When I first saw the report on Fear The Fin about the Mitchell signing (3 years, $1.36M per year), my first thought was: too much.   This is a guy that sat out the regular season, played only 4 playoff games, and had no points.  I would think in that situation, the Sharks would have all the leverage in a contract negotiation.  We still don’t know if Mitchell will be back at the full-speed, balls-to-the-wall style of play he had before the injury.  In his only full season, he had 20 points.

That’s a lot of unknowns to lock up a guy for three years at over a million dollars.  What is it with the Sharks and million-dollar contracts?  If the Sharks don’t make any more moves, and say fill out the roster with Ortmeyer, Moore, Couture, and Joslin (not an unreasonable assessment, but not the one I would favor) the Sharks will have only 6 guys making under a million dollars.   To look at two sore spots, Anaheim and Detroit, they have 10 and 8 guys under a million bucks, respectively.  Chicago and Vancouver are pretty close to us – 6 and 4.  The top Eastern teams are mostly close except for Philly (10) –  Pittsburgh (7), Washington (7), and Boston (7).  I appears the Sharks are #2 in the NHL in million dollar contracts.

Now let’s look at the flip side of this signing.  Thanks to capgeek.com, it’s easy to look at at list of all the signings since June 30.  Now order them by cap hit- click on the Cap Hit column header twice to list in decending order.  Scroll down to Mitchell, he’s about a third of the way down the list.  Now try and get through the other two thirds and make a list of forwards you’d rather have than Mitchell.

I’ll wait.

Here’s mine:  Ian Laperriere… maybe.  Tomas Kopecky… maybe.   Todd Marchant… maybe.

That’s it.  Hmm, maybe this deal wasn’t so bad.

This trade was necessary for the Sharks.  That’s the best spin I can put on it.  I can’t say it was a good trade.  But it was a trade that had to happen, in one form or another.  The Sharks had to clear cap space- that much was known.  The Sharks had too many defensemen- that much was known.  And with one trade, they solved both of those problems.  The partner happened to be Vancouver, and the assets in return happen to be two guys that I personally think will never sniff an NHL roster.  It certainly could have been worse- the Sharks could have had to “McLaren” somebody- that is, waive a decent NHL guy (like Cheechoo) and send him to Worchester solely for the purpose of generating cap room.  That didn’t happen.  For DW to be able to get a deal done  in a free agent market that is nearly as locked up as the credit market was last year this time is actually nothing to sneeze at.  Especially one that cleared that much space.

Make no mistake, this trade was about money- $4.67M.    As Doug said in the last post, they now have enough coin to sign Mitchell and Staubitz, with enough left over for a free agent.  Or maybe they will then be able to make another trade for a big time guy like Kessel or Heatley.  We’ll have lots of fun speculating in the coming weeks about what the Sharks might do with this new flexibility, but at least now we can rest a little easier knowing that the Sharks do have some control over their opening day roster.

The one thing that DW said that I think is the second best thing about this trade, is that there will be real competition for roster spots.  When there were so many injuries in the latter half of last season, the Sharks had to ice whatever they could find.  It helps the team for guys to be looking over their shoulders at either wily veterans (Jed Ortmeyer) or up-and-comers (Logan Couture) looking to take their jobs.

It’s more obvious than ever before that having cap room is actually almost the same as having a player.  Vancouver traded cap space for two players.  If you remember, a few years back the Sharks were on the other side of it- they took on Vladimir Malakhov’s cap hit (but didn’t have to pay his salary) in exchange for a first round pick.  Now with the cap only increasing slightly for 09-10 (and many people think it will actually go down next year) that cap flexibility is more valuable than ever before.  Maybe I’m still wearing rose-colored glasses here, but when Nabby and Marleau come off the books next year, could DW turn that extra flexibility into something even better than Ehrhoff and Lukowich?

