I did a little research...
Great work; the steelman of the "Sharks can't sign good forwards" case. Now for the other side...in the cap era, the Sharks just
couldn't sign those upper-range free agents. They didn't have the money, the cap space, or the need.
Until 2014, the Sharks were owned by a fairly frugal group. They couldn't give out term, or the front-loaded, big-bonus contracts that were standard. With Hasso Plattner, this issue is moot.
From 2005-2022, when they were competing (or "competing") the Sharks have always been a "cap" team. Hard to pay FAs when they literally can't. This will eventually be an issue, but shouldn't be an obstacle.
On the need, the Sharks have historically (really, from franchise-founding) had a great forward group. More scoring is always good, but find me a year where an additional scoring forward was a big need. And they have a middling record of bringing in upper-half players in the other positions...Blake, Martin,
Preissing, Stuart, Schlemko, Niemi, and Reimer off the top of my head.
Lastly, I'll add that the Sharks have been very close on several giant fish (Niedemayer, Chara, Weber, and Tavares). "Very slose" doesn't get you anything, but it's clear that players are interested in signing in SJ.