But I want to know the way to San Jose, Mommy!

It appears Columbus star winger, Rick Nash, has been officially posted on the auction block. I’m honestly shocked that the BJ’s are going to let what appears to be a lame duck GM in Scott Howson make the biggest move in franchise history, trading away their only star player and star draft pick. That makes no sense to me at all. Howson has had one year of success with this team and the rest has been pure famine. Now…he can’t control injuries, but he can control who they draft and so far, under his watch, they haven’t produced Jack or Squat.

The return for Rick Nash needs to be stunning, like Kate Upton!! or something that remakes the outlook of this franchise in the short term and the long term. The team on the other end is getting a star player that is signed for the long haul. Columbus needs to look no further for a blueprint on this deal than the trade they made to acquire Jeff Carter and the trade LA made to acquire Mike Richards.

To Flyers: Jakub Voracek, 2011 1st round pick (#8 overall/Sean Couturier) and a 3rd rounder.
To BJs: Jeff Carter

To Flyers: Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn (their top position prospect) and a mystery pick.
To Kings: Mike Richards

They are very good players, Carter and Richards. Nash is a two time 40 goal scorer, a Rocket Richard winner, a former overall 1st round pick and a multi-gold medal winning athlete for Canada. The price will be more than what is listed above for the Cheesesteak Twins.  The Blue Jackets should require a top NHL ready prospect or a top ten pick and a quality, young NHL 2nd line forward signed to a cap friendly deal and another very strong, close to NHL ready player in this deal.

That having been said, this is Scott Howson. He could screw the whole thing up, Wile E. Coyote style and run into a hole in a painted mountain. Would be a perfect final chapter.

Where am I going with this? Well, both ESPN Cross Checks Blog and Craig Custance discussed the San Jose Sharks as a potential landing spot for Rick Nash, given his desire to win and his friendship with a certain shirtless Jumbo Joe. (No mention of his recent tiffs with Danny Boyle, but I’m thinking that could be patched pretty quickly over a Blue Moon. Derek Brassard is a wuss anyways).

Would we want Rick Nash? Of course. We’re not loco pants …but can we pay the price, or does it even make sense to pay it? The Sharks can’t offer a prospect like Brayden Schenn. We have no such player in our system – but Columbus will demand an NHL sure thing in this deal. They must.We will have a mid-high 20’s first round pick. Not a ton of value in a big deal like this – not for Rick Nash. They need players with a track record of some kind.

After talking it over with Mike, here is the Dudes on Hockey guess at what it would take for the Sharks to land Rich Nash:

To Columbus: Joe Pavelski (in place of a Brayden Schenn type signed long term),Jamie McGinn
Justin Braun (top NHL ready D prospect),Their pick of Tyson Sexsmith, Harri Sateri or Alex Stalock.

To San Jose: Rick Nash and Samuel Pahlsson

No thanks.

This isn’t going to be a Doug Wilson fleecing situation. Any GM is going to have to give up a ransom to land Rick Nash, and while he would look smooth on Jumbo’s wing, we should just put the thought out of our pretty little heads and hope he ends up kicking it on the East Coast and far away from our conference. LA could offer a package around Jonathan Bernier and Jack Johnson. VAN could offer Corey Schneider and Alexandre Burrows for starters.

He will go somewhere. Just not Silicon Valley. Let’s focus up on Paul Gaustad kids.

Donald who?

True to Doug Wilson form, a move has been made that I think will surprise almost everybody, yet make sense when you hear it.  Jody Shelley has been traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for “a draft pick”, according to TSN.  This, coming after the Rangers drop Donald Brashear like a bad habit.  Given that the Sharks only gave up a 6th round to get Shelley in the first place, it’s likely only a seventh rounder changed hands, but this is primarily a cap-clearing move.  Shelley’s $700k, while not onerous, gives the Sharks a little bit more room now that Nic “Nic, the Nickname” Wallin is now in town.  While I know the feelings about Shelley’s efficacy on the ice have been all over the map, I personally will miss him a little bit.  Sure, he’s not the best hockey player I’ve ever seen, but he seemed like a really good and generous person, and was someone Randy Hahn picked to possibly move into the broadcaster’s booth some day.   He could surprise you sometimes, like just this week when he beat Colton Orr into next:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Qtef3DECI[/youtube]

I’m also reminded of the Jumbotron interview when players were asked three things to bring to a desert island.  One of Shelley’s choices was “a can of beans”.

So, strong tough man with two women’s names, we wish you the very best.  And hope to hear you in the booth some day.  Now, we have to think there’s more to come, don’t we?

The Wallin deal was a done deal, then dead.  And now, after we got word this morning the deal for Wallin is back on, we get word just now that the deal is already complete.  Sharks get Wallin and a 2010 5th round pick in exchange for the 2nd round pick we got from Buffalo in the Craig Rivet deal.  We’ve covered some stuff about Wallin in the posts below, so I invite you to read them.  But my main reaction is this- meh.  I’ve heard some say that Wallin is a steady defensemen, and I’ve heard some rumors that say the management (and fans) in Carolina couldn’t wait to get rid of him.  Given Carolina is in the cellar right now, that doesn’t sound like a good thing.  Also given he played for Carolina, that means we haven’t seen much of Wallin, and only those with a rehab-worthy Center Ice habit would be able to speak about his play this year intelligently.

For me, that means I’m reserving judgment on this deal for at least five games.  Just to recap a quick thing I said in the recent podcast- if the Sharks are trying to replace Boyle and Vlasic with trades, that will be a fruitless effort.  Pointless.  The Sharks cannot go deep in the playoffs with those guys injured.  However, as we’ve said ad nauseum all year, the defense is the weak link on the team.  Even though we’ve advocated getting a #2 or #3 guy, this deal may work out well.  It’s possible Wallin may be a vast improvement to the #5 spot, and it’s also possible that the Sharks aren’t done making trades.  What do you think?

