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Erik Karlsson

Free Agency Notes: Edler, Hayes, Pavelski, Krug

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When Alex Edler asked Vancouver not to move him at the NHL Trade Deadline, many assumed it was precursor to an extension between the long-time Canuck and his team. Yet, as the weeks have passed and no resolution has emerged, that expectation grew less and less certain. Now, after a month or so of reports that term and expansion protection were coming between the two sides, it seems the deal is dead and Edler will hit the open market. Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal reports that it does not sound like the Canucks and Edler will get a deal done by July 1st. This does not entirely rule out a return to Vancouver, but it will be substantially harder to convince him to come back after he’s tested the waters and likely found teams willing to give him the desired term and No-Movement Clause. This especially rings true today, as Erik Karlsson’s extension leaves a thin defense market even weaker and D-needy teams will have little choice but to meet the demands of Edler and fellow top free agents like Jake Gardiner and Tyler Myers. It would not be surprise to now see Vancouver make a hard push for one of those two as well, as they seek an upgrade on the blue line but were not willing to give the 33-year-old Edler a long-term deal or risk losing young players to protect an aging veteran in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.

  • It’s been a roller coaster of reports on Kevin Hayes since the moment his negotiating rights were acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers from the Winnipeg Jets. The Flyers obviously became the favorite to sign the free agent center given their early access, but there have since been reports followed by other conflicting reports about how talks have been going between the two sides. Finally, trusted Flyers source Frank Seravalli of TSN has chimed in and he has only good news for Philly fans. Seravalli reports that the two sides have made good progress and that talks are trending toward a contract. He stops short of guaranteeing a deal gets done, but believes that it will. This would remove yet another major name from the free agent market, following Karlsson, Jeff Skinner, and Jordan Eberle. And like those three, reports of a deal being close have so far been proven true this off-season.
  • The sheer magnitude of Karlsson’s new contract with the Sharks has surprised many and has reinforced the narrative that San Jose will have to lose other key free agents to re-sign the talented defenseman. While he wouldn’t speak specifically about talks with those players, GM Doug Wilson did warn not to make assumptions when asked about Joe Pavelski, per The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz. Wilson says that nothing has been ruled out, making a Pavelski return a possibility. He also spoke to the importance of getting Karlsson under contract “well before July 1st”, specifically so that the team can plan around their new salary cap paradigm. It still remains a long-shot barring trades to remove salary from the current roster, but until Pavelski, a career Shark, puts pen to paper elsewhere, he remains a possibility for San Jose.
  • Boston defenseman Torey Krug will not be a free agent until next summer, but he has already proven that he is worth a significant raise in his next contract. The Bruins’ power play magician is fifth among all NHL defensemen in regular season scoring over the past three years and second only to Erik Karlsson in playoff scoring. Karlsson’s new extension, along with the contracts of players like John Carlson and Victor Hedman, raise the bar for what Krug might be looking for in his next deal. Even though he has some struggles defensively, it is fair to assume that his current $5.25MM cap hit will not cut it. This leaves the Bruins in a difficult spot, as they must first re-sign elite young defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo this summer. Those moves will leave Boston with little cap space this off-season and not much more the following year when Krug needs a new contract. Yet, speaking with the media today, GM Don Sweeney made it clear that his intent is not to trade the mobile defender, nor to let him leave after next season:

If somebody blew us away (with a trade offer for Krug), every player has to be looked at in that way. When you’re an organization, you just have to, you’re doing a disservice if you don’t. But it would take a pretty unique opportunity for us to part with Torey. We think he’s a big part of the fabric of our group. He’s kind of that next wave of leadership that we talk about.

