It's ironic, because he was willing to go the distance with every guy except Pavelski, yet going the distance with Pavelski would have been the best choice of all the veterans he ran into the ground.
That was less about him not choosing to hitch his wagon to Pavleksi and more to do with the fact that Pavelski's contract pre-dated Wilson going nuts on signing his core.
- Pavelski's last Shark contract was signed in July of 2013, but it was an extension while he still had a year left on his current deal. So it started in the fall of 2014.
- Burns' extension was signed in November 2016, with the deal running out the next off-season.
- Vlasic's 8 year deal was signed in the summer of 2017 (a year ahead of actually needing it)
- Martin Jones signed a 6 year deal in the summer of 2017 (with a year left on his current contract) before it was bought out 3 seasons into said deal.
- Kane's 7 year deal was signed in the summer of 2018
- Couture's 8 year deal was signed in the summer of 2018 (a year away from his then-current contract ending)
- Erik Karlsson signed his 8 year extension in June of 2019
- Pavelski's contract expired in the summer of 2019
- Hertl's 8 year deal was signed in March of 2022
All of these deals were signed around those players being 29 or 30, including Pavelski's. But Pavelski being a bit older, so his contract started earlier and then ended right in the middle of Wilson handing out 7 or 8 year deals like candy. With his deal ending in 2019 the team had signed Burns, Jones, Vlasic, Couture, and Kane. with Karlsson's extension coming up that summer.
This was the problem. Wilson signed Pavelski, then wrecked the Sharks' cap space on a bunch of other deals over the next 4 or 5 years and when Pavelski's deal came due the Sharks had no space left to retain him. And those contracts were risky or outright stupid becuase they were for longer and often had NTC/NMCs attached so that everyone was locked in to watching them and the team around them crumble.
But even knowing what we know now about how badly most of those other contracts worked out it's not like going back in time and signing Pavelski instead would've changed things for the team for the better. They were doomed without him but would've been doomed with him just the same.