San Jose's offense has been problematic since the days of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, and Patrick Marleau. With a large amount of cap space for this coming summer, there is a chance to address this. Free agency with the combination of young coming into the top six, the San Jose Sharks have an enormous amount of money available to them when the free agency window opens in July. How they spend it will be interesting if they spend it.
One of the big free agents is Carolina Hurricanes' winger Jake Guentzel. With the cap concerns around the Hurricanes in general, there is a rumor that they are willing to move the rights to the star winger if they cannot agree to the opening of free agency on July 1. There are reports of the Omaha, Nebraska native looking for a significant payday as opposed to a chance to win right now.
This has fueled the speculation that Guentzel will be an option for teams like San Jose and Chicago that must find players to play with the exciting young talents the organizations are inheriting. The Sharks know that Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and the future young core will need to have someone who can help them adjust to playing in the NHL. A star winger like Guentzel could complement the Sharks' top six and provide Stanley Cup-winning experience to a roster that is still very young.
With the Guentzel rumors circulating, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman speculated that the Sharks could be the ideal landing spot for a kid from the Midwest. A team that needs experience has a ton of cap space and a need for star players, and providing him with a tremendous young supporting cast in the future could be enough to sway the star winger to join the Bay Area squad.