Senators Notes: No. 19 Pick, Paajarvi, Hogberg

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Perhaps excited by the extension of Anthony Duclair and the additional second-round pick added by the Erik Karlsson contract, both occurring earlier today, Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion was very positive and open when speaking with the media today. Per The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, Dorion began by discussing the team’s plans for the upcoming NHL Draft. The Senators will travel to Vancouver tomorrow to begin meetings ahead of the round one of the draft on Friday night, but Dorion has already had many conversations with rival GM’s. Dorion states that he has already spoken with multiple teams about possibly moving up in the first round from No. 19. The Senators are without their own first-rounder, owed to the Colorado Avalanche from last year’s Matt Duchene trade, but the team was fortunately able to recoup a top pick from the Columbus Blue Jackets in their own sale of Duchene. With that said, No. 19 is not exactly where a rebuilding team would like their first pick to be, even though Ottawa already has a deep, talented pipeline. Following the Karlsson news, CapFriendly reports that the Senators now have 28 picks in the next three drafts, including 16 in the top three rounds. That is plenty of ammunition if Dorion decides that he wants to move up the board on Friday. Teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks have hinted at their willingness to move back, while the Colorado Avalanche may also be open to moving their second pick in the round, No. 16. If Dorion is intent on moving up, he should be able to find a taker.

  • Dorion also made the somewhat surprising reveal that the Senators are not pursuing a contract extension with free agent forward Magnus Paajarvi. Paajarvi, 28, has spent the past season and half with Ottawa after coming over from the St. Louis Blues on waivers in 2017-18. Although the 2009 tenth overall pick has never been able to live up to his draft stock nor his rookie year production, Paajarvi has grown into a solid two-way player and enjoyed the best season since his first in Ottawa this past year. Paajarvi seemed like a safe bet to stay with the Senators, especially given his key role on the penalty kill, but Dorion has other plans. He did say that talks continue with fellow UFA’s Oscar Lindberg and Brian Gibbons, both of whom performed well after deadline trades, as well as RFA defenseman Cody Ceci. As for Paajarvi, he’ll likely land on his feet elsewhere in the league once free agency opens.
  • Finally, Dorion announced that a contract resolution with RFA goaltender Marcus Hogberg is imminent. Hogberg is expected to sign with the team this week after rumors emerged early this off-season that he was considering a move to Europe. It remains possible that Hogberg could still be loaned elsewhere, as his signing only adds to a logjam of keepers in both Ottawa and AHL Belleville. The Senators expect to enter next season with a tandem of veteran Craig Anderson and returnee Anders Nilsson. As of now, Mike Condon will also be in the mix. In the minors, the team hopes to give top goalie prospect Filip Gustavsson, college standout Joey Daccord, and now Hogberg the time in net they need to develop properly. If that is going to be impossible, even with a likely Condon departure, Hogberg is the top candidate to be loaned away, despite his advantage in pro experience.

Erik Karlsson Re-Signs With San Jose Sharks

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UPDATE: The Sharks have now officially announced the Karlsson extension and it is worth even more than previously believed. Karlsson is set to make $11.5MM on average over an eight-year term for a total of $92MM, according to CapFriendly. That includes $53MM in signing bonuses, largely front loaded in the early years for potential lockout protection, as well as in the final two years to dissuade a buyout. The contract also includes a full No-Movement Clause. There is little doubt remaining that San Jose is all in on Karlsson given these terms, which make Karlsson the highest paid defenseman in NHL history and behind only Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews overall. The Sharks simply have to hope that he can get back to full health and remain that way as long as possible, while those teams that missed out on a chance to court him this summer have to hope that the somewhat underwhelming replacement options don’t drastically increase their asking price.

 

It’s been an ongoing narrative early this off-season that the San Jose Sharks were willing to do whatever it takes to re-sign Erik Karlsson, after the all-world defenseman played well – when healthy – in his first season with the team. Karlsson is considered not just the top defenseman on the free agent market, but arguably the biggest name overall, and that’s taking into account his injury concerns. Few defensemen in the NHL can do what a healthy Karlsson can offensively and the 29-year-old was set to cash in on the open market. Yet, it seems that GM Doug Wilson and the Sharks have convinced Karlsson that he doesn’t need to test the waters to find a considerable contract and a winning team. TSN insider Bob McKenzie reports that “all signs are pointing” to Karlsson returning to San Jose and colleague Pierre LeBrun follows it up by stating that “a deal is indeed done.”

McKenzie is hardly the first to report that extension talks were getting close between the two sides, but when the respected hockey mind makes a pronouncement like this, it generally carries significant weight. LeBrun thus checked in himself and found previous reports that the two sides were talking about a contract in the neighborhood of Drew Doughty’s eight-year, $88MM contract to be true. LeBrun believes that is will be an eight-year deal worth more than Doughty’s $11MM AAV. This would make Karlsson’s cap hit the third-largest in NHL history.

