Confirmed with Link: Sharks sign Alexander Wennberg 2 years 5M AAV

[Jargon]

I get it. We were up against the cap and needed to spend wisely. I think after this signing we only have *checks notes* 34 MILLION DOLLARS ???

Can we get one good RD for 34 million x 1 yr?

 

[Hodge]

I'm not sure where the idea we have too many forwards is coming from.

We have 12 established NHL forwards in Toffoli, Granlund, Wennberg, Goodrow, Kunin, Kostin, Sturm, Zetterlund, Eklund, G. Smith, Dellandrea and Grundstrom. Celebrini and W. Smith makes 14.

Probably safe to assume Couture won't be ready for the start of the season but even if he is, waiving Givani Smith is no big deal.

 

[Bizz]

No, but this means we can trade both Sturm and Granlund at the deadline (or watch em walk)

rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

[Sendhelplease]

rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

A rebuilding team trading away veterans at the deadline for future assets is rearranging deck chairs?

 

[Bizz]

A rebuilding team trading away veterans at the deadline for future assets is rearranging deck chairs?

why spend 5Mx2 for a player when he's no different that the similar, cheaper options already on your roster? We can still trade both Sturm and Granlund and just call up one of the many prospects we have in March to fill them out without handing a contract to a player that's just taking up space.

 

[TheBeard]

Can we get one good RD for 34 million x 1 yr?

It ain't pretty.

 

[timorous me]

not signing him is something that he could have done.

Wennberg doesn't provide anything that we don't already have on the roster, aside from what, "veteran presence?", Wennberg has zero Cups, and he has little to no value in a trade so flipping him isn't an option either.

No trade value, you say? Like a few months ago, on an even higher salary...

https://x.com/i/web/status/1765486892899004512

 

[Sendhelplease]

why spend 5Mx2 for a player when he's no different that the similar, cheaper options already on your roster?

Just because you already have a player similar to Wennberg doesn't mean Wennberg is useless. I think that Sturm and Granlund were invaluable to us last year in helping to keep the team together and helping guys like Eklund and Zetterlund have someone to pass to. I would be happy with 5 more guys like Wennberg on the roster.

 

[TheBeard]

why spend 5Mx2 for a player when he's no different that the similar, cheaper options already on your roster?

Strictly insurance for Cooter. It's not like the cap space is needed nor were there any other players out there any better to spend on. Why does it matter?

Just because you already have a player similar to Wennberg doesn't mean Wennberg is useless. I think that Sturm and Granlund were invaluable to us last year in helping to keep the team together and helping guys like Eklund and Zetterlund have someone to pass to. I would be happy with 5 more guys like Wennberg on the roster.

I remember how mad people got here when we signed Sturm for multiple years.

 

[Bizz]

Strictly insurance for Cooter. It's not like the cap space is needed nor were there any other players out there any better to spend on. Why does it matter?

I can see having insurance for a top 6 center if we were contending, but we're (supposedly) not. So I don't get it.

 

[mogambomoroo]

Why overpay cracks you up? Cap space is limited and we need to spend it to bring in talent! We need goals. We were 80-90 goals short of being just average last year. Toffoli should be good for goals, but wennberg isnt. Goodrow isnt. Kunin isnt.

We need GOALS! March had 42. Foegele had 20. Duclair had 24. Foegele and duclair signed at 3.5M per. march was just 5.5 per.

imagine that we had Duclair and marchassault instead of goodrow and wennberg. Same $$ for at least the next two+ years. Thats 60 goals instead of maybe 15-20, and then still have cash to get a solid D (Roy at 6 per would have been fine or montour at 7 would be fine too).

thats why cap value matters.

Timeline to acquire big free agents is not here yet and good free agents don't want to sign with Sharks either. We need to remember that these free agents are actual human beings with opinions like us here discussing the matter. Free agency is one of the only times most of them have a chance to really decide about their future since they were drafted by a team, having ELC/RFA restrictions or traded/waived around.

 

[coooldude]

I can see having insurance for a top 6 center if we were contending, but we're (supposedly) not. So I don't get it.

Think about it the other way. This is insurance to not have to be the worst team in the league by 5 wins and out of the playoffs by 20.

We'll have a better chance at a respectable bottom 3 finish.

 

[The Nemesis]

Grier: "Just build the whole roster out of centers."

 

[Pavelski2112]

Grier: "Just build the whole roster out of centers."

By god that's DW's music

 

[Jargon]

Grier: "Just build the whole roster out of centers."

At this point Wennberg could maybe play defense better than most of our actual defensemen so…

 

[SJFanQC]

Grier: "Just build the whole roster out of centers."