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Finally, a move. Is it what we expected? Not exactly. Today the San Jose Sharks traded perennial doghouse member Christian Ehrhoff and nice guy but on his last legs d-man Brad Lukowich to the Vancouver Canucks for two mid-level prospects, Swedish d-man Daniel Rahimi and another college player, University of Minnesota forward Patrick White. Neither of them ranked in the top 10 prospects for Vancouver prior to the trade by Hockey Future, with Rahimi coming in at #16 and White at #17. The Sharks #16 prospect is forward Matt Jones (11 points in 53 injury riddled games at Worcester the last two years) and #17 is D-man Justin Braun (unsigned 7th round pick in 2007 who had 23 points his junior year at U-Mass)

On the surface it doesn’t sound like a super sweet return. Checking in with the other blog in the blogesphere it sure seems like no one expects much to come of these young guys. I’m not saying they are top flight prospects – but let’s look at the positive in this deal. I think there’s a lot to cheer about.

1. We don’t have to watch Ehrhoff make blunder after blunder in his own zone. I know there are Ehrhoff fans out there in the world, but as you know if you read the blog or listen to the podcast, I’m not one of them. He is all risk and little reward in his own zone and I’m glad we won’t to watch the German Gambler give Nabby a heart attack night after night and leave his partner standing with his pants down.

2. This guy Daniel Rahimi, he’s not some loser. He played 13 games for Sweden in the World Juniors in 2006 and 2007 – pretty impressive for the resume. He seems to have a physical edge to his game, 104 PIM’s in 33 games when he was 18 year old playing in the Swedish-1st Division – which put him in the top 20 in the league. For a kid playing with men, not bad. Here he beats up a member of ABBA after he made a rude comment about his mother’s meatballs.

3. The cap room gained is huge for the Sharks, who now have 18 players signed and 4.3M in room. I’m still saying that Mitchell and Staubitz combined will cost the Sharks about 1.5M, so then that leaves 20 players and 2.8M after that gets done. I think this is the first swing of the wrecking ball, swing two will lead to Cheechoo heading out of town for probably a similarly unsexy take, and swing three could lead to a marquee name like Phil Kessel coming to San Jose for some prospects now that DW is stocking the kitchen.

4. Patrick White is another college player and Doug Wilson loves those. He’s a defensive guy from all reports and is currently unsigned and San Jose has until the end of the 2010 season to sign White to his entry level deal or they lose his rights and White becomes a UFA. He is a bigger question mark, having been picked in the first round in 2007 by Vancouver but he hasn’t lived up to all the hype at the University of Minnesota. What is the hype? Well, he scored five points in seven games for the USA’s Silver Medal team at the U-18 World Championships in 2007. According to the 2007 NHL Central Scouting, he was ranked #23 , just behind Sharks draft picks Couture (#19) and Petrecki (#21), so he has obviously been on San Jose’s radar. With a guy like this, DW is banking on him to come out of his shell this year now that’s he turned 20.

So Doug Wilson has struck. If this is the only move, we’ll feel underwhelmed – and I’ll also be shocked. I doubt he’d pull the trigger on this if something else wasn’t lined up and almost ready to go.

Move #2 – Could be soon.

GREAT LINK HERE TO SHARKSPAGE FOR DETAILED PATRICK WHITE SCOUTING REPORT

Still another week of no movement, and the dudes are starting to get concerned.  This week the various rumors are analyzed, and the start of a new segment.  The season is approaching fast.

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I thought everything remotely interesting about the Dany Heatley affair has already been written.  But I was wrong.  Tom Benjamin is one of the best hockey bloggers, and his latest about Heatley is certainly an interesting take on things.   Important points to notice about this whole deal.

1. Heatley asked for a trade in May, not June when the story came out.
2. Heatley did not leak that request to the media- the Senators did.
3. Once Heatley is painted as a whiner and malcontent, the potential deal for Cogliano, Smid, and Penner looks better than it really should.

Does this change your thinking about whether the Sharks should get Heatley?  To me, it does a little bit.  The fact that a player couldn’t get along with a coach is hardly a new phenomenon.  He’s a star, he feels entitled, so he wants to play somewhere else.  I maintain my point about any Heatley deal being a big risk for the Sharks, even if he’s not a ‘locker room cancer’- it’s a lot of money and a lot of years.  All in all, Doug’s point still holds- the priority should be improving the third and fourth lines, not shuffling players around the first two.

