Author: M Walsh

Sharks Need to Get Stories Straight

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By Mary Walsh

The way the San Jose Sharks have proceeded this summer has been heavy on theory and light on specifics. Their plan has been revealed primarily through  inaction and subtraction. “Giving more responsibility to young players,” for example, sounds like a great idea, but removing the C and the A from Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau is the first specific step the team has taken in that direction. They also removed some veterans, letting Dan Boyle walk, and buying out Martin Havlat. Beyond that, Doug Wilson has left his plan wide open for interpretation. For those of us who like to think the team will take another run at the playoffs fueled mostly by the angry memory of recent failure, there is fodder enough to think that. But that same fodder, the minimal roster and staff changes, could be used to argue pretty much anything or nothing at all.

The Sharks’ captaincy is the more glitzy story, but the Raffi Torres knee surgery mess is at least as significant. In neither case are the specifics that momentous. Hockey players get hurt and sidelined all the time, and the knee should be a long way from a life-altering injury. The importance of who wears which letter is of debatable importance, but both stories red-flag communication problems with the Sharks.

One hint that information does not flow well in San Jose is the apparently catastrophic state of Raffi Torres’ knee. Why Torres had to have his knee repaired a second time due to an infection resulting from a procedure known to be highly susceptible to infections… well that is a saga that boggles the mind. Knee surgeries are supposed to be straight forward, more commonly complicated by things like advanced age. The Sharks have had too many problems with player knee surgeries to ignore the stink. It is enormously disappointing that there is no return date for Torres. In the few games he has played with the Sharks, he has been very much a difference maker, and not for the reasons his dubious reputation would suggest. When playing with discipline, he is exactly what the Sharks need right now: a middle-six winger with all the tools to score and create scoring chances. All of that is moot now, as he is out indefinitely.

The fiasco around who knew what when regarding the letters suggests that the Sharks will need more than new software to fix communication problems. Coach Todd McLellan accepted blame for not being clear in a meeting with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. That lack of clarity resulted in Thornton not being aware of the decision until asked by reporters. Sometimes being clear is only a matter of saying exactly what you mean. Euphemisms and metaphors are nice but people really do need to know what you are doing as well as why you are doing it.

It is easy to see why the phrase “clean slate” would not necessarily mean “we are stripping you of your letters to start training camp.”  In such an environment, McLellan should know that he has to spell things out, especially to his players. It is better to be accused of tedious repetition than of vagueness.

In an interview with TSN last week, Larry Robinson suggested that Joe Thornton might not have been as approachable as a captain needs to be. That came as a surprise to me, not because Thornton is such a jovial fellow with the media. The easy-going style the cameras are used to would not be very effective at motivating his team, so one could only hope Thornton shows a more assertive persona to his team-mates. Yet Robinson suggested the opposite, that Thornton maybe needed to have a softer touch to be a successful captain.

Obviously, leadership methods have evolved a lot since the Middle Ages, where a club served as well as courtesy, but even Machiavelli knew that subtle manipulation often worked better than mass terror. Certainly a hockey team captain should be available to listen to his teammates, but his teammates have to be willing to speak as well. Even if Thornton lacks the mastery to encourage a taciturn person to speak, I don’t buy that the Sharks are a particularly timid lot. I think it is misguided to put communication failures on any particular player.

Sharks media coverage misses Ryane Clowe, we will miss Dan Boyle. They were two of the more outspoken players in public. Were they also the most outspoken in team meetings? Few NHL players share as much as they did, few were as emotive in post game interviews. (Raffi Torres can be a good interview. Too bad his availability has been and will be so limited by injury.)

Is there really such a large gap between what we see in front of the cameras and what goes on off camera? Are the Sharks too careful with their words to get the job done? Will deposing the captain make a difference? Do players defer to a letter or to reputation and status? If longtime Sharks defer to players like Thornton and Marleau out of habit, then new arrivals will be hard pressed to do anything else.

It will take more than putting letters up for grabs to get this team talking. It might sound silly, but maybe they need to get a talking stick and pass it around at every meeting. Nothing could be sillier than a group of grown men unwilling to air their thoughts, good or bad, with a team they are supposed to be part of. They certainly need to do something to get in the habit of saying whatever is on their minds, before it festers and scuttles another season.

