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

[timorous me]

An actual 3C! He's very much just an okay player in every regard, but coming off last season--and with the questions about Cooch--that's still a good add for the Sharks, even if it's at a premium salary (though only two years--very good).

Wennberg may not blow anyone's socks off (other than the BookTok weirdos, lol), but he's got enough skill that if we end up having him play with Will Smith (and, say, Klim Kostin), you could do a lot worse in terms of giving the kid something to work with.

 

[Barrie22]

So if couture is healthy we will have.

Couture
Granlund
Smith
Celebrini
Sturm
Wennberg

down the middle. Some of those can go to wing if needed obviously.

 

[Jargon]

The overpay comments crack me up. Are you guys Hasso’s accountants? Who cares? We have so much space it doesn’t matter. He’s a legit NHL center who plays good defense and can shelter the kids. It’s smart.

Also, I think Couture is just an uncertainty. It’s the kind of injury that may stay away or come back suddenly and they have to plan for the worst.

 

[sampler]

We will have Wennberg, Kunin, Sturm, and goodrow for a combined nearly 14M!! 4 fourth liners for 14M.

Who is gunna score on the sharks?
Zetterlund had 24. Granny had 12. Eklund had 16. Kunin 11, and thats all the sharks on the current roster from last year with double digit goals. Now add in Toffoli who should get 20-30, and wennberg who might be good for 10.

Thats a combined 100 goals from 6 of your forwards. If you get a GREAT rookie year from mack and smith, you'll get 20 from each. for 140. Add in another 20-30 from the rest of your forwards and you can expect 160 goals from the Forwards.

Maybe you can get 20-30 goals from the D. if you are lucky.

So, if things go pretty well the sharks might score 180-200 goals. Good for about 2.3-2.4 goals per game. That puts them in the bottom 5 and a solid 30 goals shy of prety darn bad.

Why does grier keep throwing money at trash? Goodrow, wennberg, lindbom, kunin, sturm, benning, borroughs, G smith, Knyshov...

We need talent that can put up 20-30 goals. Toffoli, Foegele, march, duclair, and many others were out there and signed deal in line with wennberg's but can score. I dont get it.

 

[Tw1ster]

We will have Wennberg, Kunin, Sturm, and goodrow for a combined nearly 14M!! 4 fourth liners for 14M.

Who is gunna score on the sharks?
Zetterlund had 24. Granny had 12. Eklund had 16. Kunin 11, and thats all the sharks on the current roster from last year with double digit goals. Now add in Toffoli who should get 20-30, and wennberg who might be good for 10.

Thats a combined 100 goals from 6 of your forwards. If you get a GREAT rookie year from mack and smith, you'll get 20 from each. for 140. Add in another 20-30 from the rest of your forwards and you can expect 160 goals from the Forwards.

Maybe you can get 20-30 goals from the D. if you are lucky.

So, if things go pretty well the sharks might score 180-200 goals. Good for about 2.3-2.4 goals per game. That puts them in the bottom 5 and a solid 30 goals shy of prety darn bad.

Why does grier keep throwing money at trash? Goodrow, wennberg, lindbom, kunin, sturm, benning, borroughs, G smith, Knyshov...

We need talent that can put up 20-30 goals. Toffoli, Foegele, march, duclair, and many others were out there and signed deal in line with wennberg's but can score. I dont get it.

Do you think maybe Foegele, March, Duclair, and many others probably didnt want to come to the Sharks even on an overpayment? You act like it’s super easy for the worst team in the league to go out and sign these guys

 

[STL Shark]

The overpay comments crack me up. Are you guys Hasso’s accountants? Who cares? We have so much space it doesn’t matter. He’s a legit NHL center who plays good defense and can shelter the kids. It’s smart.

Also, I think Couture is just an uncertainty. It’s the kind of injury that may stay away or come back suddenly and they have to plan for the worst.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1792559906144264641

It also just isn't an overpay either.

 

[gaucholoco3]

I was hoping JGP would get waived and Sharks would claim him but this is the same contract for a similar player who is bigger and being LH helps complement Smith.

I think Wennberg and Smith will be attached at the hip on the 3rd line both taking draws on their strong side.

