Yesterday was the first day of free agency. Rumors were abound about the Sharks- they were in the hunt for Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, or Ryan Smyth. I personally think they need to worry about their blueline more. So what happened? Jack squat. They watched Drury sign with the Rangers, Briere sign with the Flyers, Smyth sign with the Avs, and Gomez sign with the Rangers too. Then instead of playing ‘unrestricted defense’ against the Ducks, we watch them sign Mattieu Schnieder, and then watch the Wings sign Rafalski. To further help our d-line, we watch Scott Hannan leave for greener pastures in Colorado. As of today, Rob Davison is in our top-6.

This may not get mentioned much with all the big-name free agent signings- but Philly pulled off a complete tea-bag of Edmonton, getting possibly the best defensive defenseman in the league in Jason Smith, and Joffrey Lupul, for Joni Pitkanen and (throwaway) Geoff Sanderson. Pitkanen is nothing to sneeze at- I’d love it if the Sharks got him instead, but I don’t think he’s a proven asset yet. He manages to disappear for stretches at a time. It does show me than TSN has the best hockey coverage- as of right now, that deal is the leading story. It’s among the 15 right-column free-agent signing stories on ESPN.com

The only item on the plus side of the column is that we re-signed Joe for another 3 years, at a pretty considerable home-town discount. Considering Gomez signed for more money than Joe, it’s hard to dispute that the Sharks got a great deal.

Four critical free agents are still available where the Sharks are concerned- Slava Kozlov, Sheldon Souray, Brad Stuart, and Tom Preissing. If the Sharks come up empty handed with this group, It’s clear that the Sharks lost ground in the West.