Now, even more drama about Heatley- I see this headline, but no article: “A proposed three-team trade that would have sent Ottawa’s Dany Heatley to San Jose fell through when Sharks captain Patrick Marleau refused to waive his no-trade clause.”  Hmm, now after reading Tom’s post, I wonder where that information came from?

Classic Doug Wilson.

Instead of signing a retread veteran off the free agent pile, Doug Wilson has dipped into the college free agent pool and signed the former 7th round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes, Benn Ferriero to a two year, $1.27M deal worth $635k a season.

Who the hell is Benn Ferriero? Well, I just spent the last few moments trying to figure it out myself. Here is the limited amount of info that I know.

– In his four year college career, Ferriero totaled 165 games, 64 goals, 75 assists and 194 PIM’s.
– He scored the game winning goal vs. Notre Dame in the Frozen Four consolation game.
– He never signed with Phoenix in 2006, making him a UFA this summer.
– HockeyFuture.com describes Ferriero as “a tenacious, fiercly competitive forward who plays equally well at both ends of the ice. He has shown the willingness to go to and take punishment in front of the net to create scoring opportunities.”

The Sharks past success with college forwards who were drafted jumping in and making an impact should be noted. Joe Pavelski played 16 games in the AHL before becoming a Sharks regular in 2006. Torrey Mitchell played 11 games for Worcester in 2006-07 before shocking everyone and claiming a roster spot in 2007. So, keep an eye on the new guy , he could be one to watch at the Sharks Rookie Camp in two weeks.

It’s official. The Sharks players that Doug Wilson cut ties with in the offseason are not worth much on the open market. Minus Travis Moen, who never proved why he would be worth $1.5M in Teal by cowering to his former-mates in the first round vs. the Ducks, Grier and Goc have both signed underwhelming deals. According to various reports, Marcel Goc signed a $550k two way contract with the Nashville Predators yesterday, meaning that if he sticks with the Preds, he makes the full amount and if he gets send to the AHL, he makes 105k and eats at Sonic every night. I heard they make a killer schnitzel.

So clearly in the eyes of other NHL GM’s Marcel Goc is the equal of a player like Jed Ortmeyer, who we signed off the Preds scrap-heap earlier this summer. Both players have over 200 NHL games under their belt and yet haven’t distinguished themselves as regular contributors. So to anyone who pined for Marcel to stick around, clearly he didn’t carry much value around the league – and it just illustrates how poor the Sharks 3rd and 4th line was last season. DW cut them and no one cares. I don’t see a long line of GM’s to sign Plihal or Frankenstein either.

I’m sticking to my guns that the most important upgrade for the Sharks needs to be on the 3rd and 4th line. Adding Heatley for Marleau is a lateral move in my opinion. I would rather see the Sharks try and match up with a team in need of a puck-moving d-man and upgrade their third line. So, I’m throwing something on the table that we usually save for the podcast – The Crazy Trade segment. Check this out.

To Dallas: Christian Ehrhoff
To San Jose: Steve Ott

There are many reasons why the Sharks and Stars might be reluctant to make this deal, but really it makes sense for both clubs. If the Stars are moving in a different direction and IF Crawford wants to rid himself of Ott’s antics before he is due a decent pay-raise, he is making $1.4M this season and will be a RFA next year after having a 46 points season last year. Ott is exactly the kind of player the Sharks could use, he is one of the best agitator’s in the league and he can be productive on the PP and the PK. Plus – he saves the Sharks $1.7M this season, allowing them to fit another three players under the cap. So it’s really a four for one, Ehrhoff for Ott (1.4), and the new contracts of Mitchell (guessing 800k) and Staubitz (guessing 550k) plus an extra player in Joslin (550k).

Would you do it or is it too crazy on either side?