 

[Friday]

Does the press box just have a full extra team sitting up there every night? Soooooor many bodies

 

[sampler]

The overpay comments crack me up. Are you guys Hasso’s accountants? Who cares? We have so much space it doesn’t matter. He’s a legit NHL center who plays good defense and can shelter the kids. It’s smart.

Also, I think Couture is just an uncertainty. It’s the kind of injury that may stay away or come back suddenly and they have to plan for the worst.

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.

 

[Jargon]

We will have Wennberg, Kunin, Sturm, and goodrow for a combined nearly 14M!! 4 fourth liners for 14M.

Who is gunna score on the sharks?
Zetterlund had 24. Granny had 12. Eklund had 16. Kunin 11, and thats all the sharks on the current roster from last year with double digit goals. Now add in Toffoli who should get 20-30, and wennberg who might be good for 10.

Thats a combined 100 goals from 6 of your forwards. If you get a GREAT rookie year from mack and smith, you'll get 20 from each. for 140. Add in another 20-30 from the rest of your forwards and you can expect 160 goals from the Forwards.

Maybe you can get 20-30 goals from the D. if you are lucky.

So, if things go pretty well the sharks might score 180-200 goals. Good for about 2.3-2.4 goals per game. That puts them in the bottom 5 and a solid 30 goals shy of prety darn bad.

Why does grier keep throwing money at trash? Goodrow, wennberg, lindbom, kunin, sturm, benning, borroughs, G smith, Knyshov...

We need talent that can put up 20-30 goals. Toffoli, Foegele, march, duclair, and many others were out there and signed deal in line with wennberg's but can score. I dont get it.

Hockey doesn’t work that way, you can’t just count goal totals as if nothing changes from one year to the next.

We now have a bottom 6 that is capable of playing minutes against other top team’s lines. They might get eaten alive some nights. It they’ll be so much better than a line of Zadina - Kunin - Hoffman or whatever nightmare last year was.

What this does is allow our top 6 to go out and score actual goals instead of being hemmed into their zone every shift.

That said, Grier is building a respectably bad team that will help Celebrini and Smith develop while they await more help from the Mustys, Dickinsons, etc. (and grow their own game).

The team this year is so much better than last year’s team and will be soooo much more palatable to watch.

We do need at least one more top 4 dman though.

 

[one2gamble]

meh

 

[timorous me]

This is Lindbom 2.0

What a horrific signing. 5M per for two years? hes a borderline 4th liner. He hasnt hit 40 points in nearly a decade. Hes never had a 20 goal season. he is worth 2M max.

Grier is a dumpster fire. He already has a team full of bottom 6 forwards, and now he adds another for 5M per?? Why not bring back duclair for that kind of money? Or someone who at least can score 20.

Toffoli signing was OK. Not spectacular but OK as he should be good for 25-30 goals. This one is horrific, and not just for this year but next year too. I don't get it.

Lindbom 2.0 just at double the price.

Man, you really hate Mike Grier. It's just farcical at this point, though, so at least there's very little chance of anyone taking your comments seriously.

Wennberg hasn't hit 40 points in nearly a decade? I guess 37 points in 2022 and 38 points in 2023 are sooooo far away that he's useless? (Let's just go ahead and ignore that only three Sharks scored more points than that this past season.)

Duclair got healthy scratched multiple times because of lack of effort and performance. I don't blame him for being down in the dumps playing on that team, but you really think he'd want to come back? Also, not a center.

The biggest issue you face is that you appear to be incredibly delusional in your expectations for what Grier could possibly do with this team at the moment. Getting Toffoli to sign is a major win considering the state of the team. You want spectacular? What did you want Grier to do, pay Marchessault and Skjei $10 million a year? Because that's about the only way you're getting guys even at THAT level. Which is arguably barely above Toffoli's level.

I'm sure you just want the Sharks to be good again, but there's no magic potion to make that happen any faster, and acting like Grier is an idiot for doing the best he can at the moment only reflects poorly on you.

 

[Hodge]

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.

Paying 39 year old Marchessault $5.5M in 28-29 when Celebrini and Smith are on their 2nd contracts sounds like a genius move. I wish you were the GM.

 

[coooldude]

So, if things go pretty well the sharks might score 180-200 goals. Good for about 2.3-2.4 goals per game. That puts them in the bottom 5 and a solid 30 goals shy of prety darn bad.

