Would the Sharks be better with Visnovsky – YES! Would we have to give up Marleau to get him in a trade, most likely. After stepping back and looking how damaging this would be to our forwards, I think we have to wait for another option. The long term future looks good. We have to give Carle the opportunity to develop into that 60 point power play quarterback. If he doesn’t, we still have the young pieces to make a deal with someone down the road. In another year, this could be a team that is so deep and dominant, they could blow past everyone in the West with their youth, speed and size that have now been together for three years.

That being said- you’re nuts if you think the Sharks can contend this year for the Cup with this group. I hate NHL conventional wisdom, because it goes out the door once there’s a counter-example (like “you need to know how to win in the playoffs”). But teams that make it to the NHL finals generally have good, solid, veteran D. And the Sharks do not have that. Two sophomores, a good young D in Ehrhoff, and two #3-4ish D men in Rivet and McLaren are not a Cup-winning combination. Especially when you have to give good minutes to marginal NHLer in Murray or Davison.

IF we wait a couple of years AND Vlasic AND Carle AND Ehrhoff mature AND Wishart turns into a NHL caliber defensemen we may have something. But as of now, we couldn’t get past the Ducks or Wings in the west and Ottawa (at least) in the East. We need a #1 or #2 blueliner like Souray or Visnovsky to compete in the next two years.