NHL: The All-Important Details

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By Mary Walsh

From the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to the NHL’s new Terms of Service agreement, the trick this week has been to sort through volumes of information to find the relevant details.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is certainly the more widely compelling story. It began as an awareness campaign for ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and has spread far and wide. It seems that anyone with a recognizable face or name is fair game for a challenge. In the NHL, the names of hockey players, management, owners, league executives and journalists have all popped up with videos and photos of dousings accompanied by challenges to others to get doused.

Beyond hockey, you can also find Hollywood celebrities posting their videos and challenging each other. Of course you don’t have to be a celebrity to participate, but your tweets and videos will probably get more views. The primary platforms for the challenges are also the most used social network sites: Twitter and Facebook. This is where the details come in. At least one person familiar to Sharks fans challenged someone who had already been challenged:

Actually, joining Twitter would not be enough for Drew Remenda to know who exactly had been challenged. There are so many people involved now that you would have to join and read Twitter for several hours a day to keep track. Even a standard Twitter search only gives you a sampling. Many videos are being posted without a helpful hashtag.

That is excellent news for ALS research. Awareness campaigns take some criticism for creating more noise than progress, but this campaign at least has paid some dividends for the cause. In the first couple weeks of the campaign, the ALS Association received $1.25 million in donations, an enormous jump for the same time period last year. While the challenge does have a donation in lieu of dousing component, it is unlikely that most of that money came from people who preferred not to have a bucket of ice water dumped on them. Even if it did not start out as a fund raiser, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has done an excellent job of raising both awareness and money for a good cause.

It is worth noting that some of the long-term symptoms of brain damage are similar to ALS. Until relatively recently, many people were diagnosed with ALS when in fact they were suffering the long-term results of concussions. While symptoms are similar, the causes are quite different. There is no reason to suppose that this is why the hockey community has supported the cause so enthusiastically, but it is an interesting connection that predates one awareness campaign.

A more hockey-specific bit of news also cropped up this week, with the NHL’s revised Terms of Service Agreement. A section was added explaining that users could not mine NHL sites without permission, either manually or with automated data gathering programs. Not long ago, this little passage might have been considered irrelevant small print. At the moment, it can probably still be regarded as such by most users, but it could pose a problem very quickly for sites that sort and interpret NHL statistics. Sites like Behind the Net could be asked to stop using these stats without getting permission from the NHL. They could even be asked to pay for them.

It is true that this seems to be the Advanced Stats community’s coming out summer. NHL teams are hiring well-regarded hockey statisticians as quickly as Bleacher Report is hiring popular bloggers. Both moves are sensible business decisions, and probably long overdue. Did this acceptance of statistical analysis trigger the NHL’s sudden concern that they were giving their numbers away for free when they should not be?

Maybe the new TOS was overdue as well. Those statistics don’t compile themselves or even get to the website without many eyes and hands working to gather and publish them. Shouldn’t the advertising revenue from the site be enough to cover that? Maybe. Or maybe the recognition that stats are valuable means everyone will put more value on them, including monetary value. I would not say that the NHL is waging war on advanced stats sites, but they have put themselves in a position to claim their share of any value derived from those stats. 

The discussion is very similar to other cases involving Fair Use of copyrighted material. In short, if the use of someone else’s work is deemed “fair” it is okay, you don’t have to sell your house to pay the owner of the material you used. “Fair” use can include non-profit educational purposes, commentary on the material, or use that does no harm to the owner’s rights. The last part is mentioned in the NHL’s TOS, where they talk about harm:

You may not access or use, or attempt to access or use, the Services to take any action that could harm us or any other person or entity

That line covers more than ownership rights, implying that the NHL wants the option to defend against any sort of abuse using their material, but the Fair Use question is the simplest to identify and the most likely to be acted on first.

