Teal and White Report, and Right Again
September 16th, 2009, 8:19 pm
Teal and White is never that exciting, and I’ve finally resigned myself to that fact. It’s fun to see some hockey again, and especially this year, it’s good to see the prospects and young guys. One thing I will say about this Teal and White though, it was more competitive. Twenty seconds in Frazier McLaren crashes the net, and the puck pinballs in off him, bodies going every which way. Most of the game was pretty light checking, but there were a few hits. Certainly there seemed to be a sense of guys trying to make the team. Several penalties more than I remembered last year, I think Nichol took a couple. You can already tell that he’s a pain in the ass, and will get under players’ skin. I like that.
Nick Petrecki again impressed, with some good positional maneuvers, decent decision making, and a nice goal, this time wrist shot top shelf. Doug and I were very excited when he was picked to participate in the shootout part, which also seemed more spirited than last year. Petrecki did two separate fakes, a slap shot fake high between the circles and then a wrist shot fake before burying it stick side. Impressive display. The guy plays very composed, I can’t imagine trying a bunch of moves your first real time out in a Sharks uni. If he muffed either of those fakes, he never would have heard the end of it.
In other news, Doug and I have been talking recently about the fairly long list of players that are still unsigned, and near the top of that list is a guy we like for the third line, Manny Malhotra. Doug Wilson is clearly listening to our podcasts, because Pollak is reporting that Malhotra will be here soon (h/t evilducks). Doug and I have a new bet, each of us trying to guess Malhotra’s contract amount. If he doesn’t sign, it’s a push. I picked $975k, Doug $850k. Malhotra made $1.2M last year.
One thing that occurred to us quickly, however, is that this could mean that Torrey Mitchell is more hurt than we thought. I’d hate to think Mitchell will miss extended time, but if he would be out for a couple of months or more, the Sharks can put him on Long Term Injured Reserve, and get some cap relief from Mitchell’s $1.247M salary. That might be what caused DW to look at Malhotra. With McLaren looking good, Nichol pesticulating (that’s a word, right?), and now Malhotra, the third line is shaping up nicely.
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This was posted by Pollack in the comments section of his blog:
David Pollak says:
September 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
All,
I also thought Manny Malhotra’s arrival was a signal that Torrey Mitchell’s tendinitis was a bigger problem than we were initially told. But when I asked around, someone pointed out that Mitchell played right wing earlier in his hockey days. Hint. Hint.
David
Just got home too.
Interesting news on Malhotra and how that may affect Mitchell. The guy had better stats last year than did Cheechoo.
As for the game, I did like Petrecki a lot. Good defense from him and good overall confidence. I’ll be surprised if we don’t see him with the main Sharks during at least some stretch of the season. Nichol also looked good – speedy little buggar.
At the same time, I thought the top 2 lines played sloppy and few times had the kind of mistakes that lead to goals and bad breakaways during the season. I know they probably aren’t skating very hard just yet, but that was a bit concerning. It’s time to at least turn the focus on.
Final point – PP needs to shape up. During those 7 minutes of PP times I had terrible flashbacks of 0-12 from the start of the playoffs, in every aspect of the game. Again, it’ll all change when its for real, but still, I at least expected a goal during those 14 minutes “PP”.
Ivan: Well, what will hopefully be one of the major factors on the power play hasn’t arrived yet thanks to visa issues. I think he’ll change things around and the top lines will start playing a bit more spirited hockey when the whole gang is there.
Honestly after watching Petrecki at both scrimmages and the teal and white, he was one of the best defenceman on the ice. Not sure why anyone would think Joslin would get the sixth d-spot over him.
I can’t wait to see him play in pre-season. Especially against the Ducks and their big players.
evilducks
True, but it’s concerning to see Thornton/Seto/McLaren/Boyle/whoever get out there and unable to score on 3rd string goalie and people like Shelley killing penalties. The same can be said of Clowe/Pavs/Marleau/Blake/Vlasic who also did virtually nothing on their several minutes of PP.
Not going to read too much into it, especially since I still remember how we sucked all the way through preseason last year and then had the best start in NHL history right out of the gate, but still..
I wasn’t too concerned about the PP because it seemed to me they were trying out some new rotations, positions, and schemes. Don’t remember ever seeing JT between the defensemen at the point before.
I’ve been reading that it is quite hard to reach entry level bonuses (Phil Kessel hasn’t received any bonuses even with his performances the past couple of years). I wonder if that makes someone like Petrecki more likely to make the team due to a lower likely cap hit? The best players can handle the NHL at a young age, maybe he is ready to make the jump and the AHL would only stagnate his growth.
