Three ways the Sharks could move Martin Jones

With a significant drop off in performance for the long-time Sharks net-minder, the team can and should explore a way to remove him from the roster.

For the last five seasons, Martin Jones has been a centerpiece for the Sharks. During the first half of his time in San Jose, it made sense to give him such a large role on the team.

In his first season in teal, he showed tremendous promise for the team. At just 26 years old, he had a 0.912 SV% and a 2.27 GAA en route to the first Stanley Cup appearance in team history.

Year two was more of the same. Jonesy remained steady with a 0.912 SV% and 2.40 GAA. At this point, he maintained his status as one of the more respected goalies in hockey.

Moving into the 2017-2018 season, he once again remained consistent for team teal. With a 0.915 SV% and 2.55 GAA, he began to show signs of shakiness but not enough to be remotely concerning.

The following year is when he took a turn for the worst. Outside of one magical playoff run, he has been nothing short of disappointing.

Some of his poor performance is not his fault. It can be attributed to roster changes throughout the team and the defense being particularly shaken up with the addition of Erik Karlsson.

Love him or hate him, his time in San Jose should come to a close here soon. In the immediate term, these are some of the best ways the Sharks can move Jones.

Move Martin Jones to the Blackhawks and receive Subban in return.

The reality of this trade is that for Chicago, even to consider taking on Jones. They would need a draft incentive in return.

As a result, the Sharks would need to send a 2022 third-round pick to Chicago and only get a 2022 sixth-round pick back.

From a financial standpoint for San Jose, this deal makes perfect sense. Malcolm Subban is only set to receive $850k AAV for the next two years.

While it is highly unlikely that Subban can evolve into the goalie of the future, he does show some promise.

He has a career 0.897 SV% and 2.97 GAA, not numbers to write home about. But if nothing else, he is a lateral move, similar to the Devan Dubnyk acquisition.

As far as the Blackhawks are concerned, they are eying a fast rebuild and could benefit from the improvement in draft stock, especially since Subban expects to see little to no ice time with the team.

With two new up and coming goalies in Illinois, they would get better guidance from an established veteran like Jones than from a peer like Subban.

However, working with Chicago is not the only option team teal has, as another more common trade partner could be in the cards.

Send Jones to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Hogberg.

In this situation, the Sharks would send Martin Jones to the Senators and acquire Marcus Hogberg. Making a move like this would, in no circumstance, be cheap. Ottawa would be asked to take on salary and give up a promising young goalie.

With that being said, it is possible because the Sens went out and signed Matt Murray to a four-year deal. He is an established number one option due to his contract’s nature and the fact that he previously led the Penguins to two Stanley Cups.

Hogberg and Murray are also roughly the same age, which would further argue that they could be open to this deal.

That then begs the question, what would the Sharks need to do to sweeten the deal?

This is where things would get less appealing. San Jose would need to send even more picks to Ottawa. In my mind, it would be a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 third-round pick.

However, it would not be out of the realm of possibilities that the regular trade partner would need even more draft stock, including a pick in the upcoming draft.

As much as it would be nice to move Jones and to bring in a younger goalie, the Sharks would probably not be willing to give up the draft capital that the Senators would want.