One of the more interesting restricted free agents this summer will be Timo Meier. While he has an AAV of $6MM, his contract isn’t subject to the new qualifying rules that came into effect in the CBA (which is the lowest of 120% of the AAV or the same salary from the final year). That means that he will be owed a $10MM qualifying offer this summer, one that would also give Meier salary arbitration and a path to accept a one-year deal that walks him to unrestricted free agency. Accordingly, many expect the Sharks to look into what an early extension might cost them. However, his agent Claude Lemieux told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription link) that they’re open-minded to discussing such a deal and are waiting for an offer to come.
The 26-year-old had a career year last season with 35 goals and 41 assists in 77 games and is producing at a slightly lesser pace this year with 12 tallies and 11 helpers in 26 contests. That type of production isn’t quite worth $10MM in this market so GM Mike Grier will need to decide over the next couple of months if Meier is someone that they want to try to keep long-term and work on a deal now or if they should be looking into moving him before the March 3rd trade deadline.
More from San Jose:
- While they were hoping to have goaltender James Reimer back this weekend, that won’t be the case as Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now relays that Reimer, center Nico Sturm, and defenseman Mario Ferraro have all been ruled out of the next two games. Sturm was also believed to be nearing a return from his suspected concussion but the Sharks will hold him out for a couple more days at least. Ferraro skated yesterday for the first time as he begins to work his way back from a foot injury.
- The Sharks have made a move at the AHL level as their farm team announced the signing of defenseman Will Riedell. The 26-year-old wrapped his college career last season with Ohio State where he had 10 points in 33 games before joining Philadelphia’s farm team for the stretch run. So far this season, Riedell has four assists in 15 games with ECHL Savannah.
Credit goes to Vondy from Bleacher Report on this trade suggestion but Meier to the Devils for Alexander Holtz and 2023 1st Round Pick just makes too much sense.
Cap will not work out on that one. You need another $2M going back to the Sharks.
Maybe Boqvist, Sharangovich, and ’24 1st???? For a 1/2 priced Meier
Then you would need to sign Meier to a 8 x $8.5-9M contract!!!! Otherwise, he is just a ver expensive rental.
Then the fly in the ointment is whether Bernier is coming back this year??????
Makes no sense really. They don’t have the cap space and they also don’t have the forward depth to trade Holtz. If you replace that with a top 10 protected 1st rounder and one of their half dozen NHL destined d-men prospects it’d make sense. But even then, long term I doubt NJ have the cap to sign Meier and Bratt and all the others breaking out.