make a positive impact going forward.
I think they should be hoarding picks and not trading them away but I suppose they have made their decision to go for it now, so they could use those to move a bad contract and get someone better. They probably have 2-3 season after this where they could try to compete with this core before they would have to rebuild. It's remarkable that they've been able to stay competitive pretty well 17 years of the past decades and were two wins away from it all being worth it.
To be fair, I don't think Vegas should trade away any more 1st round picks and should keep a pick in the first two rounds of the next few drafts. We've given away enough.
LadyStanley
Registered User
I didn't like the Jones contract (term more than $$) when it was signed as I just didn't like/trust him (long term) as a #1 goalie. (I was also calling for a new goalie coach last spring.) Sharks/Plattner may have to either bite the bullet and buy him out, or get Jones rehabilitated to play OK (as I don't think they can find anyone to trade him to, even if they retain 50% of salary; now maybe they'll have to convince Seattle to take him in the expansion draft, but that's 16 months away and will probably bite them).
The direction the team takes will be in part based on who the HC is next fall. I don't know that Boughner will have the interim tag taken from him based on the team's play since he took over
I haven't liked some of the moves VGK has made
, but I can commend them for a very conservative approach to protect their draft picks from transactions.
The direction the team takes will be in part based on who the HC is next fall. I don't know that Boughner will have the interim tag taken from him based on the team's play since he took over
I haven't liked some of the moves VGK has made
Tatar really felt like a trade for trade's sake after not getting EK65 before the 2018 TDL
Shipachyov signing without an established Russian presence to help him ease into the NHL
Letting Bellemare walk as UFA
They also haven't been aggressive in signing undrafted free agents from college and juniors; that could be a result of putting their scouting efforts into HS and junior teams.
Shipachyov signing without an established Russian presence to help him ease into the NHL
Letting Bellemare walk as UFA
They also haven't been aggressive in signing undrafted free agents from college and juniors; that could be a result of putting their scouting efforts into HS and junior teams.
I think some of that is more what undrafted free agents are looking for. There just hasn't been the spots for them to almost immediately jump into the NHL that the top ones want. The ones we have signed have gotten a game or 2 in the NHL but have spent most of their time in the AHL (Duke, Schuldt, Whitecloud). The best available usually sign with teams that can get them into the NHL as soon as possible.
I agree that Tatar was a panic move and I think they should have kept Bellemare and Haula instead of Eakin. The college FA, like was said above, we don't have a spot for them at the moment.
I do agree that we should be aggressive and leverage players seemingly want to play here to go after a college FA if we have a hole in the lineup in the future.
CupInSIX
My cap runneth over
Aside from Coghlan, Schuldt, Whitecloud, Pachal they haven't been very aggressive the past 2 years...
They'd be very thin on 20-24yo dman prospects if they didn't sign those kids.
LadyStanley
Registered User
I was underwhelmed by Reid Duke as the first signed player. But I can excuse 2017 as no one "knew" what the organization was or how it would fare (organization cred was based on reputations of McPhee and McCrimmon), so may not have been a desirable destination for college free agents or high(er) end junior players.
Boris Zubov
No relation to Sergei, Joe
LadyStanley
Registered User
Bouwmeester collapsed on bench
Awake and responding on way to hospital. Dad's trip. Game postponed.
LadyStanley
Registered User
LadyStanley
Registered User
Athletic on Bouwmeester's incident. Team stayed in Anaheim last night.
Scheduled to play VGK Thursday.
LadyStanley
Registered User
Super Cake
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- Jun 24, 2013
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LadyStanley
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theslatcher
Registered User
Sadly, ICD should mean he's done, from casual googling; you might damage it while playing contact sports, which can result in a sudden cardiac death.
He got money, a cup, and turns 37 soon so not much left for him to do in the NHL, thankfully.
He gets his name on the Cup if they win this season, has won the Cup and is even a triple gold club member. He played over 1,200 games and made millions while having a great career. He may have retired this season anyway. As long as he has his health that's what's important.
