3 Potential Options in Free Agency for the San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are in for a long summer break, which will give them plenty of time to rehab, reassess, and retool their existing core for hopefully another Stanley Cup run next season.
Team Teal’s season came to a screeching halt in Round 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. Now the San Jose Sharks are facing several tough choices when it comes to re-configuring their roster to stay competitive in today’s NHL.
General Manager Doug Wilson has a lot of expiring contracts coming off the books on July 1st. The biggest of those names include Joe Pavelski, Erik Karlsson, Kevin Labanc, Joe Thornton, and Timo Meier.
The San Jose Sharks have about 24.7 million in cap space heading into free agency which starts on July 1st, per CapFriendly. Traditionally Team Teal’s front office is confident in their abilities to resign free agents. However Erik Karlsson’s recent activity on social media might have signaled that his intentions are to leave the Bay Area.
With this grim realization coming to life for the Sharks they are now forced to turn to other avenues to improve this team. Team Teal should have some room to work with after signing and sifting through the other expiring contracts, but not getting to resign EK65 is a huge blow to the front office. Despite this there are still a few skaters on the free agent market who could improve this roster and be acquired at a reasonable price.
Micheal Ferland
The 27-year-old is coming off a solid 40 point season for the Carolina Hurricanes. Micheal Ferland suited up for 71 games, recording 17 goals and 18 primary assists, while compiling 156 shots on goal. The left winger got placed up all over the lineup by Coach Rod Brind’Amour but spent most of the season with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teräväinen.
As expected that line performed very well combing for 20 goals, outpacing their xGF of 16.7. The trio also controlled a bulk of the puck possession with a 56.6% CF at 5v5, per Corsica.Hockey. The coaching staff of Carolina obviously felt he had enough skill to tag along with the two talented forwards, with the numbers exhibiting this fact.
Ferland has the skill to keep up with high-caliber players but also the tenacity, skate speed, and puck sense to play more of a defensive role. When aligned with less talent and less favorable zone starts his lines consistently came out with a positive CF% at 5v5. His ability to stay afloat when given defensive responsibilities could be very useful for the Sharks who love to prioritize match-ups.
However the underlying numbers suggest that the 5-year-pro’s abilities are best utilized along some high-end offensive talent. That makes him the perfect candidate for the 3rd line left-wing slot next to Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc (assuming they both resign). He’s skilled enough to convert on the inevitable scoring chances set up by Jumbo, while also being able to make space in front of the net to help boost the potency of Labanc’s shot.
Following the San Jose Sharks third round exit Coach Pete DeBoer noted that he thought the team needed more physicality. Team Teal was severely “outhit” on the stat sheet against the Blues and struggled to generate offense against their unrelenting forecheckers.
Not only did St Louis dominate in open ice, they controlled the dangerous areas as well. The big bodied defenseman of the Blues boxed out the Sharks traditionally potent offensive inside presence. Team Teal most likely would have benefited from another option inside to help generate space for shots to filter through the carnage in front of Binnington.
The depth skaters for San Jose are more known for their grit and tenacity than their physical stature. However outside of Joe Thornton the bottom six got pushed around a bit during the Western Conference Finals and failed to contribute offensively when the Sharks needed them to.
If the Sharks are looking to overpower their opponents while still maintaining their usual level of precision and skill, taking a shot at Micheal Ferland would make sense for General Manager Doug Wilson. Using EvolvingWild’s contract projection tool we can see that Ferland comes at an estimated 4 x 4.2 AAV. This figure isn’t definitive but should give us an idea of what the price point could be. Team Teal should take a strong look at the former Pacific rival if their really trying to take what their coach said seriously following the loss in Game 6.
Team Teal already has a fairly intimidating group of players and adding a skater like Ferland would only bolster their group of powerful forwards. Don’t be surprised if we see the San Jose Sharks consider him an option on the open market and add him to what they consider their core.
Anton Stralman
This one would be a bit of a gamble for the San Jose Sharks, but Anton Stralman has been consistently effective for years in the NHL. His elite skating ability and puck sense has enabled his game to evolve along with the style of play in the NHL.
With the possible impending loss of Erik Karlsson, Team Teal’s right side is looking awfully thin. This makes Anton Stralman an excellent candidate to help solidify their blueline to maintain their status as Stanley Cup contenders.
The almost 33-year-old only suited up in 47 games last season and missed the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. He was plagued with various injuries throughout the entire season and was unable to find a permanent role in the stacked Tampa Bay lineup. But when healthy, Stralman can be used in a support role with almost any defensive partner.
