The San Jose Sharks have placed Jonny Brodzinski on waivers to free up a roster spot for Patrick Marleau.
After the San Jose Sharks signed Patrick Marleau to a 1 year 700,00 dollar contract they needed to make room for the veteran skater on this roster. This meant that forward Jonny Brodzinski would get placed on the waiver wire just weeks into the season.
Team Teal signed Brodzinski this off-season to a very similar 1 year 700,00 dollar deal. However following a disappointing preseason and lack of production during his limited time on the Sharks, Brodzinski ended up getting waived, per Elliotte Freidman
This might come as a bit of a surprise for some but with their identical cap hit and positions it makes sense for the team to choose the 26-year-old over some other possible candidates. In his 2 games with the Sharks Brodzinski recorded 2 shots on goal and ended up posting a -1 +/-.
Now with a spot cleared up for Patrick Marleau the Sharks can fully embrace this long sought after reunion. And from the looks of his first practice the team plans on using him a lot in the hopes of jump starting this lackluster offense.
According to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic, Pete DeBoer has Patrick Marleau taking on a huge role already for the San Jose Sharks.
This is sort of a surreal experience for Sharks fans especially with how things ended when Marleau decided to depart for Toronto back in 2017. Nevertheless seeing is believing and NBCSN Bay Area was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the veteran skater taking part in first line drills.
Patty skating with the first line at today’s practice 🙌 #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/KI3q3GmpZZ
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 9, 2019
This shouldn’t come as much of a shock when you consider how bad the Sharks have been over the beginning stages of the 2019 – 2020 campaign. However this is sort of a desperation move on Team Teal’s part.
Their plan of turning over the roster to its younger core has hit a bit of a snag. Skaters like Danil Yurtaykin and Lean Bergmann have shown flashes, but overall it seems like the coaching staff and front office don’t feel comfortable with having these two take on big minutes.
That being said there is still a chance that these young skaters can make their up the line-up considering the string of bad luck the Sharks have had when it comes to composition of their roster. Hopefully these skaters see this as a message from the coaching staff that you aren’t guaranteed minutes and will need to step up to prove themselves worthy of a top six role.
Whatever opinions people had about a Sharks reunion with Marleau are irrelevant now with the 40-year-old set to take the ice against Chicago on Thursday night. San Jose only has 5 goals in 4 games and judging by their recent roster moves appear desperate to jump start their lethargic offensive output.