Unless his negotiating rights were to be traded prior to July 1st, the Sharks were always going to be the only team that could offer Karlsson that valuable eight year. However, it is likely their willingness to move into the double-digit AAV realm that pushed negotiations closer to a resolution. Especially in a season in which Karlsson missed 29 games due to injury, there was plenty of speculation that his value would take a hit on the free agent market, resulting in lesser term or at least a lower dollar value over a long-term deal. Instead, the Sharks seemingly plan to keep Karlsson in town by offering him the same contract he likely would have landed prior to this past season and hope that recent groin surgery solves the nagging soft tissue damage that cost the superstar blue liner so much time this season.

Assuming this extension becomes official shortly, it will have wide-ranging effects. San Jose cannot afford to re-sign Karlsson to this contract and also re-up restricted free agents Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc without making some sacrifices. Priority unrestricted free agents like Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Gustav Nyquist, and Joonas Donskoi cannot all return if any can. Signing even one of those players may force the Sharks to move out other salary from the roster. Additionally, per the terms of the original Karlsson trade, San Jose will also surrender a 2021 second-round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for extending their acquisition. As for the rest of the free agent market, one of the top names is now off the board. The demand and thus the price for the next tier of defensemen – Jake Gardiner and Tyler Myers – just went up, as did the cost of bringing in a big name like Artemi Panarin or Matt Duchene after both Karlsson and Jeff Skinner received larger contracts than expected.

The greater story here though is that the Sharks’ Stanley Cup window, which some saw as closing if Karlsson, Pavelski, and Thornton were all to leave, has now been extended with the re-signing of one of the game’s best defensemen, so long as he can stay healthy. With Karlsson, Brent Burns, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic together on the blue line for at least six more years and core forwards like Logan Couture, Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl, and soon Meier locked up, the team has strength at both ends and will continue to be a top competitor year in and year out.

 

Ottawa Senators, Anthony Duclair Agree To Extension

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The Ottawa Senators landed an additional second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft when former star Erik Karlsson reportedly agreed to an extension with the San Jose Sharks earlier today. They have now made the most of another one of their big trades from this past season. Anthony Duclair, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Ryan Dzingel trade, has agreed to a one-year contract extension, the team announced. The deal will pay Duclair $1.65MM next season, which could prove to be a bargain for the Senators. Duclair had been set for restricted free agency and held arbitration rights, but has opted to take Ottawa’s offer in hopes that he can re-establish his value next season.

Duclair, 23, has had an up-and-down career and has already made many stops since breaking into the NHL at 19. The New York Rangers draft pick failed to impress as a rookie and was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in 2015. He broke out that same year, recording 20 goals and 44 points. However, when his output dropped to just 15 points in 2016-17, the Coyotes did not hesitate to trade him the following season to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks opted not to qualify Duclair, who signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets last summer. Although Duclair was on pace for a bounce back season with Columbus, the team decided to move him at the deadline as part of their “all in” approach. Fortunately, he caught on quickly in Ottawa, registering 14 points in just 21 games.

The Senators hope that Duclair will again take advantage of the opportunity afforded to him on the young, inexperienced Ottawa roster. If he can keep up his scoring pace from late last season over the course of this next year, he could reach or even surpass his previous career high of 44 points. At just $1.65MM, that would be a tremendous value for the Sens. GM Pierre Dorion certainly likes what he sees, as the team’s press release states:

We were pleased with what Anthony was able to add to our lineup after his acquisition. This signing improves our team speed and scoring depth up front. Anthony’s speed and skill can be dynamic and at only 23 years old, we feel he has the chance to grow into a really consistent contributor.

Pacific Notes: Donskoi, Eakins, Phaneuf, McDavid

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The San Jose Sharks and general manager Doug Wilson have a lot on their plate this offseason as they have a number of key free agents they must deal with, including Erik Karlsson, Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton. One name that is often forgotten is free agent forward Joonas Donskoi, who has been a solid contributor as a middle-six forward the last few years.

The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reports that it looks like Donskoi is leaning towards going onto the open market to see what offers he might receive and could wait to see if a team comes calling when the interview period opens on June 23. Donskoi could receive quite a bit of attention as he has scored 14 goals in each of his last two seasons and had 37 points this year. While that’s hardly amazing numbers, the speedy wing is a good defender and could provide value for a lesser price tag, considering he only made $1.9MM last year.