He remembers the Jumbo Pavs Patty Couture Hertl top-6 days

 

[matt trick]

Goals for last year:
1. Get Macklin Celebrini
2. Hope the Pens suck so we can get one of the quality D in the draft

Goals for this year:

1. Insulate Celebrini, Eklund, and Smith resulting in the team not being historically bad
2. Get a top 1-5 pick (and early 2nd) to add another franchise cornerstone and other quality prospect
3. Get some additional draft picks by moving free agents (Granlund, Sturm, Koistin, Ruuta, the goalies; and possibly Ferraro)
4. Improve by 8-12 points.
5. Minimize acquisition of contracts that will be boat anchors when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Dickinson, and 2025 1st need new contracts. Anything under three years is fine (be it a cap dump or an insulation pick-up). Toffolli (and potentially a top 4 D) are fine in that we may have no one else besides Eklund and Zetterlund on contracts by that point.
6. Acquire guys like Wennberg, Walman, and possibly Goodrow who can get moved for picks at future deadlines.

In 2027-2029, I think will want be hunting for 'additional piece' type free agents. As I expect we'll see with Tofolli, the last year of most 3+ year UFA deals are poor, so you need to activate them when entering a window (Paul Martin was a perfect example of this).

Even if we grab a pair of legitimate top 4 RHD, we're not a playoff team. Improvement is sufficient.

 

[Barrie22]

Goals for last year:
1. Get Macklin Celebrini
2. Hope the Pens suck so we can get one of the quality D in the draft

Goals for this year:

1. Insulate Celebrini, Eklund, and Smith resulting in the team not being historically bad
2. Get a top 1-5 pick (and early 2nd) to add another franchise cornerstone and other quality prospect
3. Get some additional draft picks by moving free agents (Granlund, Sturm, Koistin, Ruuta, the goalies; and possibly Ferraro)
4. Improve by 8-12 points.
5. Minimize acquisition of contracts that will be boat anchors when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Dickinson, and 2025 1st need new contracts. Anything under three years is fine (be it a cap dump or an insulation pick-up). Toffolli (and potentially a top 4 D) are fine in that we may have no one else besides Eklund and Zetterlund on contracts by that point.
6. Acquire guys like Wennberg, Walman, and possibly Goodrow who can get moved for picks at future deadlines.

In 2027-2029, I think will want be hunting for 'additional piece' type free agents. As I expect we'll see with Tofolli, the last year of most 3+ year UFA deals are poor, so you need to activate them when entering a window (Paul Martin was a perfect example of this).

Even if we grab a pair of legitimate top 4 RHD, we're not a playoff team. Improvement is sufficient.

#4 improve by 8-12 points.

Funny enough even if we improve by that much, we still should be a good 15-20 points back from 31st lol

 

[SJFanQC]

Goals for last year:
1. Get Macklin Celebrini
2. Hope the Pens suck so we can get one of the quality D in the draft

Goals for this year:

1. Insulate Celebrini, Eklund, and Smith resulting in the team not being historically bad
2. Get a top 1-5 pick (and early 2nd) to add another franchise cornerstone and other quality prospect
3. Get some additional draft picks by moving free agents (Granlund, Sturm, Koistin, Ruuta, the goalies; and possibly Ferraro)
4. Improve by 8-12 points.
5. Minimize acquisition of contracts that will be boat anchors when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Dickinson, and 2025 1st need new contracts. Anything under three years is fine (be it a cap dump or an insulation pick-up). Toffolli (and potentially a top 4 D) are fine in that we may have no one else besides Eklund and Zetterlund on contracts by that point.
6. Acquire guys like Wennberg, Walman, and possibly Goodrow who can get moved for picks at future deadlines.

In 2027-2029, I think will want be hunting for 'additional piece' type free agents. As I expect we'll see with Tofolli, the last year of most 3+ year UFA deals are poor, so you need to activate them when entering a window (Paul Martin was a perfect example of this).

Even if we grab a pair of legitimate top 4 RHD, we're not a playoff team. Improvement is sufficient.

This is a low bar we've already cleared by letting Hoffman go

 

[Dicdonya]

I'm not sure where the idea we have too many forwards is coming from.

We have 12 established NHL forwards in Toffoli, Granlund, Wennberg, Goodrow, Kunin, Kostin, Sturm, Zetterlund, Eklund, G. Smith, Dellandrea and Grundstrom. Celebrini and W. Smith makes 14.

Probably safe to assume Couture won't be ready for the start of the season but even if he is, waiving Givani Smith is no big deal.

I think you sorta answered your own question, you just listed 12 forwards that are already in the NHL before you even get to guys like Celebrini and Smith.

So now we have the very real situation that some of our prospects that COULD be ready for NHL time, are now blocked from playing in the NHL, not because they are not ready, but because we literally do not have roster spots available to fill and you are not going to waive a bunch of players on 1 way contracts to open up slots. The same was true for our D last year, and it sucked.

I think Grier had a good offseason, I am not shitting on him, however I do think he went a little overboard with the depth moves, and now we find ourselves in a situation where instead of having some nice veteran pieces to help ease our prospects into the NHL, we instead have a roster literally filled with veterans (besides Eklund) and no spots for prospects to fight for and start getting NHL time playing in.

I dont know about anyone else, but I was looking forward to having a younger, more prospect laden team this year, instead of watching another terrible season from a team filled with has beens and never weres.

