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Snapshots: Marleau, Roy, Olofsson, Murray

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Patrick Marleau spent the majority of his playing career with the San Jose Sharks, and it sounds like he would be open to returning to the organisation in retirement. The legendary Sharks forward is the all-time leader in goals, points and games played for the club. He spent 21 seasons playing for the Sharks, helping them to a Stanley Cup Final in 2016.

Marleau retired following the 2020-21 season and will have his number retired by the team on Saturday night. The city of San Jose was honoring him ahead of his number being retired on Saturday night, and announced Feb. 25 will be Patrick Marleau Day in San Jose. When addressing the crowd, Marleau was asked if he would return to the organisation and said it was something he would definitely be interested in doing. He then joked he would have to find something he is good at first.

  • Nicolas Roy is out of the Vegas Golden Knights lineup with an injury. The center has been listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury as per an update on the team’s Twitter page. The 26-year-old center has 11 goals and 25 points in 54 games this season. The Golden Knights are already a little depleted up front with Mark Stone and Nolan Patrick out long term. It doesn’t sound like Roy’s injury will keep him out for an extended period, but it further weakens the roster as they get set to host the Calgary Flames tonight.
  • The Dallas Stars have sent down a couple of depth players. Fredrik Olofsson and Matt Murray have been loaned to the Texas Stars. Both players were called up on an emergency basis yesterday to face the Chicago Blackhawks. Olofsson had three shots on goal and Murray served as Jake Oettinger’s backup in a 4-3 loss.

Timo Meier Questionable For Tomorrow's Game

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  • Top trade candidate Timo Meier is questionable for tomorrow’s San Jose Sharks vs. Nashville Predators contest due to an upper-body injury, relays The Athletic’s Corey Masisiak. This is a situation to monitor for fans across the NHL, as Meier is one of the most sought-after players currently available on the trade market. The Swiss winger has scored 52 points in 57 games and one has to hope that any injury Meier is dealing with proves to be just a minor setback.

Latest On Erik Karlsson

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Edmonton Oilers fans’ dreams of two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson being traded to oil country might have to wait to become a reality. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period is reporting that a deal between the Oilers and San Jose Sharks for Karlsson is considered “unlikely,” for mainly financial reasons. Pagnotta reports that while the Sharks are willing to retain two or three million dollars off of Karlsson’s deal, the Oilers want the Sharks to retain a more significant portion, around $5MM, if not more.

As a result, Pagnotta says that “it sounds like there haven’t been any recent serious discussions between the two clubs as a result” of those financial disagreements. The rationale for the Oilers to want to acquire Karlsson is very real, as he’s a Norris Trophy frontrunner with 76 points in 58 games. But asking San Jose to take on such a large number of dead cap dollars for the foreseeable future is a major ask, and it’s understandable that the Sharks balked at the prospect of making such a deal. According to Pagnotta, the Oilers could be pivoting to new targets, such as Anaheim Ducks defenseman John Klingberg, and Arizona Coyotes blueliner Shayne Gostisbehere.

Latest On Timo Meier

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As we’ve discussed for weeks, the St. Louis Blues aren’t really looking at a rebuild. The team has committed too much to the young core already in place, and was just using an opportunistic approach at the deadline. This isn’t their year, and instead of committing more money to expiring veteran contracts, they flipped them to grab some extra assets.

St. Louis may not end up using those draft picks to select young players though. Instead, they could leverage them to land some NHL help to load up for next year. Today, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported as much, noting that the Blues have now emerged as a player in the Timo Meier sweepstakes. Meier has plenty of interested parties, though some—like the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers—have already made substantial additions and may have fallen out of the race.

The Blues have essentially weakened the market for Meier by making those trades, and now could use the extra picks acquired by dealing Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Noel Acciari, and Niko Mikkola to land the big winger themselves. The New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes remain in the mix, along with other teams that could benefit from Meier’s top-end talent.

It’s most interesting because the Blues don’t have a ton of wiggle room for next season, when the extensions for Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou kick in. The $10MM qualifying offer Meier is owed would still be difficult to swallow for a team that already has $70.8MM committed to 14 players. Perhaps a long-term extension at a lower AAV would work, but if St. Louis did acquire Meier, they might end up shipping some other pieces out the door before next season starts.

