Many die-hard Sharks fans already know that Torrey Mitchell broke his leg in training camp yesterday, but as one commenter put it in the last post, what does that mean for the Sharks salary-wise?  Sorry to keep posting about the CBA and salary cap rules, but this is really the most serious issue facing the Sharks going into this season.

First of all, as bcyde said, Mitchell can’t be put on Long-Term IR unless he’s out a much longer time, but I think that’s a red herring.  LTIR doesn’t really gain you cap relief, not really.   And yes, the ‘mepex’ in that comment thread is me.

So the Sharks have to bite another bullet, and find a way to replace Mitchell with a minimum of cap hit.  As grier responded in the last thread, this pretty much cuts out Logan Couture, Mike Moore, or Jamie McGinn.  And with Couture or McGinn, if they play 11 games or more, that counts as a ‘professional season’, which shortens their restricted free agency, and would count toward the 50-player SPC limit.  Sending those guys back to juniors is the right move here.

So look for a college or minor league player, like Zalewski or Mike Morris, to get a cup of coffee in the bigs.  And I agree with grier that as long as Friesen doesn’t tank camp or have some unreasonable contract demands, he’ll be on the opening day roster.

In other news, the Sharks signed John Ferguson Jr., the former GM of the Maple Leafs, as a scout.  Most people only know Ferguson as the guy who signed all his players to contracts with either no-trade or no-movement clauses, which put the Leafs over a barrel time and again.  By most accounts, JFJ is a capable scout, his crown jewel being the drafting of Daniel Alfredsson by the Sens in the 6th round of the 1994 draft.  As far as I’m concerned, if he’s a good scout, welcome aboard.  As long as they keep him away from the contract talks and personnel decisions, I’m happy.