Fair Use has most conspicuously applied to music, books, and images. The owner of the material usually prevails in a law suit. There are a lot of people using images without permission, but that is only because many industries recognize the value of having their images promoted for free. (The music industry is notorious for their refusal to see it that way.) Even with images, though, you don’t have the right to use just any image any way you want. The same applies to data, so anyone who helps turn that data into a valuable commodity runs the risk that the owner might notice and ask to be compensated. The owners certainly played a part in making NHL statistics valuable, by making them available for free to so many for so long. Was this little take-back part of the plan from the start? Probably. You have to get people hooked before you can make any money as a data-dealer.

Sharks and Kings to Play Outdoors in Santa Clara

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By Mary Walsh

Next season, Northern California will get its first outdoor NHL game. The Sharks will host the Kings on February 21, 2015, at Santa Clara’s brand spanking new Levi’s Stadium. From the Sharks’ press release:

“We are honored and elated that the NHL has selected the San Jose Sharks to participate in the NHL’s 2015 Coors Light Stadium Series and is bringing this magnificent event to the Bay Area,” said San Jose Sharks Chief Operating Officer John Tortora. “This event celebrates the growth of the great game of hockey in San Jose and recognizes the incredible support and passion of Sharks fans all over Northern California. We know our fans will bring the electrifying atmosphere of SAP Center at San Jose to Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 21 and we are looking forward to showcasing Sharks Territory outside and under the lights.”

That sounds grand, and it is very grand, enormous even. The Sharks deserve the attention. They have done a great deal to promote hockey in the Bay Area. On top of that, the size of the venue for outdoor games is a popular selling point, so it is important to have a big stadium. Levi’s has a rough capacity of 70,000. AT&T Park in San Francisco only has room for about 42,000.

Regardless of stadium size, I never thought it was likely that San Francisco would be the location. If there is any suitable competition for a big sporting event, they can usually beat San Francisco in a bidding war. San Francisco thinks too highly of itself to beg for anything. It bothers me that San Francisco doesn’t try harder to host the big parties. Heck, they couldn’t even hang on to their football team. Maybe San Francisco hates contact sports, so they send them to Santa Clara.

And yet… I remember meeting some travelers from Santa Clara and other South Bay cities. I met them here and there, overseas and even as near as the east coast. They had given up trying to tell people where they were from and started saying they were from near San Francisco or even claiming San Franciscanship. I had to press to discover the truth (my duty as a San Franciscan by birth), but they were happy I had heard of their towns. This is why San Francisco thinks it’s all that. No matter how many times it loses out to a less well-known neighbor, it still has the global name recognition that places like Santa Clara envy.

Don’t get me wrong, I like San Francisco. It is a pretty city, it has nice views, good food, liberal views, and interesting geography. But arrogance doesn’t look good on anyone.

Santa Clara is a good location for the outdoor game. It is right where Bay Area folks expect to find hockey. You can park in Santa Clara. Heck, you can hardly drive in SF anymore. Levi’s stadium has gotten great reviews, it will no doubt look good on television. Sharks fans should be glad the NHL didn’t put the game in Southern California. The way Southern California dominates the California hockey story is tedious.

Of course San Jose versus Los Angeles is a great matchup for its back story. Northern California and Southern California love to hate each other, almost as much as they love to bicker with other states.  The Sharks and the Kings have a lovely history of aggravating each other, though Los Angeles might not remember when San Jose was a legitimate threat to them. Even when they were down three games to none, the Kings did not seem worried. Perhaps worry is just not something they do in Los Angeles. By contrast, the over-use of black clothing and gloomy thoughts is still common up here. Or maybe that is just SF.

Of course there is still the possibility that there will be another outdoor game in Northern California, and that might be in San Francisco. San Francisco hockey fans can always hope.

NHL: Subban’s $9 M Deal Top Among Defensemen

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By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks did not make any news this week, apart from new social network software for the corporate offices. That story is kind of interesting in light of the “co-workers, not teammates” comments from come players after last season. Maybe I am reading too much into it. Meanwhile…

The NHL did have some big news, from the Montreal Canadiens and P.K. Subban. After meeting with an arbitrator, the team came to terms with their rising star to the tune of a $9 million cap hit for eight years.

Subban’s deal makes him the third highest paid player in the NHL, until the contracts of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane kick in in 2015. Of course by then there may be players being paid even more.