With every new team interested, the Sharks have more due diligence to do, slowing down any potential movement. We’re now ten days away from the deadline and San Jose still holds the biggest chip on the market.

San Jose Sharks Reassign Nick Cicek

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Feb 21: Cicek has been returned to the AHL today, but Kaut stays for now. The latter’s San Jose debut went well, with Kaut playing more than 14 minutes in a win against the Seattle Kraken.

Feb 20: The San Jose Sharks may have a few absences today as Timo Meier deals with an upper-body injury, and Kevin Labanc was away for the birth of a child. Martin Kaut and Nick Cicek have been recalled from the minor leagues to give them some extra bodies.

This is Kaut’s first recall with the Sharks since being acquired last month from the Colorado Avalanche. In seven games with the San Jose Barracuda, the 23-year-old forward has put up six points – continuing his history of strong play in the minor leagues. Selected 16th overall in 2018, Kaut has never been able to translate that production to the NHL, however, scoring just three goals in 47 career games with the Avalanche.

In San Jose, he might have a much bigger opportunity, especially if the Sharks decide to sell several assets at the deadline. The story isn’t completely written on Kaut yet, but time is running out for him to live up to the sky-high potential from his draft year. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer and turns 24 before next season is set to begin, so if he wants to be a regular with the Sharks, this may be his best opportunity to prove it.

Cicek has bounced back and forth all season, playing in 15 games so far for the Sharks and recording four assists. The undrafted defenseman has shown well during his short professional career, adding physicality to the lineup in limited minutes. Still just 22, it has been an impressive rise for the former Portland Winterhawk, though the offense he produced at the AHL level in 2021-22 has completely disappeared. Through 21 games with the Barracuda this season, Cicek has just a single assist.

Timo Meier Out Day-To-Day

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According to head coach David Quinn, San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier has been sidelined with an upper-body injury.

It’s unclear when Meier sustained the injury, though Meier has been listed as day-to-day. Meier did not participate in the team’s practice today, and Quinn notes he’s questionable for tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Kraken.

However, the most notable factor surrounding Meier’s absence is his status as the top trade target remaining before the March 3 trade deadline.

The 25-year-old Swiss forward has been an important part of the Sharks’ offense this season, scoring 31 goals and 21 assists in 57 games. With names such as Bo Horvat, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Ryan O’Reilly now off the trade board, Meier, a pending restricted free agent, is the best forward available on the trade market.

According to various reports, the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes are leading candidates to acquire Meier. Both teams need a top-six forward to counter the New York Rangers’ — their divisional rivals — move to add Tarasenko. The Toronto Maple Leafs are out of the picture after acquiring O’Reilly, but the Winnipeg Jets have also had reported interest in the Sharks sniper.

Meier is expected to generate a large return for the Sharks, and his status as a trade asset is more important than his on-ice benefit to the team at this point in the season. San Jose is just six points ahead of the last-place Chicago Blackhawks.

Hopefully, Meier’s absence is very short-term, which won’t affect his trade value. While it’s never easy to trade a talented player like Meier, it’s a move that could help the Sharks in the long run. Acquiring assets that can help them in the future is a necessary step to building a sustainable contender.

San Jose Sharks Reassign Aaron Dell

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The San Jose Sharks have announced that goaltender Aaron Dell has been reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. The move ends Dell’s relatively brief stay on the Sharks’ NHL roster, as he was originally called up on February 11th.

In that span, Dell played in two games for the Sharks. He let in two goals on 27 shots in the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 14th, and saved eight shots in 23 minutes of action during the Sharks’ February 12th win over the Washington Capitals.

Dell has spent most of this season as part of a three-goalie arrangement in the AHL, sharing time in the crease with Eetu Makiniemi and Strauss Mann. In 21 games at the AHL level, Dell has a 7-11-1 record, .898 save percentage, and 3.23 goals-against-average, and he is the only one in the Barracuda’s goaltending trio who has a save percentage below the .900 mark.

The 33-year-old is an experienced netminder who worked his way up from the University of North Dakota to the ECHL then to the AHL before breaking into the NHL in 2016-17 as a backup for the Sharks. Dell has 130 NHL games on his resume, with a career .905 save percentage.