Why does grier keep throwing money at trash? Goodrow, wennberg, lindbom, kunin, sturm, benning, borroughs, G smith, Knyshov...

We need talent that can put up 20-30 goals. Toffoli, Foegele, march, duclair, and many others were out there and signed deal in line with wennberg's but can score. I dont get it.

You're so close to getting it...

2.3-2.4 goals per game is exactly what we should expect. Bottom 5 is exactly what we should expect.

There are 31 other teams trying to sign free agents today, 31 of which were better than us last year. Probably at least 20 of which are clearly better situations for a player to be in over the coming 2-3 years. It's not a video game... Grier can't just go get whoever he wants. The fact that we signed Toffoli at this stage of our rebuild is a huge win, in my book, and Wennberg is a solid 3C who can slow down the goals against waterfall.

 

[SJFanQC]

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.

Marchessault isn't going to simply sign for the same contract here than he did to play with Stamkos on a playoff team with less travel and with lower taxes.

 

[The McMafia]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1792559906144264641

It also just isn't an overpay either.

Only $1M over that estimate. Not bad but that's the added cost of pulling someone to a team trying to claw out of the basement. Thumbs up from me.

 

[STL Shark]

I was hoping JGP would get waived and Sharks would claim him but this is the same contract for a similar player who is bigger and being LH helps complement Smith.

I think Wennberg and Smith will be attached at the hip on the 3rd line both taking draws on their strong side.

Think more along the lines of we will have a very clear and distinct "scoring group" and "defense group" for forwards.

Eklund-Celebrini-Toffoli
Granlund-Smith-Zetterlund
Kostin-Wennberg-Dellandrea
Goodrow-Sturm-Kunin

Givani/Bailey in the AHL and Afanasyev and Grundstrom in the press box. Could also see Sturm traded similar to Lorentz last year and opening up a 4th line spot for someone with Goodrow taking over at 4C.

 

[Hodge]

Only $1M over that estimate. Not bad but that's the added cost of pulling someone to a team trying to claw out of the basement. Thumbs up from me.

$1M higher in projected AAV but 2 years lower in term which is infinitely more relevant to a team with as much short term cap space as the Sharks.

Based on AFP's projections, this is an underpayment - $10M in total dollars vs. their projection of $15.5M.

 

[STL Shark]

Only $1M over that estimate. Not bad but that's the added cost of pulling someone to a team trying to claw out of the basement. Thumbs up from me.

Also the added cost on AAV of not going to 4 years of term. Shorter term means more AAV in UFA.

 

[Hodge]

Do people realize Wennberg is 29 years old and made $5.35M in salary last season?

How much of a pay cut would you expect a player in that situation to take?

 

[TheBeard]

I kinda don’t hate this. Insurance for Granlund getting moved at the deadline and Couture not being able to play. He could be LW on Celebrini’s wing or 3C with Smith on his RW. Not a world beater but he’s an NHL player and has some scoring talent.

I think this is the smart thinking. Granlund and Sturm are both FA after the season so if both get moved at the TDL they're not treading water at the C position going into next season.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

They could've paid Wennberg more and I wouldn't have cared since they kept it to two years. He's someone that can actually move up and down the lineup a bit as depth. He won't be great higher up but he'll do a much better job of filling in than what Kunin is capable of.

Kostin-Celebrini-Toffoli
Eklund-Granlund-Zetterlund
Goodrow-Wennberg-Smith
Grundstrom-Sturm-Dellandrea

And hopefully Kunin is an expensive extra.

 

[TheBeard]

This is Lindbom 2.0

What a horrific signing. 5M per for two years? hes a borderline 4th liner. He hasnt hit 40 points in nearly a decade. Hes never had a 20 goal season. he is worth 2M max.

Grier is a dumpster fire. He already has a team full of bottom 6 forwards, and now he adds another for 5M per?? Why not bring back duclair for that kind of money? Or someone who at least can score 20.

Toffoli signing was OK. Not spectacular but OK as he should be good for 25-30 goals. This one is horrific, and not just for this year but next year too. I don't get it.

Lindbom 2.0 just at double the price.

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 ???

 

[Bizz]

2.5M overpay but what can we do

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.

 

[TheBeard]

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, but this means we can trade both Sturm and Granlund at the deadline (or watch em walk) and still not have to rush the kids at C next year. We're not competing anyways so who cares?