Ovechkin upon hearing he has been traded to the Islanders
Well Saturday was an interesting day for the Sharks. 3 big name players were sent packing in two different deals that significantly changes the face of the franchise. Let's break down both deals from the Sharks perspective.
Trade #1
To SJ
Alex Wennberg
Jonathan Marchessault
Kevin Stedlend
Nathan Bastain
2018 1st SJ
2018 1st Buf
To Montreal
Tyler Seguin
Taylor Hall
The Sharks went into free agency with little wiggle room, had 4 roster sports to fill and only $4mill to do it with. In this deal we also get a couple of former 2nd round prospects in Stedlend and Bastain so hoping at least 1 of them can turn out to be OK.
Why did we do this? To give us flexibility moving into 17-18 and to add to a very weak asset pool. We really like Wennberg and he has 2 years left on his ELC.
Trade #2
To SJ
Conor Sheary
F. Gaudreau
Scott Laughton
Kole Lind
2019 1st
To NYI
Alex Ovechkin
Again, in this trade we don't get back a top end bluechip but we do get a decent and cheap player in Sheary, a 1st in 2019 that we'll hang onto and some prospects. Laughton was a former 1st rounder so hoping he can stick to the NHL this year and Lind was just drafted outside the 1st round. Taking a flyer on F. Gaudreau, hoping he can stick with the Preds this year and has been playing lights out in the AHL.
All year trading was difficult because the Sharks organization lacked assets like 1sts and prospects to get many deals done. This was frustrating because we really felt handcuffed. This is a gamble but it is one I was willing to make to free us from the burden of being right up against the cap. We get some good assets back and are in a position to take on a couple of bad contract if we need too.
We still have solid players like Pavalski, Kreider, Weber, Byf and Rask so we still intend to be a competitive team, but the expectations are certainly not as high as they were 24 hours ago. Add Wennberg, Sheary, Marchessault, Hanzal to those guys and we think we are still OK.
All of a sudden the Sharks have $22Mill burning a hole in our pockets. We are hoping to put that to use for 2nd batch free agency. If that doesn't work out I am sure there will be teams willing to dump bad contracts.
Thanks to Mosher and Scorp for the deals. If you are happy, I am happy.
What Have I done?
