Ho Hum, Nothing to See Here
July 8th, 2009, 7:28 am
Even though the Sharks have been inactive, we haven’t. New podcast here. This time of year is ripe for speculation, and that’s what we do best, so this week is full of ideas about what the Sharks might do between now and the beginning of the season. I know some of you out there are getting frustrated, and it’s hard not to be. I still trust DW, but I admit, that trust was shaken a tad when Kent Huskins was signed. I hope the other shoe that drops is an italian-made loafer.
In case you were feeling down in the dumps about the Sharks, and you want to get more depressed, read this. Gabe Desjardins watched video of every Sharks even-strengh goal against, and assigned blame to a defenseman. Let’s just say he makes it sound like we could use a #1 and a #2 defensemen now. However, I’m not a fan of this methodology for two reasons: One, it’s very subjective. Without watching all the goals myself, I think it’s in the realm of possibility that you could quibble on the blame of 10-15% of them, which could change those rankings around. I try to read almost everything Gabe writes, but it makes me suspicious when he says that the results reinforced what he already thought. Two, it assigns blame for a goal to one person only. Maybe Blake missed coverage a little bit, putting Vlasic out of position. Vlasic gets beat and there’s a goal against, but who gets the “error”? Blake for putting Vlasic in a bad spot, or Vlasic getting beat?
In other news, the latest this morning is that since the Pronger extension doesn’t start until 2010, and Pronger will be 35 in September of that year, the extension counts as an “old man” contract. This means it counts against the cap for the entire term, even in Pronger retires before it’s over. I’m not sure I like that contract now…
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Well the report does confirm that Ehrhoff makes a ton of mistakes and is severely overpaid. It is time to cut ties with him.
With Boyle though, his offensive presence more than makes up for the errors. And, I’m not sure some if those errors he counts I would credit to Boyle. Boyle’s presence as a legit option on the blue line, especially on the PP, for Joe and the other forwards probably creates 20+ extra goals a year for the forwards. Plus his motivation and leadership are unparralled on this team. We need more Dan Boyle’s on this team not less.
I agree that the methodology is flawed, but do you guys think there are seeds (maybe even big chunks of truth) in there? He came down hard on Boyle and Ehrhoff, and gave big ups to Vlasic and Murray.
Overall, he doesn’t seem too impressed with the Sharks Dmen. The Sharks were one of the top defensive teams in the league. Is that evidence of Nabby’s importance? The two way abilities of the Sharks forwards? There is a little bit of dissonance between his subjective opinion, the advanced individual stats, and the basic aggregate team stats. Color me intrigued but wanting a little more to tie this all up.
I don’t think one gets a complete picture without also watching the goals Sharks actually scored and contributions that came from defense, so I’m not going to put too much into this report.
Nice to read on Pollak’s blog that DW is out in Boston catching his daughter’s boyfriend baseball game tonight. Glad he’s using the summer time to his advantage while still on a payroll. I think the reason why pretty much nothing has happened so far for the Sharks and it’s already July 8th is not because he’s waiting, but it’s because no one wants to trade with the Sharks. DW is either asking too much, or it’s simply other GMs realizing that they don’t need dead Cheechoo or way overpaid Michalek or inconsistent Errorhoff. We tend to think no one watches the Sharks, but my guess is that some GMs still do and they know what we know about these players.
I’m starting to get really frustrated with this offseason.
I think another thing that must be taken into account is that Dan Boyle was logging most of his even strength minutes against the oppositions top lines. I wonder what he thinks of Mike Green defensively?
Ivan: I doubt every exec is holed up in their office staring at their desktop. Brian Burke reportedly made deals from Sweden on July 1 and 2 and he spent big bucks. I feel your frustration, but as a Sharks fan you know that DW does not act out of haste. It could be no one wants to deal with San Jose forcing them to stand pat and suffer…but I think there are GM’s out there interested in some of the Sharks pieces (Michalek, Ehrhoff) after the UFA dust settles.
From his perspective, why should he take TNT to a President’s Trophy core unless he’s sure it’s going pay dividends. If he went mental like Bob Gainey with tons of crazy moves, but moves none the less, would you be happier? Now – if DW does nothing, I’ll be the first one to say that is unacceptable – it’s just too soon to jump off the ship.
As for Pollak calling Mike Sullivan as a potential assistant coach candidate, it makes sense. I seem to recall a certain blogger saying he might have been a head coach candidate last summer…you actually heard it HERE first.
