Since it’s too late have have a retrospective of last season, and too early to have a preview for next season, Mike and Doug talk about which teams in the west are finished making off-season moves, and which moves (if any) we might expect from the Sharks.

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In a bizarre turn of events, including the first case of its kind under the current CBA, the Bruins are about to buy out winger Glen Murray after the regular buyout period had expired. Let me try to explain. The Bruins resigned defensemen Dennis Widemen, who filed for salary arbitration. If a player files for arbitration and is resigned, either for the reward assigned by the arbiter or if the team and player come to terms prior to the hearing (as was the case with Widemen), then the team has a 48 hour window to buyout up to three player contracts in order to accommodate the new contract. (DEEP BREATH).

Does that make sense? It was a loop hole that Mike and I had never heard of, but obviously the GM of the Bruins was well aware. Reports speculated that Chiarelli has been trying to get some return for the struggling Murray, but no one wanted to take a flier on him at 4.1M this season, or last…or the year before. He’s been in the rumor mill longer than Patrick Marleau. So – even with the Sharks current salary cap crunch and crammed roster – it would not surprise me if Doug Wilson reached out to Glen Murray and offered him the chance to reunite with Thunder Joe and restore his former glory as a player on a Cup run with the Sharks.

Murray is 35 and on the downside of his career, with only 17 goals last season and has clearly struggled since Doug Wilson bamboozled the Bruins into giving him Joe Thornton. Once his center was taken away, Murray’s production slid.

With Thornton in Boston 236 games 111 goals
Without Thornton in Boston 186 games 69 goals

Right now, there is no room on the Sharks roster for Murray – but should they make room? Should Doug Wilson offer Murray the same opportunity to pick up his career that he gave J.R.? Granted, Murray isn’t in the same spot Roenick was last offseason, but he isn’t that far off. The allure of the opportunity to join the Sharks top line and find the magic with Joe again could be too much to pass up. How about the Sharks offer Murray 1M – that’s it – take it or leave it. A one year deal that could let him have a big year, get back to 30 goals and then command a larger deal on the open market in 2009.

Would it take some creative management to make this happen? Yes. But I wouldn’t put it past Doug Wilson from making it happen. A top line of Murray, Michalek and Thornton would let the Sharks roll out the best 2nd line in hockey with Pavelski, Marleau and Cheech. That’s just not fair.

Now we wait…and see….

We discuss all this and more on our current podcast. Now available.

After a relatively uneventful week, Mike and Doug mention the recent assistant coaching annoucements, but spend the bulk of the show discussing the roster philosophy the GM seems to have adopted, and how it will play in the difficult Pacific division. As always, listener questions are answered, and the shootout gives a quick rundown on some more hockey stories.

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Now available.  The entire show was pretty much driven by listener questions, so thanks for that.  The number of listens of episode 4 are a little off from the previous weeks; I hope people didnt’ stop thinking about hockey just because it’s the offseason.  We can address some more in-depth questions now that there isn’t as much going on, and this week will likely be the first of several where that is the case.

…the identity of the Sharks’ third assistant coach is the biggest news of the day.  Day?  Hell, that’s the biggest news of the week.  Trent Yawney we heard about before- ok, that’s a guy I watched play, and watched coach in Chicago.  Then, Jay Woodcroft’s name was leaked.  I guess he was the ‘video coach’ in Detroit, a title I didn’t know existed.  Isn’t that was Paula Abdul used to do, before she became a crackhead and raging alcoholic?

And now (drum roll please) we have Todd Richards, coach of the Wilkes-Barre Penguins, the top Pens affiliate.  I’ve heard of a lot of Richards- Brad Richards, Michael Richards, Denise Richards, Ann Richards, Reed Richards, Richard Christy, but never Todd Richards.  Not to disparage the new guy.  There was a story in a recent Hockey News about how the NHL loves to recycle head coaches, and it appears Doug Wilson and Todd McLellan are actively bucking that trend.  The NHL is very much a follow-the-leader kind of league; it’s a bit jarring to go off the beaten path like this.

A discussion about that last statement will probably make up a good portion of this weeks podcast.  If you have anything else you’d like us to talk about, please send a question.