Like the great Ray Charles, I am writing this post blind. We have probably all read the reports of the Sharks swinging a deal for Carolina defenseman, Niclas Wallin, by this point. Right now, we have no clue what we gave up – so as of 5pm pacific time, I’m going to take a wild stab, cause I’m just that kinda guy. Who’s with me?

Here’s my best guess. Vlasic is hurt enough that he is going to miss this entire road trip and Doug Wilson threw up after watching Joslin and Leach last night, so he had to make a move and make it now. He knew Wallin could be had, and had for cheap, so he called Big Jim Rutherford in Carolina and fleshed out a deal they had already likely discussed a few times. The catch is that the Sharks don’t have the cap room to absorb Wallin’s 1.7M deal (he is a UFA at the end of the season) so Vlasic’s injury now frees up 3M of that room if he’s placed on Long Term IR until after the Olympics.

Everybody with me so far?

So the Sharks get Wallin and I’m gonna guess that…well….hmmm….they traded Mike Moore – how about that? They gave up an AHL d-man to get the job done. Could be Joslin, but after last night, I’m not sure why they’d want him. The Sharks get a serviceable 3rd pairing d-man who hits people (127 hits) and can block shots. Is he the sexy #2 we want for Boyle. No. Is he better than Leach and Joslin…and maybe even Huskins? Yes.

Has he won a Stanley Cup? Yes.

Am I totally way off base here? Probably. We’ll see.

7PM: STILL NO WORD. RUMOR HAS IT THE TRADE WILL BE ANNOUNCED AFTER THE HURRICANES/FLAMES GAME TONIGHT. MIKE MOORE PLAYED FOR WORCESTER IN THEIR 8-4 WIN OVER SPRINGFIELD, SO HE LIKELY ISN’T IN THE DEAL. I DIDN’T NOTICE ANY MAJOR PROSPECTS OUT OF THAT GAME EXCEPT FOR THE GUYS WHO WERE TRAVELING (JOSLIN, MCGINN) AND THE INJURED (COUTURE). WE’LL SEE….

Listen to the new podcast below!

After things have been going so well for the Sharks, they lose two of their top four defensemen, and lose in a disappointing fashion to both Chicago and Detroit.  The Dudes talk about what it all means, break down the blockbuster trades in the NHL of the past week, and still leave enough time for listener email.  Also, make sure to weigh in on the new poll question after you listen.

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With the Worcester shuttle in full effect sending down a flu ridden Logan Couture and his cohorts Ben Ferriero and Ryan Vesce, this leaves one hole in the Sharks roster for Wednesday nights game vs. the Central Division leading Chicago Blackhawks.

Is it Torrey Mitchell time? In case you’ve forgotten what he looks like, I included a picture of the dude to the right. Meet Torrey Mitchell all over again, folks. Remember the speed and fearlessness we saw in four playoff games vs. the Ducks? The joy of a scrappy role player we saw in 2007-08 with his 20 points and 50 PIM’s.  If he’s healthy, the Sharks just got even better. As impressive as McGinn, Couture and Ferriero have been in guest appearances, they were just holding the place warm for Torrey.

So where should he play? Well, for starters he’ll likely be paired with McGinn and McLaren on the 4th line until he gets his NHL legs back but eventually, a 3rd line of Malhotra/Mitchell/Ortemeyer is something to look forward to. Mitchell is another top notch bottom six forward, another possible scoring threat with his speed and another PK guy (he was 2nd amongst Sharks forwards in 2007-08 in PK avg. time). Welcome back Torrey. Here’s to good healthy and another reason why this team is better than last season’s record setting club.

The rumor mill is a buzz that all is not right in Calgary with a certain star player. We’ve heard rumblings of Dion Phaneuf being moved in the offseason and with the addition of Bouwmeester and Regehr, should we be too surprised that Darryl Sutter is going to pick his brother over the player? I think not, these turtles stick together. Not that Sutter would ever deal Phaneuf in the conference, but what kind of blog would this be if I didn’t make a plea of how we might be able to get him, if he is truly available. I would suspect the price would be a young top four d-man, a top six forward and a young NHL ready player. So would you trade Vlasic, Clowe and McGinn to have a potential pairing of Boyle and Phaneuf? This would mean that Joslin would be part of the defensive core for the rest of the season, but I think Joslin has proved he can handle it.

Acknowledging the odds are those good friends, Slim and None, I’m just saying hypothetically, would you do it? Doug Wilson has never been afraid to trade for a marquee player (Boyle, Heatley, Thornton, Campbell). He will pull the trigger. He has stones of steal, but is this the right deal? Not enough? Don’t mess with a good thing or make a good thing better. You be the judge.

I Love Dan Boyle. Trade Me to San Jose!

Just going on the record on a few things that I think will go down at the draft tomorrow.

1) The Sharks will finally trade Patrick Marleau, getting a useful player and a first round pick in the process. Vancouver, Atlanta, St. Louis and Columbus are all suspects. Could we get Bieksa and the 10th pick for Marleau? Hmmm….

2) Whoever lands Marleau might be forced to take out Doug Wilson’s trash in the process. See what DW did to Toronto last year. They wanted Toskala, you have to take Mr. DUI – Mark Bell as well. McLaren might be attached to any Marleau deal that gets done.

3) Spezza gets traded tomorrow for a high draft pick. Ottawa is looking to get rid of their two malcontents, Spezza and Emery, and start over fresh.

4) Jokinen is also finally traded tomorrow, maybe to Columbus for the 6th pick in the draft, which Florida will use to make a bizarre, unexpected selection.

We’ll see how these predictions hold up for posterity.