DW Is Safe
May 25th, 2010, 1:18 pm
Something Doug and I talked about on ChompTalk last Sunday, along with Mark Purdy, is the idea that Doug Wilson may be let go, as his vision for the Sharks winning a Cup didn’t exactly pan out. Could it be that Greg Jamison wants to see a new strategy and philosophy for building a team? I now think the answer is “definitely not.”
First of all, firing a GM in the Sharks’ position should only be done under one condition – you know who is going to replace him. This isn’t a house-on-fire situation, where you gotta ditch the guy as quick as possible to stop the bleeding. The Sharks, despite their playoff disappointments, are not bleeding. Aside from tiny headed hockey pundits, there’s really only one marquee GM candidate, who is now off the market. I’m talking about Steve Yzerman, who signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning today. Yzerman, who put together the gold-medal winning Canadian team this Olympic year, has been biding his time. Even since he retired as a player he’s been getting trained up in various situations, and now was ready to strike and get the job he wanted.
You think it’s a coincidence he waited this long to take the Tampa job? I think not. Based on nothing but dizzying intellect and baseless speculation, Doug and I are betting that Stevie Y took the Sharks’ temperature yesterday, after they were eliminated:
Stevie Y: So, hmm… them Hawks are real bastards huh?
Greg Jamison: You got that right.
Stevie Y: I played on Detroit for a quadrillion years; I’ve eaten the Hawks’ lunch so many times I sh!% deep dish pizza. Any, uh, openings I should know about?
Greg Jamison: Man, that’s a good line! I wish I’d thought of it. But I think we’re going to stick with Wilson. Have fun with Ty Wishart.
Stevie Y: Who???
*AND, SCENE*
Unless there’s some below-the-radar magician, Doug Wilson is here to stay. We’re already dreaming up scenarios and plans for the Sharks to execute, and I’m sure DW is doing the same. He has shown the ability to modify the plan if it’s not working, plus the not-to-be-overlooked ability to fleece other GMs in trades. The conjecture season is now in full swing, and we’ll be filling the blogophere (and internet airwaves, such as they are) with enough of that to choke the proverbial horse. Stay tuned. We’re not going anywhere.
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I agree. Wilson’s made all the right moves last season, brought good additions to this teams as free agents, brought Heatley and Walin via trades, and overall, has seen this club take a step forward. No bad contracts committed to either, as were his mistakes in prior years with the likes of Carle, Michalek, and so forth.
He’s got perhaps the most important summer of his GM career coming up, as he needs to make some key decisions about the future of this franchise and who to bring back, but my guess is he gets at least one more year for another Cup run.
Who knows what’s after that.
I was not too worried about Doug Wilson not returning as Ivan stated we moved forward this off season and as with previous years although the game may not be won on paper we certainly staked up very close to the rest of the conference.
I also agree that this is a huge summer for him, there is a big question in Goal which I think will be a hot topic among Shark fans although I think most people are accepting that it is probably the last time we see Nabby in teal but there are those who do not feel that way. If goal tending starts out cold there are going to be a lot people waiting to come out of the woodwork to criticize DW. There seems to be a lot of support for the return of Marleau but at what cost? I don’t think you get Marleau for less then 6 Million.
Its going to be an interesting summer.
I agree guys. But Ian, I’m not sure you can get Marleau for less than $7M. 44 goals and made $6.3M this year, plus Kovy is really the other other premier forward on the market. I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll be breaking all this down in future podcasts and posts.
Mike –
Look no further than Savard’s and Zetterberg’s contracts. I can see Marleau committing the rest of his career to the Sharks, and vice versa. Patty could probably take something in between.
If his salary cap hit is in the neighborhood of $5-5.5M, I’ll be stoked.
That’s another way to look at it as well.
Your right Mike, the only reason I said 6 was because I was thinking along the lines of the pay cut Kariya took to play with Selane on the Avs. If he stays in San Jose its because he wants to be here it definitely won’t be for the cash. If he took a 6 Million dollar one year deal it gives DW the tools to take one last run at the cup and then with that plus Thorntons hit coming off the books Wilson would have alot of room to decide what to do after that. Of course this is all wild speculation on my part. 🙂
Ian, not to get too into the minutae of the CBA, but the reason Kariya did that was to get to unrestricted free agency early. Of course it was a bonus to play on a good team with Selanne, but because he was making less than the league average that year, he was eligible for UFA the very next year instead of waiting until he was 31.
Sorry about the digression. Ivan is 100% right, but that depends on a very long contract, something I’m skeptical about. For players in their 30s, you’re not sure when they’ll tail off, and for young players, you’re not sure if they can keep it up. AFAIK, DW signed only two players to 5 or more years- Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo. Didn’t work out so well.
I totally forgot about that clause in the old CBA, its funny how your mind can remember things. Thanks for the clarification on that. I’m now with Ivan lol.
With a job as big as this, are you sure that Yzerman would only give San Jose 24 hours to think about it? That seems a little rushed. In my opinion, it’s just a coincidence. At one point, Holland “joked” that he was going to retire when Lidstrom retires. My guess is that Yzerman took the Tampa job because Holland made it clear that he wasn’t going to retire anytime soon, so there was no reason for Yzerman to wait around to take the reigns. Instead, he’s going to Tampa to learn the ropes so that when Holland does retire, Yzerman can step in. Would Stevie Y really leave Hockeytown for the team that knocked the Wings out of the playoffs the previous year? I’m happy for him. I hope he can resurrect that franchise. He sure had one hell of a teacher. I’d bet that Yzerman’s first move will be to dump Lacavalier.
And I’m with Ivan… Marleau stays in San Jose and takes a pay cut and/or a Zetterberg/Savard type deal.