BoT Roundtable – …and Carry a Big Stick

To some teams, July 1st is as good as a Black Friday sale.  It’s a time where we see fallen and rising superstars dealt for third liners and future concessions; but for every team that makes high profile trades there are just as many teams flying under the radar.  Since the Sharks haven’t made much of a splash so far, I put this question to the writers:

Do you feel that the Sharks have been too quiet in the first week of Free Agency?

Joe
Not at all. With limited UFA options and ongoing CBA negotiations, many GMs took a very cautious approach to the first week of free agency. With Parise and Suter out of the way, expect a much more proactive approach from Wilson and other GMs (especially Detroit and Nashville) over the next two weeks.

Andy
Not necessarily. They really didn’t have a need to make a big splash in free agency. Their big move was always going to be in trades. And if they made some moves at the draft I would have expected more in free agency. Also it seems Wilson likes to overpay more in trades than in free agency. And the free agent market has been pretty overpriced since July 1.

Darryl
Yes. I’m shocked that besides Burish they haven’t done anything else. I don’t understand it at all. I don’t know if it’s a salary cap issue or just a (very poor) philosophy which the Sharks have adopted that
for some reason they don’t deal with free agency (except to sign those who are only going to Worcester anyways). I feel that just maybe they are either holding out to get Rick Nash and are trying to
maybe get a third team involved, or that the players who have NTC’s or NMC’s in their contracts have basically told management to “Go Pound Sand” as far as trades or even reworking their deals to allow the team more flexibility with the salary cap. I have no insight to what is going on, but right now I can tell you that the additions of Stuart and Burish though nice are not near enough to improve this team from last season. In the last week the Sharks have passed on a few players that they could have signed if they wanted to and they would have really helped the team too, two of those players are PA Parenteau and Jiri Hudler. I’m really pissed that they Sharks did not even so much as have a dialog with them or any other UFA except for Burish. If the Sharks are done with the UFA market or have simply decided just to ignore it and make no other moves, they will not even be a serious playoff contender in 2011-12. Doug Wilson knows this team needs more and I feel the ownership knows this too. However if they insist on sticking to their guns and don’t make some changes in their philosophy, their days of being a cup contender are over and will be for as long as the current ownership is in place (they are ultimately responsible for the product on the ice). Last year’s finish may have been as unacceptable to them as it was to us, but it seems management and ownership with each passing day is becoming more resigned to what this team slowly becoming now, a non contender. If the Kings winning the Cup did nothing to wake this franchise up, then they can’t be motivated anyways.

Mike
They have been quiet, but I’d really characterize it as deliberate.  Taking a step back it’s not like this was a banner crop of UFAs. A coupe great guys, a lot of bottom 6 forwards and a few role players. Couple that with where we are vs. the cap, if Wilson is going to make a big move, it has to be through a trade.

Gordon
I think so, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Just because management hasn’t been picking up players left and right, it also means that they haven’t dealt away some of the high profile players. I’m glad we didn’t get caught up in swapping for Nash, Sutter or Parise, since they would’ve cost us more than we could afford.  There’s still plenty of time left until the season starts, and I’m sure there will be movement closer to October, but I’m still hopeful that it won’t result in the loss of some of our big names.

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