Greiss is German for unemployment.

An unconventional offseason continues for the  Sharks as rumors abound that Stanley Cup winning goalie, Antti Niemi, will form the Finnish Wonder Twins in San Jose with Antero Niittymaki.

WONDER FINNISH TWIN POWERS ACTIVATE! FORM OF A STANLEY CUP!

Friend of the podcast, EJ Hradek, wrote about this, said it again on the show last week – and we giggled and doubted it would be so – and while it’s not official official, it sure looks like Niemi is coming to town. You gotta love live prerecorded internet entertainment – just after Mike and I spent a half hour last night discussing how deep the Sharks goalie prospects are, Doug Wilson goes out and adds another netminder. Now, the deal is rumored to be one year/2M, which would not delay the real development of anyone we hold important to the Sharks future in net (Stalock, Sateri, Sexsmith) but the reality is that if Niemi does his job and raises the Cup in back to back seasons (that’s the goal here right?) – then is he really going to be let to walk out of Tombstone again? Doubtful DW would let him walk. How would you like to be Thomas Greiss today? You might see him bussing tables at Elephant Bar next week, or traded to the Oilers. Which job is better, by the way?

I’m conflicted. I’m surprised. I’m confused – but I’m going to try and step back and look at this logically.

Part I.

Does Niemi make the Sharks better? Yes. Hell yes. He won a Stanley Cup last year and beat our buns – I want him on my team. He knows how to win, he’s an underdog who has excelled from being a non-prospect in Finland, to a non-factor afterthought signing in Chicago, to a guy deemed not worth keeping over 2nd line players like Patrick Sharp in Chicago – and you think this cat won’t be motivated? I like the player and I like having him in Teal.

Part II.

If this is real and Niemi signs, the Sharks will have 1.1M left of cap space and Doug Wilson has not been able to effectively replace Rob Blake. We need DW to upgrade over Blake and instead we’ll be looking at a combination of Huskins or Wallin or Demers in his top four defensive minutes – barring any last minute preseason trade. This makes me conflicted, surprised and confused – and it makes the Wallin deal look extra bad with a side of wrong at the moment. No chance he gets that cash if the Sharks hadn’t given it to him and I’d say a 50% he’s still sitting on the open market right now with his brethren Jay McKee, Garnet Exelby and Paul Mara. If the Sharks win the Stanley Cup with this current collection of D – it will be the biggest surprise of all.

Part III.

Here’s the toughest pill to swallow – but I’m giving it a go. We don’t like the current blueline – I think everyone would agree it’s not perfect – but the goal is to win games in March, April, May and June – not in October. Doug Wilson says this all the time and I’m gonna keep drinking the kool-aid. There’s spare parts on this team, he has draft picks he’s willing to part with and he’ll make a little more cap room by ditching Greiss to the minors – so we’re really looking at 1.67M of space to dance with. We know he’s willing to deal at the deadline and especially for D – so we might have to wait a few months – but DW has to add that #2 d-man and I still believe he will. If he doesn’t, was getting Niemi worth anything at all? You brought this guy here to win THIS YEAR because this is your window of opportunity and I think DW knows it.

Talk to you next week on the podcast – who knows what other shocking business we’ll have to cover. If anyone sees Thomas Greiss, give him a pat on the shoulder and a quarter.

From Pollak:

At a morning staff meeting, Greg Jamison told those gathered at HP Pavilion that he is stepping down as the CEO and president of Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment while remaining part of the ownership group.

No successor was immediately named.

The owners set the tone of the organization, choose which upper level executives (like the GM) to hire and fire, and very generally decide what kind of team hits the ice.  That mantle of power will change to a new person, so the near and long term fortunes are the Sharks are much more uncertain today than they were yesterday.  Could change for the better, could change for the worse.  We could get a John McDonough, who has done very good things for the Blackhawks, or we could get a Charles Wang, who has basically run the Isles into the ground.

The listeners provide all the content needed for this weeks podcast; Mike and Doug answer the listeners’ questions about prospects, Sharks fans, and the free agent market.

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Do not miss friend of DOH Jon Swenson of Sharkspage penning the San Jose Sharks version of Mount Rushmore (called Mount Puckmore) on the Puck Daddy blog. Congrats Jon, and great offseason reading.

I got a link to this Randy Hahn mailbag via Kukla, and while the Kukla story is about some jagoff that wants to trade Joe Thornton (89 pts last year) for the Blues’ David Backes (48 points), I think the most revelatory quote is this one:

As for the captaincy issue, it is my belief that Joe Thornton should be the next captain of the San Jose Sharks. Joe is the leader of the team on and off the ice. He is the straw that stirs the drink. It is time for Jumbo to wear the “C”.

Not sure how I feel about that, but it sure is interesting.  Comments?

Still very little movement in the world of NHL hockey, so the Dudes go back to an old standby – ESPN’s EJ Hradek.  Mike and Doug question EJ about his comments regarding Antti Niemi, and the possible free agent fit for the Sharks’ defensive needs.  Also, special bonus content is revealed this week, but you’ll have to listen to find out.

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Not a whole lot happening in the world of the San Jose Sharks, so Mike and Doug move scattershot over the barren news landscape for crumbs.  Tomas Kaberle, Kevin Bieksa, Antti Niemi, and your emails will do nicely.