Subban’s actual salary changes from seven to eleven million through the contract, giving the Canadiens some flexibility in cap hit, though the contract is reported to have a no movement clause for all eight years. Evgeni Malkin also has a no movement clause for all eight years of his $9.5 million contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins, while Alex Ovechkin has a limited no trade clause in his 13 year $9.538 million contract.

The deal should come as no surprise considering how high profile and talented Subban is, yet the team went all the way to arbitration hearings before settling with their defenseman. Additionally, his last deal was also for just two years and the parties took a long time coming to it. Why the Canadiens are so unwilling to admit the importance of this player is baffling. Even as a rookie, all eyes were on him as a rising star. Every time his minutes were cut or he was scratched it made news.

For the past two seasons, he has been first and fifth in points among NHL defensemen. He was in the top 25 in his second and third seasons, if you count the first season when he only played two games. His rise up the charts has been unrelenting.  While high-scoring forwards make great press and television, NHL teams understandably value their top defensemen as longer term investments.  That the Canadiens seem to have had trouble coming to terms with theirs does not speak well for their management. Ultimately, dragging their feet does not appear to have saved them any money. They still have the highest paid defenseman in the league.

Has race been a factor? It has of course been, in terms of media visibility. No matter what goes on between player and team, race is always a question in today’s society. Ugly as that is, a player of color brings even more visibility to the team and the sport, which is a good thing in an entertainment field.

Subban himself does not seem bitter about the negotiations, but how can anyone be very bitter after getting a contract like that? Even if he were in doubt about how much the team valued him, or what the team’s prospects are, he is in an excellent position to control his future. A no movement clause only binds the team unless they want to buy him out. The player can always negotiate to be traded if it comes to that.

Is the Subban contract likely to set a precedent? All contracts set precedents, but only for comparable players. There are not many players who can claim to be comparable to Subban right now. Unless his performance takes a dive, his contract will not be a burden for Montreal. He is an enromously valuable asset. Will his performance dip? In such a young player, entering his sixth season in the NHL, it might be expected for a contract like this to cause a drop in intensity. Yet all signs point to Subban continuing on an upward trajectory. Intensity seems to come naturally for him.

NHL: “If They Can Take The Job…”

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-By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks did not make any moves this week, they did not even turn up in the rumor mill. For better or worse, it does look like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau be in teal next season. As I have said before, I think that is for the best.

Listening to a radio interview with the Red Wings’ Mike Babcock, I was reminded of Doug Wilson’s comments about the role he expects younger players to take this coming season.

Back in May, Wilson described part of his plan for the team. He was talking about Al Stalock’s chances of taking the starter’s role:

Every one of our young players will be given the chance to take whatever role they want. That includes him. When you go through this you have guys who are aching and begging for that opportunity. If they can come in and do it they can take it.

In an interview with Detroit Sports 105.1 on July 17, Mike Babcock said something very similar:

We’re gonna play the best players. So just like we did last year- it’s always a hard thing when a veteran on a one way contract doesn’t make the lineup, but that’s life- we’re committed to the growth of this team. Most franchises to get back on top have to get bad for ten years. That’s not our plan. We’ve scrounged to get in the playoffs the last two years in a row. I think we did a real good job, had a real good run against Chicago. I didn’t like us in the playoffs last year against Boston, but we like what we have coming. And we like our kids, so the biggest thing is not to rush them. We could really use some puck-moving D. Well we just happen to have some puck-moving D in the minors, big guys who can skate. When are they ready? We’re sure not going to rush them but if they’re capable of taking jobs they’re gettin’ the jobs.

There are some differences there, the focus on giving players time is something that Wilson has put less emphasis on lately. The last part, about giving the young players a chance to take jobs if they are capable, this sends up some red flags for me. My confusion stems from how you get from the first sentence (“We’re gonna play the best players.”) to the last one (“We’re sure not going to rush them but if they’re capable of taking jobs they’re gettin’ the jobs.”).

If these guys are the best players you have, why in the world would they NOT, under any and all circumstances, get the job?