 

[YUPPY 2 7 10 11]

Goals for last year:
1. Get Macklin Celebrini
2. Hope the Pens suck so we can get one of the quality D in the draft

Goals for this year:

1. Insulate Celebrini, Eklund, and Smith resulting in the team not being historically bad
2. Get a top 1-5 pick (and early 2nd) to add another franchise cornerstone and other quality prospect
3. Get some additional draft picks by moving free agents (Granlund, Sturm, Koistin, Ruuta, the goalies; and possibly Ferraro)
4. Improve by 8-12 points.
5. Minimize acquisition of contracts that will be boat anchors when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Dickinson, and 2025 1st need new contracts. Anything under three years is fine (be it a cap dump or an insulation pick-up). Toffolli (and potentially a top 4 D) are fine in that we may have no one else besides Eklund and Zetterlund on contracts by that point.
6. Acquire guys like Wennberg, Walman, and possibly Goodrow who can get moved for picks at future deadlines.

In 2027-2029, I think will want be hunting for 'additional piece' type free agents. As I expect we'll see with Tofolli, the last year of most 3+ year UFA deals are poor, so you need to activate them when entering a window (Paul Martin was a perfect example of this).

Even if we grab a pair of legitimate top 4 RHD, we're not a playoff team. Improvement is sufficient.

7. Hope VGK becomes really bad so their unprotected 1st which we own can join the lottery and it might net us James Hagens.

 

[Star Platinum]

I'm not sure where the idea we have too many forwards is coming from.

We have 12 established NHL forwards in Toffoli, Granlund, Wennberg, Goodrow, Kunin, Kostin, Sturm, Zetterlund, Eklund, G. Smith, Dellandrea and Grundstrom. Celebrini and W. Smith makes 14.

Probably safe to assume Couture won't be ready for the start of the season but even if he is, waiving Givani Smith is no big deal.

I think we may have too many bottom 6 forwards. Also don't know why we're getting so many centers, but maybe we just want more defensively responsible forwards even if it costs us goals.

 

[matt trick]

On Wennberg, he's pretty good. He's also 29, so it's not like he's going to fall off a cliff. Solid defensive player, 6'2, plays PK, left handed, just played 3C on a contender. Wouldn't surprise me if he's 6th in Sharks scoring while being good defensively. If he maintains his play and/or increased responsibility results in increased production over the next 18 months, we'll get a 2nd or better for him at 2025-26 deadline.

As far as UFAs go, he's probably the best center we could have gotten. Sure Stamkos, Lindholm, Monahan, and Stephenson are better, but they all got bigger and much longer contracts.

I've liked five UFA contracts so far: Walker, Carrier, Marchessault, Perron and Duclair. All were signed with teams in better situations than San Jose. Happy with Grier's performance. Hopefully we can find a couple guys to upgrade on Ruuta and Benning, but RHDs are in demand.

 

[coooldude]

Goals for last year:
1. Get Macklin Celebrini
2. Hope the Pens suck so we can get one of the quality D in the draft

Goals for this year:

1. Insulate Celebrini, Eklund, and Smith resulting in the team not being historically bad
2. Get a top 1-5 pick (and early 2nd) to add another franchise cornerstone and other quality prospect
3. Get some additional draft picks by moving free agents (Granlund, Sturm, Koistin, Ruuta, the goalies; and possibly Ferraro)
4. Improve by 8-12 points.
5. Minimize acquisition of contracts that will be boat anchors when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Dickinson, and 2025 1st need new contracts. Anything under three years is fine (be it a cap dump or an insulation pick-up). Toffolli (and potentially a top 4 D) are fine in that we may have no one else besides Eklund and Zetterlund on contracts by that point.
6. Acquire guys like Wennberg, Walman, and possibly Goodrow who can get moved for picks at future deadlines.

In 2027-2029, I think will want be hunting for 'additional piece' type free agents. As I expect we'll see with Tofolli, the last year of most 3+ year UFA deals are poor, so you need to activate them when entering a window (Paul Martin was a perfect example of this).

Even if we grab a pair of legitimate top 4 RHD, we're not a playoff team. Improvement is sufficient.

Great list!

On 1. Ideally Smith scores 40 (but probably more like 35, many on PP), Celebrini scores 60 (but more likely 50 or 40), and Eklund scores 50-55 pts. And they look like they belong at 5v5.

2. should also include VGK's unprotected 1st! we'll get two more quality prospects at least.

3. We'll see -- they may think Granny is in the future plans, unless Smith or Celebrini are really coming on strong.

4. 60 points is a win in my book. We probably need that RD. But if they're really good, i mean, 65 points is not out of the question. Holy moly.

5 and 6 Yep!

Agreed on 2027-29... we'll see if Mukh got established, we'll be seeing the early years of Dickinson, we'll see if Musty/Chernyshov panned out, etc. etc. So much of those years and who we target depends on how the prospect pool develops.

 

[Star Platinum]

So now we have the very real situation that some of our prospects that COULD be ready for NHL time, are now blocked from playing in the NHL, not because they are not ready, but because we literally do not have roster spots available to fill

Which prospects do you think are ready that are being blocked? The only two prospects I think that are actually ready to stay on the main roster already have spots.