1:26 PM: Further reporting from Max Miller of The Hockey News suggests that Labanc is actually out with an upper-body injury as a result of the slew foot from Vancouver Canucks’s Nils Hoglander the other night.
12:49 PM: San Jose Sharks beat writer Curtis Pashelka is reporting that San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc will be a healthy scratch tonight meaning that the Sharks will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen when they take on the Seattle Kraken. Labanc has struggled this year and has just two assists in the first 13 games of the season.
Labanc is in the final year of a four-year $18.9MM contract he signed in October 2020. At the time, the contract seemed like a gamble on a player who was 24 years old, but coming off a season in which he was -33. Now granted, Labanc was just a year removed from posting 56 points in 82 games in 2018-19, but his production had steeply declined in 2019-20 to the tune of just 14 goals and 19 assists in 70 games. The decline in offense didn’t stop the Sharks from offering the Brooklyn, New York native a lucrative extension, which Labanc promptly signed. Unfortunately for San Jose, Labanc’s 33-point season turned out to be a sign of things to come for his offensive ceiling going forward.
After another 33-point season in 2022-23, the Sharks were hopeful that Labanc could regain his 56-point form and become a trade chip at the trade deadline. However, given Labanc’s start to the season, it doesn’t appear that he will be in demand this season. Labanc was nearly waived earlier in the season, and it appeared that the Sharks would send him to the AHL to bury $1.15MM of his $4.725MM hit in the minors. The team reversed course and opted to keep him with the NHL club.
It will be interesting to see what the Sharks do with Labanc for the rest of the season, they could retain half his salary in a trade, but it would represent the final contract the Sharks could retain, and it would handcuff them for the rest of this season until Labanc’s contract expires. The Sharks have already retained salary on both Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns and would likely need to do the same to move on from any of their other veterans under contract.
I’m not sure that 56 point season was necessarily a fluke, as he was pretty good with the Barrie Colts before hitting the NHL. I think it’s possible he could go for a PTO and make a modest impact as a third liner on a team where he has better players around him. But it’s also possible he just ain’t got game anymore.
Bad ownership, Then Doug Wilson ran the team into the ground, And now the unqualified Mike Grier keeping the dumpster fire tradition alive, Ladies and gentlemen, Your San Jose Sharks!!!!!!!
DW stayed about five years too long, but it’s way too early to make the call on Grier. All those bad contracts he has to get out from are Wilson’s.
Maybe what he said/did to Hoglander was part of this scratch??
(not defending Hoglander here….just saying)
Bold!!1!