(ring, ring) Gotta go. Doug Wilson just called from Fenway. Gainey offered him the ghost of Koivu for Marleau and some ravioli from Original Joe’s. I guess his cell phone works.
Koivu is actually signing with the Ducks, as Ducks just announced on Twitter.
The trouble is that other teams are getting better while we’re doing nothing. Blackhawks will be a force to reckon with next season and who knows, they may be a team to beat, especially if they sign a better GK. Detroit will still be Detroit. The Ducks will lack Pronger, but they’ll still have their offense plus Koivu. The Stars will be back and healthy. The Kings won’t be an easy opponent either.
While it’s nice to think we were President’s trophy team, we were also the team that won just once out of three games at home in playoffs, and yes, we were the team that lost in the 1st round. That’s the only stat that I now care about and the only stat that I have a hard time erasing from my brain.
Maybe in 3-4 years I’ll be happy with just making playoffs. But the team last year and this year is supposedly crafted for more than just a regular season.
The news about Boyle shouldn’t be shocking to anyone. He wasn’t brought in as a “shut down” defenseman. It’s why he doesn’t play against opponents’ top lines. For players like this, I think +/- is a valuable stat.
As for the Pronger scuttlebutt, I’m pretty sure the CBA says “signed” as it relates to contracts. Philly should be in the clear.
Jeremy,
I didn’t expect Boyle to be as bad as Desjardins makes him out to be. Didn’t expect him to be a shutdown guy, but didn’t expect him to be horrible either.
As for the Pronger thing, not according to the NHL:
http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/darren_dreger/?id=284062
For what it’s worth…
I was listening to NHL Home Ice on the radio and Phil Esposito had the Columbus Blue Jackets beat writer on and he mentioned that the BJ’s only have 5 D-men under contract and need a puck mover. He said that San Jose is a perfect match with Ehrhoff, talent-wise and due to the Sharks cap issues.
They have the cap room and need a D-man. Could it be?
Doug –
I’ll buy a plane ticket for Error with my own money.
The only question is what do we need in return? Perhaps a 2nd round pick?
Well – Mike and I were just “speculating” (my favorite word) that perhaps we could get…wait for it…Raffi Torres out of the deal. Now, I took some heat last year on ChompBoard and here (I think) for tossing out Torres as an option, but the Sharks still desperately lack someone to stir the pot and bug the opposition, plus chip in 30-40 points in the process. Torres is one of the best in that role, when healthy.
Would you do Torres for Ehrhoff? Saves the Sharks 1M in cap room next year and then Torres’ deal is off the books.
I’d take Torres for Error in a heart beat, and Columbus may have to throw a 3-4th round pick on top of that, I’m thinking.
However, I still despise most of the players from that Oilers team that kicked us out of the 2nd round back in the day. Now that you’re bringing him up, the wounds appear fresh still.
Yeah, Ehrhoff has the be the #1 trade piece right now. Offensive Dmen are the “in” thing, and Ehrhoff had 42 points, skates like the wind, and has a shotgun of a slapper. Too bad he gets pushed around by strong gusts of wind and is about as accurate as a shotgun.
Something about Huskins… he was a 20+ minute a night guy for the Ducks before he got hurt. Is it possible we got ourselves a Torrey Mitchell-like bargain because of his injury? If he had been healthy all year, is Huskins instead a $2.5mil/yr guy? Honestly, I think DW sees a little bit of a younger Craig Rivet in Kent Huskins (though Rivet had FAR more experience when the Sharks got him). If he plays 20+min a night and ends the season a +10/15 with 25 points, that has contract has to be considered a huge bargain, no?
Is this guy Desjardins trying to pass himself off as the Bill James of hockey? If so, I’m not biting. I’m pretty sure the Presidents Trophy Speaks for itself.
As far as roster moves go, I think Ehrhoff, Cheech, and Milan are the most likely pieces to be moved, which should come as no surprise. I’d like to hold on to Vlasic and Patty and if that doesn’t work out, we have a lot more cap space next year without Patty and Nabby. Any thought to the idea that DW is gonna wait till 2010-11 to make a run? Maybe then he makes a bigger UFA splash and Couture and Petrecki can make a more effective contribution. Maybe he gets an NHL-ready prospect for a package of Ehrhoff and Milan now who can do the same. Just a thought.
Nothing wrong with trying to be the Bill James of hockey in my view. Many hockey stats are woefully inadequate. Gabe’s done great work over at behindthenet.ca, and I use that extensively to compare players. Much better stuff over there than just G,A, and +/-.