Maybe I am misreading the “taking jobs” part. Do they simply mean “if they are capable of doing the job, since we don’t have anyone better, we will let them play instead of going out and finding someone older”? Shouldn’t they also mean “if they are better than the older players we have, we will use them”? Shouldn’t they always mean that?

It certainly seems like the Sharks have not followed that last rule. Yes, Matt Irwin lacked experience, but all signs pointed to him being a better option in many games last season than Brad Stuart or Scott Hannan. Given the ice time to develop his game, won’t he be a quicker, higher return asset than those two were last season? If he doesn’t play he won’t develop, but that is true of any young player. The team followed the same pattern with Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun and to a lesser extent Jason Demers: using older veterans again and again while the young players seemed ready and in need of ice time.

This notion that a younger player with more upside will be benched to let a veteran play is insane. Yes, the veteran might represent a lower short-term risk but if a younger player is capable of taking the job, doesn’t that mean he is not a higher risk long term? Doesn’t that mean he is capable of taking the job from the veteran? To say a younger player will get to play if he is capable of taking the job sounds like the team had previously given far to much consideration to veteran status. This is not just a matter of fairness and meritocracy, it is the difference between winning and losing.

On the other hand, it can be risky to put too much on a younger player. Eric Gilmore published a piece on NHL.com suggesting that Mirco Mueller could crack the Sharks lineup this coming season. Doug Wilson has suggested as much in the past. Tomas Hertl cracked the lineup last season, in his first year in North America. Couldn’t Mueller make the big club early too? Other defensemen have done it but comparing Hertl’s role to Mueller’s is clearly comparing apples to oranges. A defenseman’s job is much more complicated, traditionally defensemen take longer to develop their professional game. To move any player up to the NHL too soon can have a negative impact on his game, and with defensemen that impact can be that much worse.

So, as eager as fans might be to see Mueller make the jump, it seems unlikely that such a move would be a good thing for the Sharks or Mueller.

It might just be noise. Hannan is returning, Thornton and Marleau very probably are too. The team will have no shortage of veterans to fall back on. If their humiliation as group at the end of last season stung them as much as they claim, less roster turnover is better than more.

Sharks Keep Demers and Doherty in the Fold

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By Mary Walsh

Tuesday, the San Jose Sharks announced the resigning of defensemen Jason Demers and Taylor Doherty. The team gave Demers a two year contract and Doherty one year. The moves solidified the team’s current blue line and add some depth for the future. It might not be enough to improve their offseason PuckDaddy grade from an F, but it is a start.

Last season was a bounce-back season for Demers, who performed below expectations the two seasons prior. Those seasons were marred by injury but also found him often benched as a healthy scratch. His improvement this past season could be attributed to better health and the changes on the coaching staff that occurred before the last lockout season. All of the team’s young defensemen have shown improvement since Larry Robinson and Jim Johnson joined the team.

Demers’ career path could be considered a cautionary tale about why you do not want to rush players, especially defensemen, into the NHL. He started playing in San Jose when he was just 21 years old, one season after being drafted. He got off to a great start with the team, posting 21 and 24 points his first two seasons, then bottomed out with 13 in his third season and just three in the fourth. Perhaps his sophomore slump came late, and he took a lot of heat in those two poor seasons for not repeating earlier success. Nevertheless, the Sharks’ coaches have shown slowly increasing faith in him and his performance has improved accordingly. His 34 points last season were a reminder of why expectations were so high for him.

Demers’ role as an offensively-minded defenseman will always make him prone to risk-taking. Much as fans would like to see all the players, forwards and defensemen alike, play a diligent defensive game, playing well at both ends of the ice is harder than it sounds. Well, obviously it sounds pretty hard, barring teleportation powers. Additionally, fans don’t actually enjoy perfect defensive games– those tend to be low-scoring and uneventful. So that’s the cake- eat it or leave it. If Jason Demers is supposed to keep an eye out for scoring chances and even create some, his defensive game might on occasion leave something to be desired.