  • While it looks like the Anaheim Ducks are moving rather slowly in naming their head coach, it looks like there are only two candidates remaining in the race in Dallas Eakins and University of Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Eakins remains the favorite, but the team is doing quite a bit of research on him, including interviewing some of the veterans on his AHL squad.
  • Jordan Samuels-Thomas of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that with Dion Phaneuf being bought out, the most likely destination for the veteran blueliner would be a young team that’s several years away from truly competing. The scribe writes that the decline in the 34-year-old’s play would likely have playoff teams looking elsewhere for veteran depth, but Phaneuf’s leadership and his ability to mentor young players would make him more valuable to a lottery team. On top of that Phaneuf could help team’s penalty killing and can provide a physical presence a young team might lack.
  • At a gathering for 500 season ticket holders, Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said he has already met with star center Connor McDavid twice in the last 10 days, including visiting him as he was working out, according to Terry Jones of the Edmonton Journal. He reports that McDavid is doing well and is expected to ready for the start of training camp. The 22-year-old suffered a small PCL tear in his knee on the final game of the regular season, but the injury didn’t require surgery.

Latest On Erik Karlsson’s Pending Free Agency

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When Erik Karlsson’s postseason came to an end and he posted a thank you note on Twitter to the entire Bay Area, hockey fans immediately tried to determine what it meant in regards to his pending free agency. Was Karlsson saying goodbye to the San Jose Sharks after just one season? When rumors surfaced about the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, it seemed like the star defenseman might be heading back to the Eastern Conference. Not if Sharks GM Doug Wilson has anything to say about it. Both Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription required) and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet have reported in recent days that the Sharks are working hard to re-sign the right-handed defenseman, with a contract similar to Drew Doughty’s eight-year, $88MM deal on the table.

Friedman notes that the team will need a decision soon as they prepare for the rest of their summer, but Karlsson is now just a few days away from the free agent interview period. Even if he does want to hear out other teams however, a contract of that magnitude may be too hard to turn down. Karlsson’s recent injury history may have reduced the number of teams willing to offer him such a lucrative contract, and San Jose is the only team that can give him that elusive eighth year.

Karlsson recently underwent groin surgery but is expected to recover fully by the start of the 2019-20 season, an announcement that was made by the Sharks earlier this month. San Jose will obviously have the best medical insight of any team, and if they are willing to hand over that kind of salary they must truly believe he can get back to full strength.

Even if he can get close to it, the team would have a game-changing talent on their hands. Though his injury history and dramatic fallout in Ottawa have clouded his career recently, it’s important to remember just how dominant Karlsson has been throughout his career. A four-time Norris Trophy finalist—twice won—he has routinely cracked the 70-point mark and was on that kind of a pace in his shortened 2018-19 season. Even while playing injured during the postseason he recorded 16 points in 19 games for the Sharks, lifting his career playoff totals to 53 in 67 games. It’s almost impossible to find that kind of offensive contribution from the blue line, but amazingly the Sharks already have Brent Burns capable of the same thing.

Still, a contract like that would have ramifications on the Sharks’ lineup. It would mean committing somewhere around $26MM to three defensemen, two of which are already well into their thirties but still under contract for at least another six years. It would mean a huge part of the ~$25MM in cap space the team currently has would be eaten up, a number that also needs to accommodate new contracts for Kevin Labanc, Timo Meier and Joakim Ryan while also leaving room to re-sign Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski if the team chooses.

If the Sharks aren’t able to make a deal, it will be interesting to see what kind of market develops for Karlsson and whether or not it costs him in the long run to wait and listen. The free agent interview period will start on June 23rd.

