DOH 367 – Farewell Patty
July 6th, 2017, 9:51 pm
Between the expansion draft, the entry draft, and free agency, many interesting things have happened in the NHL, and the Sharks are right in the thick of it.
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Tags: San Jose Sharks
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Good to have the dudes back.
I don’t get the current DW strategy. If you’re rebuilding – as the Dudes have advocated and I agree – you don’t sign these long contracts. You blow up the roster and get huge returns on several guys who still have tremendous trade value. So this is obviously not the plan.
Instead, you “go for it.” You dish out monster long contracts, you tell everyone you’re resigning Pavs and Couture next year. Yet you finished 19th in scoring last year and 2 of your top young forwards (Hertl and Couture) are injury prone. Then, you lose your most durable scorer whose a guaranteed 20 goals per year. How do you “go for it” but get worse? To put it another way, imagine the Sharks without Marleau last year. Yeah, ouch.
Seems to me, DW has to make a move for a scorer. We can’t win every game 1-0. Otherwise, don’t “go for it.” Rebuild! We need some blue chips to develop. We’ve got none.
Agree 100%. This team can’t be considered a “go for it” roster, yet the Sharks seem to think so. DW is in a rare position of weakness. The Sharks need another scorer, or risk missing the playoffs. Right now you have a measly three 20-goal scorers (Burns, Pavs, Couture) and none of them hit 30 goals. Not going to cut it. You can’t hope the young guys suddenly blow up and have big years. (In Kurz’ post today, Meier said “I just want to make the team.” Um, not exactly 20-goal scorer confidence!) I suppose we could miss the postseason, let Jumbo walk, then use mega cap space to go after Tavares, JVR, Turiss, or Atkinson and honestly that may be the plan at this point. But that’s a heck of a risk. This is the problem when you don’t rebuild: you don’t land those really elite prospects.
Yep, agree with both of you guys and the dudes it sounds like.
Still, seems pretty clear that DW thinks this team can win it all, and I understand his thought process. 2 years ago his team was in the Cup final and he probably thinks he has a better roster right now. Thing is, Jumbo is no longer a PPG player, Pavelski is not longer a 40g forward, Ward is no longer a 20 goal scorer, and the team just lost 20+ goals with Marleau leaving. The team probably needs to find about 40 extra goals from this current roster as compared to last year, with the only obvious candidates being Meier and Boddker in getting there.
Best I can figure is that DW thinks his time might be close to a Cup contender, but wants to use the first half of the season to separate the wheat from the chaff for the young guys. He probably thinks the team should be in playoff position for the trade deadline, at which point he can decide whether to swing for the fences with his $7+ mil in cap space, which might bring in not only one but two top 6 forwards if necessary.
The only roster players that I think we could potentially reasonably hope to be better this year is Couture and Hertl. Everyone else is either going to stay the same or regress – certainly in terms of scoring.
And with Hertl and Couture it’s pretty much about health… and both those guys don’t have the best track record.
I have to believe that DW has something up his sleeve.
If not – top ten pick here we come!!
* who’s
Jagr?
The Dudes taking the summer off is indicative of how I feel. Not looking forward to this year’s team. I’m surprised DW has gotten a pass for what I would call notching the Marleau contract. If the Sharks were willing to offer 2 years, they should have done so before 7/1 and signed him. Then they go and protect several forwards that Vegas was never going to take. Now we’re overpaying Jumbo, still have no top line LW, and a team that needed to add about 20-25 goals ended up losing Marleau and his expected 20. This team desperately needs to sign some offense.
* botching (damn you browser spell check!)