DOH 274 – Four Big Pieces of News
June 17th, 2014, 9:51 pm
Even in the sleepy period between the Cup Final and the draft, the Sharks release four big pieces of news, in short- Stalock, Brown, Remenda, and TV. The Dudes talk about it all.
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Nice podcast, dudes. Lots of intrigue this summer. Having Purdy on again sounds like a great idea.
So Rangers just bought out Brad Richards. That with the rumors about the Rangers and Joe Thornton… That much smoke makes me think fire.
Not sure I’m interested in the 29th pick in the draft though.
Also. I agreed with most everything you guys said. Except I don’t think the Brown contract is THAT bad. DW always overvalues his own players and yes, it’s too much. But one thing, all the players you two mentioned on the podcast that make less aren’t as fast as Brown. DW has said he wants to go younger and faster. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s a good contract, I just don’t think it’s that bad either.
No, it’s THAT bad. We’re paying him twice what he’s worth, if you even concede he’s worth having in the NHL.
Toronto, a team built by ignoring skill in favor of “in the room” and “heart” guys would rather play Colton Orr and Frazier McLaren (former Shark not good enough for our team) to play at the same time than have him on the team.
Edmonton, a team built with the same concept, but including the want of youth and speed that you mentioned also had no interest in keeping him around, much less doubling his salary.
But here we are, already with Adam Burish, who can at least play the penalty kill, adding another 1.2m in useless space, that if we had any real depth would ride the pine in the playoffs.
“he sparked us in game 2” people will say. That game where we were controlling play from the moment the puck dropped and ended up scoring 7 goals? Yeah, he really turned the tide. Where was he in games 4-7? He played in the infamous game 5 where he did absolutely nothing. Got benched for game 6 and did absolutely nothing in game 7.
Great signing.
Also, that Thornton rumor is bunk (as nearly every Shark rumor to ever pop up is), and has nothing to do with Richards. They turfed Richards for 2 reasons:
1. He’s making too much money to be a 4th line player, which is what he is on that team.
2. When he does retire in a few years the Rangers don’t want 6mil on the books for 3 years of cap recapture. Everybody and their mother predicted that buyout before the Sharks ever choked away the first round.
Don’t think Richards getting bought out has anything to do with Thornton. That has been in the tea leaves all season.
The only way you can say the Mike Brown contract is not a terrible contract is because it is for only a little over a million dollars a year. But that is like saying it wouldn’t be a bad contract if the Sharks gave Mike a million dollars. It is a gross overpayment that was entirely unnecessary that absolutely does not fit DW’s stated plan to go with youth (not to mention it doesn’t fit ANY plan if the plan is meant to win hockey games).
As far as Pavelski goes, no one has ever been able to explain to my why he has gotten a free pass on the choker label that Patty and Jumbo bear. Despite his reputation as a defensive wizard, Pavs has never faced top competition in the playoffs and yet hasn’t really had a good offensive series since Colorado a couple of years ago. Marleau has been hard matched against top competition for years now and consistently outproduces Pavelski. This was probably the first year Thornton was not consistently hard matched against top competition as well.
That is not to say Pavs isn’t a great player or is a choker. But I don’t see how it is possible to say he not a part of the problem but Marleau and Thornton are. And the very guys you mentioned as “veteran leaders” on the Hawks and Kings as justification for keeping Pavs were not around for the rebuild, they were all final pieces picked up after the core gelled and became playoff caliber on their own.
This is why I think this is all a smokescreen by DW (and maybe even TMac) to make Jumbo and Marleau the scapegoats through the threat of rebuilding. Because a true rebuild would include Pavelski, a guy coming off a 40 goal season, a pretty good Olympics, and can be a final piece for a team like St. Louis. But it won’t happen because DW is not going to rebuild, he just wants to have fans blame something else other than the fact that Brad Stuart, Scott Hannan, Andrew Desjardins, James Sheppard, and Tommy Wingels aren’t close to their counterparts with the Bruins, Kings, and Hawks.
I’m obviously with you. Pavelski has been here basically the same length of time as Thornton and has been a major part of this team for most of it. To say he’s not part of the core or that he’s not also responsible for these failures to at least the same level as the other two (anybody remember game 7 last year when Pavelski had a shot to tie it and couldn’t elevate the puck over Quick’s pad late in the 3rd?)
Just to clarify my point.
If you are rebuilding and you want to blow up the team and get younger, the most important player to trade is Pavelski. He has the most value, he put up 40 goals, is just under 30, plays in all situations, doesn’t have the ability to pick where he goes until July 5th when his new contract kicks in.
If you want to keep around veterans to avoid the same fate as Edmonton, it’s better to keep a guy like Thornton or Marleau, but definitely trade Pavelski, as you’ll get a ton more for him than either of them. Pavelski has been here for almost all of the failure, he’s just as much a part of it as Thornton and Marleau, so keeping him around also continues the culture of losing, so it doesn’t really matter which of those 3 you hang onto.
Also, if the idea is to break up the core by jettisoning those players and actually rebuilding, we don’t have any young players that can come in and fill those roles, we don’t have any prospects that remotely look like they can fill those roles, and I honestly doubt any of the current younger players (read: Couture) can produce like either of those guys did for the last 5 years. So their replacements aren’t here and need to be acquired. There are 3 ways to get them.
1. UFA – Not happening, ever. Not with Wilson.
2. Home grown – if you keep a good core and don’t bottom out you’re picking in the middle of the first round at best as you’re probably a bubble team. You will have to be stupidly lucky to draft a Jumbo/Patty replacement in this zone in the next 5 years, and even then it’ll take a few for them to develop.
3. Trade – gotta get the assets worth trading to move up to get them in the draft or as vets. Still, this will take time. I’d give it 5 years minimum.
In any of these cases, Pavelski will not be a major member of this team come competitiveness. He’ll be like our Brenden Morrow.
Also, as far as not being Edmonton, that’s one case out of many. LA bottomed out to get Doughty and ditched tons of older players, picked up some vets along the way, no big deal. Same with Chicago. It can go either way, and there are always character UFA’s available out there for that leadership thing your worried about.