Well, according to capgeek, if Malhotra is signed for 900K, the Sharks will only be 82K under the cap with Petrecki as the 6th Dman, Frazier Mclaren as the healthy forward scratch and no 7th Dman. If the Sharks build a little bit of a cushion at the beginning of the season, I wonder if we will see some roster shenanigans (no healthy scratches for a few weeks even if the Sharks have to ice <22 skaters, “sending” players down to the minors for a day or two only to call them back up for games only) so as to create some artificial cap space.
Sounds like Sexy is making a case for him playing in the big leagues this year over Greiss. Though considering how much game time Greiss is likely to get it may be better to keep Sexy and Stalock in the AHL on rotation so they get a quality amount of ice time.
From Pollak’s article in the Merc today, he seems to be implying that the 4th line is “taking shape” with Nichol, Staubitz and Shelley, which I find to be surprising. He also implied that if the Sharks go with Malhotra at center and Mitchell at RW on the 3rd line, the competition lies for the LW spot there. He didn’t give McGinn a guaranteed spot here, which is interesting to me. Is this a money thing – McGinn would make close to 1M. Would they rather have him play top line minutes in Worcester and sign Hinote to kill penalties? I’m also not buying that Staubitz is a given to make this team – he’s going to have to hold off Frazer McLaren and Hinote and I’m not sure he can.
As for Sexy – there’s little chance he sticks. The Sharks need to see him and Stalock play 40 games in the AHL to better evaluate who is the heir apparent if they let Nabby walk. Him carrying Rob Blake’s bags won’t help his development. The question is, if Nabby went down – which young goalie would get the call. It’s not a given it would be Greiss…Plus, Sexy makes 1M.
The big question is who fills in if Nabby goes down, and carrying Sexy to play 15-20 games doesn’t make sense when he can get 40 in Worcester.
He only makes 780k actually (there is 0 chance he hits that bonus). Still, with us about to sign Malhotra, every little bit helps and having Greiss saves us 280k.
I think Shelley’s job is the biggest one on the line with McLaren breathing down his neck. He easily fills the heavyweight role and has offensive upsides.
Staubitz is more of a Nichol role, either way I’m not sold he makes the team at all. I think he’s actually fairly low on the list.
If you ever wanted to see Joe Thornton and a farting puppet, eat your heart out. Thanks Puck Daddy for this one.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Joe-Thornton-s-flatulent-dummy-sells-Shar?urn=nhl,190372
According to DP no Petrecki in the line up against LA. Seto was apparently the only top six forward playing. Obviously they want to look at the slots that are still open.
Joslin and Demers both played. Wonder if anything could be read into Petrecki not playing?
I think we’ll know more after we see who Petrecki is paired with tonight. Will he partner with Blake or Boyle or be with an AHL player like Loprieno? If he’s with the big boys, it’s his chance to really shine.
Been a long summer, I’ve kept up with all the posts and blogs but not really been active in the comment strings. I optimistically hope that Tom’s DP reference is true and Mitchell is going to be healthy for the start of the season I think it’s fairly certain he’s not. Crutches and then Malhotra, who is clearly competing for the 3rd line center role. Mitchell is going to be out for a while, he’ll be on the long term DL.
Per TSN Kessel traded to Toronto for, get this… TWO 1st round picks and a 2nd. Wow. This makes DW’s deal for Heatley look even better. That is a steep price to pay for Phil Kessel.
Dudes I have a question…
Why would Toronto trade two first rounds and a second when they could have sent him an offer sheet and then compensated Boston with only one first and one second?
Am I missing something?
Maybe Burke didn’t want to look like a hypocrite after he bitched about Edmonton doing the same thing?
From what I understand, if the Leafs made an offer sheet at 5.4M per season to Kessel, they would have surrendered two 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd rounder. So this way Burke can avoid the offer sheet route he condemned and also saves a 3rd rounder in the process.
Great deal for Boston. Desperate by Burke.
Ahh… I didn’t realize the compensation amount was dependent on contract dollars. Thnx.
And yes great deal for Boston. This could really set their future up for a while if they draft well.
Puck Daddy breaks down why trading here – http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Kessel-officially-now-Maple-Leafs-potential-loc?urn=nhl,190599
Pretty much what Doug said, although two 1st round picks (+ 2nd) on my books is better than 1st-2nd-3rd.
I don’t see the trade as a big win for Boston. We’ll find out in few years when we see who they drafted with those picks, but look at it as a Bruin and ask yourself, would you be ok if Setoguchi or Pavelksi left to a division rival (for example, the Ducks) a year from now for some draft picks? I wouldn’t want that to happen.
Plus, now Toronto has a goalscorer. They have great blue line behind him and if goaltending comes through this season from Vesa or Monster, they’ll be through to playoffs.