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Snapshots: Blue Jackets, Sharks, Avalanche

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GM Jarmo Kekalainen and the Blue Jackets knew what they were getting into when they held on to top impending free agents Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovksy, despite substantial hints that both planned to depart, and then went out and added another valued UFA in Matt Duchene at the NHL Trade Deadline. Columbus went all in, and while they didn’t win or even reach the Stanley Cup, they did succeed in winning the franchise’s first ever playoff round. Now, as they get set to potentially watch several star player walk away as free agents, Kekalainen and company are going to either squeeze every last drop out of those UFA’s or at least won’t make it any easier for them to jump to rival teams. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the Blue Jackets have declined to give Panarin and Bobrovksy permission to talk to other teams about a sign-and-trade possibility. They have also kept the price of acquiring their negotiating rights high; LeBrun speculates the team is asking for a second-round pick. As the June 23rd UFA negotiation period approaches, and not long after it the start of free agency on July 1st, it seems Panarin and Bobrovsky are likely to remain Blue Jackets until the very last minute, unless a team ponies up. As for Duchene, the Blue Jackets remain interested in re-signing him, so similar rumors haven’t started yet, but don’t expect the deadline addition to be treated any differently if it comes to that.

  • Columbus has likely lost hope of re-signing their top free agents, but San Jose is still holding out when it comes to Erik Karlsson. Karlsson is set to be the top defenseman on the market, but the Sharks would like him to skip that opportunity in favor of remaining with the team. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes that the two sides continue to work on an extension, with terms rumored to be close to the eight-year, $88MM contract signed by Drew Doughty of the rival Los Angeles Kings. Barring a trade in the coming weeks, only San Jose can offer Karlsson that eighth year, which may be even more valuable to the veteran defenseman given his recurring injury issues this season. Kurz agrees that the market may have cooled for Karlsson, so a long-term offer from the Sharks will very likely be the best deal he gets. This makes his decision less about salary and more about whether San Jose is where Karlsson wants to potentially spend the rest of his career.
  • Misinformation is very common in draft and free agency season, so it should come as little surprise that one Denver source says the Avalanche are interested in drafting defenseman Bowen Byram just days after another said they weren’t. Byram is undoubtedly the best defenseman in the draft class, so no team with the chance to draft him is going to totally ignore him. The WHL product could go as early as No. 3 to the Chicago Blackhawks, but likely won’t get any farther than No. 6 to the Detroit Red Wings. Colorado falls squarely in the middle there at fourth overall and will surely consider Byram. But if Mike Chambers of The Denver Post is to be believed, the Avs will take the “best player available” route with their first of two first-round picks and would select Byram if he’s there. We won’t know for sure how it all plays out for just over one more week.

Erik Karlsson Undergoes Surgery

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Despite not having a contract with the team for next season, the San Jose Sharks have announced that Erik Karlsson underwent successful surgery on a groin injury. Karlsson is expected to recover fully in time for 2019-20.

The star defenseman was forced to miss a do-or-die game six against the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference Final due to this injury, which hampered him for much of the 2018-19 season. Karlsson ended up playing just 53 games for the Sharks after they acquired him from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a huge package of assets, and while he did record 45 points during that time he couldn’t be the difference maker they were hoping for when it mattered the most given his injury.

This injury has also caused some to question what Karlsson’s free agent market will be. While he is still one of the best offensive defensemen in the league, the 29-year old has now dealt with multiple major injuries over the last few years and poses plenty of risk going forward. Even if he is ready to start the season on time, there is no guarantee he comes back with quite as much dominance as he has shown in the past. With teams likely having to commit close to, or even above $10MM per season on a long-term deal to secure his services, that uncertainty could cause some to pause.

In the Sharks’ case specifically, they should know better than anyone if Karlsson can return to form. The team has expressed an interest to re-sign him in the past, though would have to give up another asset to Ottawa in the form of a second-round pick if they did. The team also has to consider the fact that they already have four players on the roster making at least $7MM per season for at least six more years, three of which are on the wrong side of thirty already. The team has plenty of cap space at the moment, but will have to prudently spend it if they want to stay where they are as contenders in the Western Conference.

Early Notes: Karlsson, Hall, Vehvilainen

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When the end of the San Jose Sharks season came, the biggest question immediately became ’what would happen to Erik Karlsson?’ The star defenseman is a free agent this summer, but was limited by injury at the end of the year and comes with plenty of question marks, including the draft pick compensation San Jose would need to send Ottawa if he re-signed. Karlsson tweeted out a cryptic thank you to the San Jose area, and immediately many started speculating that it would be the end of his time there. Speculation erupted, with landing spots like New York and Tampa Bay seeming the most likely.