In Tampa he got aligned with players like Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and Mikhail Sergachev. He got tasked as the safety valve for those players so they could use their offensive prowess to pinch down into the zone to get involved in play. At the same time though he has shown the ability to put dangerous shots on net and produce points as well.
The totals aren’t eye-popping by any means, but they are extremely serviceable when you consider that Stralman gets tasked mostly with defensive responsibilities. He could be used in a number of different ways on the San Jose Sharks, but would likely do the most damage combined with a player like Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Coach Pete DeBoer loves utilizing match-ups and combining Stralman and Marc-Edouard Vlasic would instantly give the Sharks a lethel shut-down pairing. This would allow DeBoer to revert to giving Burns the more favorable zone starts, instead of using him in more of a defensive capacity like he did in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Team Teal’s defensive core is on the older end of the spectrum, but with Justin Braun’s contract coming off the books next season Stralman’s inevitable salary would end up replacing it beyond 2019 – 2020.
Missing all that time last season will likely put a dent in the amount Stralman thought he would make heading into this off-season of free agency. This gives Team Teal a chance at taking a swing at the impact right-handed defenseman. The EvolvingWild contract projections tool has him signing a 3 x 4.5 AAV, which would be a fairly reasonable price for a proven playoff test blueliner
Again this figure isn’t definitive but if Team Teal can ink the Swedish blueliner to anything close to that they’d be set up for success (in the short term). Even with the loss of EK65, Stralman would help round out the right side and create a formidable top 4 defensive group.
Now all the Sharks have to do is convince him to help out West and join his fifth team, but his first in the Western Conference in 749 regular season games.
Brandon Tanev
Coming off a disheartening first round loss to the St. Louis Blues, Brandon Tanev heads into the summer of 2019 unlikely to return to the team that signed him out of the NCAA. That means the 27-year-old will be looking for a new place to call home for what is likely the remainder of his prime years.
Some of the same arguments for Micheal Ferland also apply to the reasoning about why Brandon Tanev would be a good fit in the Bay Area. However, while Ferland has been given opportunities to play with elite talent. Tanev hasn’t really seen much ice-time with high-end players.
According to Corsica.Hockey’s line tool Brandon Tanev spent a majority of his time at 5v5 last season with the likes of Adam Lowry, Andrew Copp, Bryan Little, and Mathieu Perreault. Despite the lack of surrounding talent Brandon Tanev ended the season with 29 total points, with 14 of them being goals.
Not only was he given lesser talent to work with but he also got entrusted with the brunt of the defensive responsibilities at forward. He started outside the offensive zone over 75% of the time, while still maintaining 48.77 CF% and a 50.85 GF%, per Corsica.Hockey.
For a designated checker this left winger has some underappreciated offensive skill. 11 of his 15 assists are primary, which means that a lot of the offensive production when the goals were scored stemmed through Tanev’s stick. Imagine what the possibilities for Tanev are if he was given extended time with the likes of Joe Thornton, Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski, or Logan Couture at center.
The Jets are a very deep team but didn’t really have role available within their top 6 for a player like Tanev to showcase what he could potentially do with more offensive zone time. But the Sharks aren’t afraid to mix up the lineups and this could result in the NCAA champion skating with some elite players.
His offensive upside isn’t the only thing that makes Brandon Tanev an interesting target for the Sharks in free agency. The Ontario native is a bona-fide 200-foot-player. He makes his presence known in all 3 zones of the ice. He ranked 3rd overall in the NHL with 278 hits in 80 games played, per naturalstattrick.
Tanev is extremely disciplined on his skates and gives opponents headaches with his relentless checking ability. He only got pinned with 12 total penalties, meanwhile he drew 27 calls during in primarily a defensive role. This ratio is very impressive for a player who’s playing without the puck a lot. If the Sharks could find out a way to capitalize on these power play opportunities Tanev’s value can go beyond the usual point totals.
EvolvingWild’s contract projection tool has his projected cap hit at roughly 4 x 3 AAV. If these figures are any indicator of how the league values Tanev, the Sharks would be smart to lock down the checking forward for a longish term deal. At 27 and with only 195 professional regular season games under his belt, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to sign the former Friar knowing his body hasn’t had to experience many regular season campaigns.
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The reality of the situation is that none of these players are even close to as effective as Erik Karlsson. Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson pulled out all the stops to get EK65 in the Bay Area for at least one Stanley Cup run. Now he’s faced with a long list of expiring contracts and limited options when it comes to improving this team on the open market.
However there are still a few quality names out there that could bolster Team Teal’s depth and potentially keep them within shooting distance of Stanley Cup relevance. Nevertheless it seems like it will be a long month of June for members of Sharks territory.