The San Jose Sharks put on another impressive performance last night against the struggling Montreal Canadiens, beating them 4-1 for their fourth win in five games. That recent success has pushed San Jose into third in the Pacific Division, and right in the thick of the playoff race in the Western Conference. With that position though will come some tough decisions for the Sharks as we head towards the trade deadline, and teams around them start to load up for a postseason run.
On one hand, the Sharks are in an enviable position. After Patrick Marleau walked in the offseason, and David Schlemko was taken from them in the expansion draft, the front office finds themselves with plenty of cap room to work with. In fact, CapFriendly projects the Sharks could add around $23.5MM of contracts at the trade deadline and still be cap-compliant. That’s an incredible asset when looking to take a swing at a Stanley Cup run, and could prove useful in the coming months.
However, there is a larger problem that the Sharks must face when considering any deal. After adding the last few years, the team is without its second or third round picks in the 2018 draft, and don’t have a real glut of blue-chip prospects knocking down the door for an NHL job. More than that, their three key pieces up front are all unrestricted free agents either this summer or next, and starting next season they’ll have $15MM tied up in two defenders on the wrong side of 30.
In fact, if you look at the team’s salary structure, draft stockpile, and prospect cupboard independent of their record this season, one might come to the conclusion that they need to consider selling instead of buying. They have several expiring (or near-expiring) assets that could still bring back impressive value, and might have a gap in young impact players coming through the system to replace them.
That consideration of course is not independent of the on-ice success, but rather inherently tied to it. What else is there to sell your future for than immediate success, and the Sharks have experienced that for some time, even if the Stanley Cup itself has remained slightly out of reach. The option of mortgaging even more assets for help now can be quite tempting, especially once other teams starting doing the same.
So what will be the Sharks’ solution? Kevin Kurz of The Athletic doesn’t believe they even have the assets to add a big name, and would expect more of a bottom-six forward to be the prize if anything. In his most recent mailbag, Kurz addressed the upcoming deadline:
Can they make a trade that will impact the team? Sure. Do they have the pieces to make a major acquisition, along the lines of — just as an example — Evander Kane? I don’t see it.
…
My guess is that while another bottom six forward could be acquired for a reasonable price, the Sharks’ roster won’t look all that different after the trade deadline. They will have to hope that guys like [Timo] Meier, [Marcus] Sorensen and Kevin Labanc keep improving.
The option of standing still and hoping this roster is enough to make an impact in the playoffs is obviously a reasonable one, given their recent success. But a partial sell shouldn’t be overlooked. We’ve talked about the potential value of Aaron Dell before, and Kurz details how Paul Martin—another contract that will expire in the summer of 2019—could be a piece they move at some point.
Regular season success shouldn’t ever be considered a bad thing. But the Sharks’ front office has to be very careful how much a few wins sway their overall perception of the roster and organizational depth. They’ll be a very interesting team to watch as the deadline approaches, even if they do eventually decide to sit tight.
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