A pending unrestricted free agent, Dell will now head back to the AHL to resume his role with the Barracuda, and this move could also lead to Mann moving back to ECHL Wichita for the first time since late January.

San Jose Sharks May Not Bench Players For Trade-Related Reasons

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The San Jose Sharks may be prepared to buck a recent trend among the NHL’s sellers. Head coach David Quinn has not talked to the team’s general manager, Mike Grier, about benching players for trade-related reasons, he told reporters, including The Athletic’s Corey Masisak, today.

Quinn emphasized that both of the Sharks’ high-profile trade targets, Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson, are currently under contract or team control for the next season, and the team is not obligated to trade them by the March 3 trade deadline. However, given the fervent pace of recent rumors surrounding both players, it would be shocking if neither were moved. While the financial hurdles to a Karlsson trade are understandable, Meier’s status as a pending restricted free agent gives his acquiring team some control in dictating his financial future, and a trade seems inevitable.

San Jose Sharks Reassign Eetu Makinemi

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Feb 15: Makiniemi, along with Nick Cicek, has been returned to the AHL. Despite having players on long-term injured reserve, the club has a low enough payroll at the moment that they can still accrue some extra cap space. There may be more transactions to follow tomorrow, as they travel to play the Vegas Golden Knights.

Feb 14: The San Jose Sharks recalled goalie Eetu Makiniemi from the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda on Tuesday, the team announced via Twitter. San Jose placed forward Jonah Gadjovich on injured reserve in a corresponding move.

The move leads to a bit of a logjam on the Sharks roster. The Sharks recalled Aaron Dell from the minors just a few days ago, as starter James Reimer is out of the lineup with an undisclosed illness and is day-to-day.

Now, backup Kaapo Kahkonen appears to be out of the lineup short-term, says head coach David Quinn, after he didn’t finish San Jose’s win against the Washington Capitals on Sunday. That makes four goalies on the Sharks’ active roster, with neither Reimer nor Kahkonen expected to miss enough time to qualify for injured reserve.

Gadjovich officially lands on injured reserve less than an hour after the Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka reported he is considered week-to-week with an injury.

Makiniemi, 23, arrived in the Sharks organization this summer when the Carolina Hurricanes included him in their trade package to acquire defenseman Brent Burns. He posted an impressive .922 save percentage in an injury-shortened 2021-22 campaign with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Still, the organization’s logjam of young goalies incentivized Carolina to move on.

His AHL numbers have taken a dip this season, down to a .900 save percentage and an 8-10-3 record in 22 appearances with the Barracuda. He made his first NHL start earlier this season, stopping 23 of 24 shots in a 6-1 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks on December 9, 2022.

Expect the Sharks to return Makinemi to the Barracuda as soon as one of Reimer or Kahkonen can play.

Latest On Timo Meier

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The latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading saw analysts such as Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston discuss some of the highest-profile names available on the market ahead of the trade deadline. One of those is San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier, and LeBrun gave significant updates on the two apparent frontrunners for his services: the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes.

On the New Jersey front, LeBrun says things are heating up, with talks accelerating between the two parties over the last 48 hours. Meier’s status as a pending restricted free agent is likely jamming up the works in getting a trade finalized, though, as LeBrun reports the Devils’ interest in Meier hinges on an extension as part of the trade. That’s a complicating factor, as LeBrun reported days ago that the Sharks have not yet permitted Meier’s agent, Claude Lemieux, to discuss potential extension terms with interested teams.

  • LeBrun also gave an update on Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who’s scratched tonight for asset protection. He named the Edmonton Oilers as a fit for Gavrikov, as while their interest in San Jose Sharks superstar Erik Karlsson is well-documented, the financial aspect of the trade is likely too tough to work out. A swap with Gavrikov and oft-maligned forward Jesse Puljujarvi would save Edmonton money, as Gavrikov’s $2.8MM cap hit comes in $200,000 under Puljujarvi’s $3MM hit. Johnston also added that there may be some “sticker shock” for teams calling on Gavrikov, as Columbus is holding firm to an ask of a first-round, third-round, and fourth-round draft pick.

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