• Thanks for listening to the podcast– the number of listeners for the latest episode is going up quickly.  Only we could be dumb savvy enough to start a hockey podcast after the Stanley Cup finals are over.  I guess there are more hockey-starved fans than we thought.
• The full schedule is out today, so some quick thoughts on that.  Opening at home against the Ducks is awesome.  A home-and-home against Philly shortly after that is just odd.  I’m glad there’s no 8 or 9 game road trips this time on the east coast.  However, there’s a 5-game trip and a 4-game trip in February, which is almost as bad- the second trip is at Dallas, at Detroit, at Ottawa, and at Montreal.  Brutal.  The fact that we get Sid, AO, and the new intense rivalry with the Patrick Rissmiller-pumped Rangers at the Tank are all good things.
• Six games against division opponents makes more sense than eight, but I’d go with five.  That way you can play every team in the NHL home and away every year, and there would be a definite division series winner every year as well.
• The big blockbuster trade rumor with Meszaros and Gerber going to L.A., Kopitar going to Chicago, and Khabibulin and Barker/Seabrook going to Ottawa makes great sense for the Sens and Hawks.  But Kings get absolutely screwed.  Kopitar is the best young scorer in the Pacific division in my view- better than Perry, Getzlaf, and Michalek.  East coast writers may not know how good this guy is, but I do.  Getting a #3 or #4 D-man and a disappointing goalie in return is not nearly enough.  Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense for Lombardi to make that deal.

In this quiet period of hockey-related activity, Mike and Doug weigh in on the most recent Sharks signings, and the status of Ryane Clowe. After answering some listener questions, the Dudes finish up with their thoughts on the recent Ted Nolan firing and other recent NHL news.

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Link here, feed here. The fact that it was a fairly slow week was spruced up by the fact that I almost broke the entire Dudes on Hockey site tonight. Some people are obsessive deleters (like they delete every email immediately after they read it) and I’m an obsessive updater. There was a new version of the blog software available, and I installed it, not realizing that it broke all the podcast stuff. Did I really need any of the new features? No. But it’s new and cool. Big mistake. If that last attempted fix didn’t work, I would have had to blow the whole thing away and start from scratch. Not good. So all you amateur web admins out there- 1) keep backups and b) make sure updates are absolutely necessary.

Oh yeah, and keep your questions coming.  There was actually one question we didn’t get to this week, but that was on purpose- we want to deal with it in detail next week, because it raises important questions about the Sharks.  How’s that for a teaser?

After the Ehrhoff and Goc signings, we are officially in the doldrums territory of the offseason.  Clowe is the only player left of any consequence unsigned, but reportedly there is a deal in progress.  Clearly this is the worst part of the year, hockey-wise.  Good thing we have the podcast for those hockey-starved fans out there- grier and I can talk hockey every damn day, believe me.

Speaking of the podcast, we’ll be a little later on the release this week.  Generally I try to post them early on Wednesday morning, but this time it’ll be posted Wednesday night, probably 8 or 9 Pacific time.  It’s especially the time of year where we need your questions to read on the air, because otherwise we could spend the whole time talking about the state of the Islanders.  I’m not kidding.

Just a few quick hits to touch on the pros and cons of the Ehrhoff deal today. Feel free to add your own at the end. 3.1M is a lot of scratch, but I would rather have Das Hoff than several of the UFA options that were available this offseason.

CONS
It will please you Shark fans to know that we’re not crazy, Ehrhoff was 6th in the NHL amongst defensemen in missed shots with 86. Who misses the net more than Das Hoff? Phaneuf, Wideman, Mike Green, Gonchar and Lidstrom. Nice company to be in…except when you notice that all those boys scored double digit goals last year and Ehrhoff scored one. DOH! That mean Ehrhoff took a total of 183 shots last season, missed the net completely on 86 of them and put one past Patrick Lalime…I think Mike could score on Patrick Lalime…Big Time CON.

PROS
Ehrhoff was 2nd on the team in ice time per game last season with 21:43, only behind “Oprah” Campbell. That speaks for something towards his value, right? He is only 26 years old and has become a much more physical player over the years. Check this surprising stat out.

2006-07 82 games 39 hits 50 blocked shots in 18:34 per game
2007-08 77 games 92 hits 108 blocked shots in 21:43 per game

Has he improved his game and worked to become a more physical, repsonsible stay at home d-man? Yes. Big improvement. PRO.

While I’m still surprised at the price and that DW wasn’t able to get him for under 3M in total cap hit, keeping Ehrhoff was a necessary move toward maintaining that balance of veterans and youth. I am hoping that he will continue to transform his game from go-for-broke, shoot like a Helen Keller at a gun range blueliner to more of a Craig Rivet character player. We shall see which version McLellan will be intersted in.

Check out the latest podcast to hear how we both were totally wrong about Ehrhoff and…it appear Marcel Goc – thanks to the heads up from SoCalSharksGirl, looks like Goc signed for 750k.