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.
Doug Wilson admits not signing Pavelski was a big mistake
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PattyLafontaine
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Wilson is wrong here. The problem wasn't letting Pavelski go but trading for Karlsson after he couldn't land Tavares, which would also been a colossal mistake. Wilson caved and gave out long term deals to aging players like candy, instead of blowing it up and admitting that the team needed a full rebuild.
Thankfully Hasso has allowed for a full rebuild to occur.
Thankfully Hasso has allowed for a full rebuild to occur.
Matty Sundin
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They were doom to decline if they did still. Maybe they get some picks trading him after instead of losing him for nothing.
thrillhous
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IMO Sharks would not have won a cup even with Pavs so yeah it’s too bad for them that they let him go but not the end of the world (and few would have predicted the success he had for so many years late into his 30s)
Trading for him was fine. Re-signing him was the problem.
PattyLafontaine
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I’m not 100% convinced of that, but DW wasn’t going to let him go test the waters easily.
Machinehead
HFNYR MVP
I see the argument, but at the same time, the Sharks have really been on the decline and I'm not sure what they missed out on by having Pavelski.
If anything, it's better for all involved that he got a crack at playing competitive hockey with Dallas.
If anything, it's better for all involved that he got a crack at playing competitive hockey with Dallas.
The Nemesis
Semper Tyrannus
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.
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Early DW was a good GM, made great trades and kept the team going on the fringes. Late DW was just lazy, extend guys and make desperate deals. Once he ran out of assets the team was run into the ground. I'm still stunned he gave Vlasic the same deal as Burns.
Dude…
What’s next, is Ray Shero going to have second thoughts about drafting Derrick Pouliot over Filip Forsberg?
Choralone
Registered User
Karlsson's deal was the bad move, because the team was all in at that point from a financial perspective, but was past it's prime from a competitive perspective. In hindsight, he should have started the rebuild then instead of signing Karlsson to that monster deal.
The Nemesis
Semper Tyrannus
He apparently wanted to, but the Sharks couldn't/wouldn't commit to the term and $ value that Dallas did
Wilson's biggest issue, one born out by the above-listed contract jag from my previous post, is that he was far too loyal to his core guys (or his own decisions). He acquired Karlsson and from that point was locked in. He was never going to pull the ripcord and admit the team needed to bail out and rebuild.
John Garretts KD
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Brent Burns
“”“Re-tooling on the fly”””
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SJ had traded for Kane at the 2019 TDL. So, at that point in time, they had Vlasic and Burns had already gotten their retirement contracts. And Wilson then gave Couture his deal not long after that. And had Hertl and Meier who were coming into their own. With the older trio of Thornton, Marleau, and Pavelski. Given that he took the C off Thornton, should have realized which Joe, was the soul of the team.
But, SJ wasn't going to rebuild. Once he started to give out deals to his 30 year old vets, he was pot committed at that point. Hard to make an about turn when 32/33 year olds have 5/6 years left on their contracts.
SJSharksfan39
Registered User
I started watching more Stars games because of Pavelski. He was probably my favorite Sharks player in the last 20 years. I hope he has a great retirement.
