The PuckJunkie Weblog  

19 Aug '05 - + 197 - 73 30 teams in 30 days - San Jose

With the rosters looking less like a ball hopper on bingo night and more like actual lists of players committed to teams, it's about time to look at what the clubs have put together for next year and make almost completely unfounded guesses as to the relative strength of the teams.  "Relative", because so many teams lost talent that a team standing still may actually have the upper hand.  "Unfounded", because until the season gets well underway we won't know whether the newest version of the obstruction crackdown is for real.  And "guesses", because there are still some unsigned major players that could impact some teams.  And because, let's face it, there's just no telling.  Regardless, that's no reason to dissuade us from wild speculation.

First up: the San Jose Sharks.

On one hand, it's not difficult to judge this year's Sharks roster compared to that of the '03-'04 season.  They've lost players and have replaced them with inexperienced prospects.  As good as some of those prospects may be, this team is not as good as it was.

On the other hand, they aren't the only team moving backward, especially in the West and especially among top teams.  Don't forget, this is the defending Pacific Division champion who made it to the Western Conference Finals and lost to a very tough Calgary team.  104 points is nothing to sneeze at.  So while they may not be as good, there's every possibility they're contenders again in their division.  In addition, they've still got a large amount of room under the cap - something like $10 million, depending on the result of their arbitration with Alexander Korolyuk.

Major Losses

• Mike Rathje, defenseman.  A hard-hitting defenseman who's been welcomed with open arms in Philadelphia, Rathje's loss will be felt sorely by a defensive corps showing weakness and inexperience.  Why San Jose didn't make a play to keep him is a mystery; the $3.5 million that Philadephia is paying him isn't enough to scare away a team with this much cap room.  Although to be fair, Rathje left pretty quickly after the free agent bonanza started, before the Sharks may have known where they stand.
• Mike Ricci, center. A solid two-way center, Ricci left as a free agent in the 2004 offseason and became a Coyote for $1.52 million.  While he wasn't irreplaceable, he hasn't been replaced yet, unless you believe in one of the prospects coming up.
• Vincent Damphousse, left wing/center. Always a streaky scorer and coming up on the end of his career - Vinnie is 37 - he'll be the one they miss the least of these three.  But however meager his goal totals were last season, there were 41 points accumulated that have to come from somewhere if the Sharks intend to stay as good as they were.

Acquisitions

• None. Seriously.  In the biggest free-agent bonanza in sports history, the Sharks took care of their own free agents and did not sign a single player that played on another team in the '03-'04 season.

Things to watch

• Alexander Korolyuk. Taking advantage of a new provision in the CBA, the Sharks took Korolyuk to arbitration, claiming they were using it not to reduce his salary but to cement his situation with the team.  Korolyuk had been making some noise about returning to Europe to play there.  His latest salary was around $1.2 million, and San Jose would like to keep him around, if only because there aren't a lot of replacements available at this point.  And at that price or close, he's still a fairly good deal.  If Korolyuk leaves, there's just one more reason for the Sharks to make a free agent signing.
• Acquisitions.  With $10 million or more still to spend, the Sharks could wind up alienating fans who believe the team isn't making an effort to put out the best combination of players it can.  It's one thing to stop at $36 million or less for cap flexibility purposes: it's quite another to be shy of $30 million altogether when your roster still has holes to fill. 

The Verdict

As it stands now, this team is shy of the pieces it needs to repeat in the Pacific.  Newcomers like Goc show promise, and recent prospect-turned-NHLer Cheechoo is coming on strong, so it's not as bad as it could be for a team that just lost three major players.  But the Sharks appear to be a little short on both offensive firepower and defensive prowess.  If today's roster is the same one in the programs on opening day, the Sharks have gambled too much on rookie players.  It will be especially frustrating for fans knowing that the ability to pick up two or three difference-makers was there.

The Roster

Forwards
Patrick Marleau, C, $4.16
Wayne Primeau, C, $1.1
Alyn McCauley, C, $1.083
Mark Smith, C, $.45
Marcel Goc, C, $.45
Josh Prudden, C, $.45
Marco Sturm, LW, $2.0
Scott Thornton, LW, $1.71
Alexander Korolyuk*, LW, $1.2
Nils Ekman, LW, $1.1
Milan Michalek, RW, $.9424
Jonathan Cheechoo, RW, $.76
Niko Dimitrakow, RW, $.625
Scott Parker, RW, $.5852

Defense
Scott Hannan, $2.033
Brad Stuart, $2.0
Kyle McLaren, $1.9
Christian Ehrhoff, $.608
Tom Preissing, $.5
Matt Carkner, $45
Rob Davison, $.45

Goal
Evgeni Nabokov, $3.363
Vesa Toskala, $.684