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I’m only partly joking.  The cornerstone of sports fandom, especially hockey fandom, is argument.  Who’s better this year, the Caps or the Canucks?  Who’s the best player of all time, Gretzky, Orr, or Lemieux?  While the first question will be easy enough to answer (look at the eventual standings and playoff achievment), the second is just good clean fun.  Corey Pronman, over at Puck Prospectus, has modified a scale used for baseball prospect scouting to break hockey into tools and ratings, called the 20-80 system.

Tools:

• Skating (Acceleration, stride, top speed, turning/edge control)
• Puck Skills (Passing, stick-handling etc.)
• Shot (Accuracy, velocity, release)
• Physical Game(Size, strength, able to handle physicality)
• Hockey Sense (Decision-making, awareness, smarts

and Ratings:

• 20: Can barely perform this skill, there are 13 and 14 year old amateur players who can do this skill better. Think Derek Boogaard’s hockey sense for example.
• 30: Significantly below average (minus minus), isn’t beer league quality but it’s nowhere near the NHL level. Think Georges Laraque’s puck skills or Hall Gill’s skating.
• 40: Below NHL average (minus), this skill isn’t completely out of the league but it’s still a good notch below. Examples are Marc Andre Fleury’s rebound control or Jack Johnson’s hockey sense.
• 50: NHL average, think Marco Sturm’s puck skills, Justin William’s shot.
• 60: Above NHL average (plus), this is an all-star level skill. Examples are Jonathan Toews’ skating, Mike Richard’s physical game, David Booth’s shot.
• 70: Significantly above average (plus plus), this skill is one of the best in the game and is in an elite class. This is a grade rarely given out. Steve Stamkos’ shot, Chris Prongers’, physical game, Nicklas Lidstrom’s hockey sense, and Alex Ovechkin’s skating are examples.
• 80: Generational talent, an extremely rare grade to be given out for any skill. Examples of what an 80 grade is include Bobby Orr’s skating, Al MacInnis’ shot, Wayne Gretzky’s hockey sense.

This could be fun.  Read the article for an example of a rating for a current NHL player, and how one might rate prospects and players.  Also, Corey is now involved in a website called premiumscouting.com, which is currently doing team reports, and hopefully will soon have scouting reports (and ratings) for individual prospects.

Even though I’m not a scout, and have no history of rating players, and no training in doing so, I DO have a blog!  That means I can speak with authority on damn near anything!  I’m going to try and rate Joe Thornton, and maybe that’ll start an argument in the comments.

• Skating – 45.  Joe can get around just fine, but won’t win any speed or agility contests.  He doesn’t pivot on a dime or get around anybody due to his skating, more his body.
• Puck Skills – 65.  I’m only going 65 here because although his passing is maybe the best of his generation, his puck handling isn’t.  He’s able to protect the puck well, but I wonder if that’s  hockey sense and physicality rather than puck skills.
• Shot – 40.  Joe can shoot?  Accuracy is probably about league average.
• Physical Game – 60.  While Joe doesn’t level too many hits, he’s extremely difficult to knock off the puck, and has an incredible reach that he can use on either the forehand or backhand side.
• Hockey Sense – 60.  Excellent at finding the open man and knowing where his teammates are.  Couple that with his passing skills, and you get highlight reel clips fairly often.  What doesn’t make Sportscenter are his turnovers, sometimes in particularly  devastating areas of the ice.  Those happen too often for his hockey sense to be considered ‘elite’ in my view.

Remember I have my dispassionate hockey hat on.  What do you think?  Too harsh?  Too lenient?

Doug returns from his summer vacation, and the Dudes try and catch up on all the news.  Setoguchi, Mayers, Joslin, Kovalchuk, and Niemi are all discussed.  After some emails, the Dudes finally reveal who they are going to follow in the EPL, a matter of some controversy.

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After  a few days of rumors, TSN is now reporting the finalization of a deal between the Sharks and Jamal Mayers.  Mayers, a big forward who has played most of his career with the Blues, is clearly meant to be a physical presence on the fourth line, probably with Scott Nichol.  For $600k, this is an upgrade over Brad Staubitz.  Mayers hasn’t played an AHL game since 1999, so those that would want to paint this guy as a marginal NHLer aren’t being accurate.  His best year points wise was only two years ago with St. Louis, 12 goals and 15 assists.  And he has traditionally played quite a bit of PK time, not much this past season, but 1:46/game with the Leafs in 08-09, and 3rd on the team in SH ice time with the Blues in 07-08.

I don’t have any problem with Mayers as a player, and we could use some toughness with Staubitz gone.  But what about Frazer McLaren?  I’m still a big booster of this guy, and desperately hope that this signing doesn’t relegate McLaren to the AHL again this year.  McLaren did have 6 points in 23 games for the big club last year (a slightly better scoring rate than Mayers) and had 15 points in 52 games for the Worchester Sharks, with some PK time as well.  It might not be the move I would make for this team, but it certainly fits Doug Wilson’s pattern of signing character veterans.  Either that or he’s going for the All-NHL Eyebrow team, and McLaren just doesn’t cut it.

DW's secret strategy