The big news is that Patty no longer has the C, and no one has an A either- the Sharks are officially letterless.  We break all that down and more in the latest podcast.  Lots of emails to get to as well- thanks for writing in.

One thing I was thinking about after we recorded the podcast last night, is this could be a continuation of the changes that Todd McLellan brings as coach.  It would be a bit unseemly to come in, get rid of some guys (like Cheech, who we are still convinced with not be with this team in October) and pull the captaincy out from under a player that’s been with the franchise since 1997.  The first round loss certainly provides an ample excuse to stir the pot in any way management wishes, but I also wonder if this is also a move to align the team more to TMs philosophy.

In the no-thanks department, Hockey News has just put out their standings predictions for 2009-2010, and the Sharks are listed as #1 in the West again.  I know a mature team has to be able to handle the pressure, but it’d be nice for Chicago or Detroit to be the team to beat.  Playoff success is the only thing that matters here, and the fewer things I read about the Sharks getting 115+ points again, the better.  I just want them healthy and playing well in March and April, I couldn’t care less about November and December.

There are plenty of quibbles I have with these rankings, so stay tuned- we will get to our predictions very soon.

Some Sharks news finally emerged this week- Patrick Marleau is no longer the captain of the Sharks.  The listeners have questions about this and many other issues, so the Dudes spend the time hashing it all out.

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Some people have visions of the end of the world. Others see dead relatives and pass along comforting words from the afterlife. Me, I can predict the contract length of a Sharks prospect. A worthless talent you say? True – but when you got it, flaunt it. On this weeks podcast, we talked about the remaining Sharks RFA’s that are unsigned (Mitchell, Staubitz and Greiss) and I thought Doug Wilson might try and sign Greiss for two years, possibly setting himself up to have a reasonably priced starting netminder in 2010-11. Like Mike has said many a time, in order for a team to be successful, you have to have the right mix of high priced stars, role players, and young talent performing above their current salary level. If the Sharks struggle and Greiss is in the mix to be the starter in 2010-11, he could fit into that third category instead of DW overpaying for a veteran stop-gap. On the other hand, the deal is also good if Nabby wins a Vezina, the Sharks win a Cup and he signs a three year, 18M extension – the Sharks still have their back-up. Good stuff.

His entry level contract carried a .73M cap hit. I’m guessing his new deal is two years/1.8M for Greiss, with a .9M cap hit. As my grandpa would have said, a solid investment in your future.

As for Henrik Karlsson, the free agent Swedish goalie the Sharks signed today, no one seems to know much about him. Our friends at Sharkspage have reported that Karlsson will continue to play in Sweden this coming season, so it’s not like he’s competing with Greiss – this is just a “what if” signing for the future and another great trade chip. The Sharks are so stacked at goalie with Stalock, Greiss, Sexsmith, Sateri and now Karlsson – always been a calling card of this organization.

In an odd turn of events this morning, CapGeek.com is listing Greiss’ deal as two years/1.1M, so he is actually making 200k less than his entry level deal. Even stranger is that Karlsson is on a one year, 1.3M deal with $425k in additional potential bonuses….Could Karlsson be the actual back-up for Nabby? It is a two-way deal, so my understanding is he wouldn’t make the full 1.3M in Worcester, only if he is on the big club.

Mike Grier has taken his off angle shot back to the East coast. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Grier. He’s heading back to the fun and sun of beautiful Buffalo, NY – which is an oxymoron of sorts. Speaking of morons, Darcy Regier appears to have given Grier a one year, 1.2M contract.

Um, okay.

He’ll be a welcome addition to a non-playoff team that has been kept together for a second straight offseason. Darcy, what are you doin’ brother? How about mixing it up a little bit – all he’s done was sign Steve Montador to replace his top blueliner Spacek, who bolted for big dollars in Montreal. I understand that Doug Wilson might take some heat if he keeps most of this roster together after their huge postseason tumble, but Regier is being stubborn with a team that’s blown chunks for a second season in a row. At least Wilson has that President’s Trophy to lean on.