Now in a new column, Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun suggests the unthinkable—a return to the Senators. Brennan reports that a source tells him Karlsson “hopes to receive competitive offers” from the Senators and Montreal Canadiens, in order to get closer to his wife Melinda’s family who are in Ottawa. That would certainly be a shocking development, given how Karlsson exited the Senators organization last summer and the way they have failed to sign any top talent over the years.

  • Rumors have surfaced lately that Taylor Hall isn’t interested in signing an extension with the New Jersey Devils, but his agent Darren Ferris threw some cold water on that when speaking with Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Ferris called the report “fictitious” while Devils GM Ray Shero also doesn’t know where it came from, given his recent conversations with the Hall camp. Still, both admit that there is no rush to sign a deal despite their regular communication and that Hall won’t feel pressure when he is eligible for a deal on July 1.
  • A report out of Finland from Sasha Huttunen has the Columbus Blue Jackets signing Veini Vehvilainen in the coming days, though obviously nothing is official just yet. Vehvilainen is a 22-year old goaltending prospect that the Blue Jackets drafted last year with a sixth-round pick, who dominated Finland’s Liiga for the second straight season. The report notes that the young goaltender could return to Finland to continue his development on a loan from the Blue Jackets, which makes sense given the number of netminders already under contract with the team in the minor leagues.

Financial Flexibility Key To Sharks’ Offseason

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The San Jose Sharks went all-in this season. A team that was already strong enough to compete for the Stanley Cup decided to go out and acquire Erik Karlsson before the start of the season, sending a huge package of assets to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the star defenseman. That came just a few months after the team had snatched Evander Kane at the 2018 trade deadline, which had already cost them a fair amount of draft capital. As if that wasn’t enough, they then went out at this year’s deadline and acquired Gustav Nyquist for another set of picks, leaving them with just one selection in the first four rounds this year and without their first and third picks next season.

That kind of shopping spree usually leaves a team with plenty of regret if they don’t end up winning it all. The Sharks, if you weren’t paying attention, didn’t win it all.

Still, as San Jose head into the offseason after another disappointing playoff loss, there is still hope. Despite having a relatively bare cupboard of draft picks, and three players on the roster making more than $8MM per season despite being on the wrong side of thirty, the Sharks have an incredible amount of flexibility this summer. That’s thanks to a whopping seven players reaching unrestricted free agency, allowing the team to pick and choose who they bring back and for how much.

Obviously, watching Karlsson walk after one year—or Nyquist after a few months—would be frustrating for the Sharks. The same could be said about long-time leaders in Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton, both of whom are also set to become unrestricted free agents. But within that potential frustration is also an opportunity, one which could result in the Sharks being just as competitive again next season, albeit with a different cast of characters.

Specifically, Karlsson and Nyquist come with more than just a monetary price tag. Both players will cost the team a second round pick if they re-sign, to Ottawa or Detroit respectively, as part of the conditions of their trades. That may end up being a deciding factor if GM Doug Wilson doesn’t want to lose any more of his already rare picks. Pavelski and Thornton meanwhile come with age and injury concerns, given how their last few seasons have gone. Both—and perhaps especially Pavelski—are still effective, but Wilson may have to make the hard decision of letting franchise icons leave, as he did with Patrick Marleau two years ago, if they demand too much money.

It’s that money question that is what makes this summer so interesting for the Sharks. CapFriendly currently projects San Jose to have nearly $25MM in cap space for next season, thanks to just 14 players in the entire organization with one-way contracts. Obviously the team will need to sign several players to fill their ranks, but they aren’t forced into anything at the moment. The next wave of on-ice leaders for the Sharks is  going to include players like Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier, but both are restricted free agents who can either be signed long-term or short depending on the rest of the offseason. Neither one has arbitration rights, meaning the team can take negotiations slow if they choose.

Like last offseason, when the Sharks made a pitch to top free agent John Tavares, Wilson can see what the prices are on some of the other top names before backing himself into a corner. Thornton has already said that he would only come back to play for San Jose, while it would be hard to see Pavelski running into the arms of another team without giving the Sharks every chance to match whatever offers come in.

There’s nothing good about having such a small selection of draft picks, but the Sharks have done so well over the last few years—Labanc, for instance is a sixth-round pick from 2014 who looks like he may be a 70-point scorer one day—they have enough built into the system to overcome this short lull. It’s free agency that will be really interesting for a team that can’t seem to get over the hump, and they have more than enough financial ammunition to make it a show.

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