His contract is eminently reasonable. Looking at the defensemen around Demers in the standings, his salary is lower than most players of equivalent value to their teams. Whether measuring by points or time on ice or age, his $3.4 million per year is a good deal for San Jose. It is such a good deal that one wonders if it isn’t a setup for a trade. The last Shark to file for arbitration (TJ Galiardi) only got one year out of the team, but he was not signed and traded either. For the sake of San Jose, we can hope the Demers contract is not just a set up to move him out.

Taylor Doherty was drafted by the Sharks in the second round in 2009. This year, he will enter his third full season with the AHL’s Worcester Sharks. Last season saw him miss a number of games due to injury, and he has yet to play in the NHL. There was a little more buzz around his name a season ago, but the Sharks obviously think he is worth another look.  Just 23 years old, 6’7″, he has not been heating up the score sheet but last season showed some improvement over the season before. With a little down tick in the +/- column (from +2 to -2), he improved his points total from 6 to 10, playing 23 fewer games. He has a strong shot that he could probably use more often.

Doherty, like Demers… and Braun, and Burns, is a right-handed shot. That is worth noting as such defensemen seem to be in short supply elsewhere.

The Sharks’ offseason is looking like a long slow one, but that is what Doug Wilson promised at the end of last season. If Wilson is serious about not wanting to bring any veteran player in who may supplant younger players, that remaining cap space ($6.145 million, per CapGeek.com) will continue to sit there and taunt those who had hoped for any exciting new additions.

Sharks Have a Quietly Busy Week

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By Mary Walsh

The Sharks had a busy, if low-profile, week. A date has been set for later this month for Jason Demers’ arbitration hearing. Demers and the team can come to terms before that if they are so inclined. It would probably be best for all if they did so. The market is pretty good for right-handed defensemen, especially young ones.

The Sharks added a few names to next season’s roster this week. James Sheppard’s one year contract was announced, as was defenseman Scott Hannan’s. Defenseman Matt Tennyson was signed to a two-year deal.

The Sharks also brought a couple of new faces into the fold on one year contracts. Micheal Haley, last of the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Between the NY Rangers and the NY Islanders, Haley has played 52 NHL games. Last season he had seven goals, eleven assists and 131 penalty minutes. Bryan Lerg was captain of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters last season. He had 12 goals and 13 assists.

The return of Scott Hannan is not surprising. His contract is modest (one year at one million), and he could be a good voice in the room. For all the talk of giving more responsibility to the younger players, it would have been out of character for the Sharks to not have someone over 30 on the blue line. Is that a character they need to change? Perhaps. Do they need someone of any particular age? Probably not. I do remember thinking that Hannan was one of the few players who seemed calmly angry about the way last season ended. He didn’t seem baffled or stunned, just pissed off– in a polite way of course. So I don’t think keeping him is a bad idea.

Apart from the still confusing addition of John Scott to the roster, the Sharks seem to be proceeding according to plan. They have made no splashy free agency moves, despite the tempting fat wad of cap space they still have in their pocket. They have given the longest contracts so far to Tommy Wingels (three years) and Matt Tennyson (two). That shows some faith in home-grown youth. Keeping James Sheppard instead of bringing in another veteran forward likewise fits with the youth emphasis.

Doug Wilson recently clarified his use of the term “rebuild.” That is a good thing, because there were a lot of people thinking he had gone crazy. Evidently he still expects the team to make the playoffs, and to have a fairly good regular season. To me, that means no one is leaning on Joe Thornton or Patrick Marleau to get them to leave. Lose either of those guys without bringing in someone pretty spectacular and you will have a tough go.

That doesn’t mean I’m not indulging in baseless speculation. Like, wouldn’t it be grand if the Sharks were very very quietly maneuvering to get Evander Kane? Someone probably will get him from Winnipeg and he could be a pretty spectacular addition anywhere. He’s not worth the price of a veteran scoring leader right now, but it’s a fun thought.

Speaking of new leadership and youth, the Sharks prospect scrimmage was a pleasant break in the off-season rumor-mill.

The event at SAP Center was well-attended for a midsummer scrimmage between players most Sharks fans have not had a chance to become familiar with. Around the ten minute mark of the first period, some fans at the end of the rink did a little “Let’s Go Sharks” chant. That was a supportive gesture. The parking lot was nearly full when I arrived, and the lower bowl was probably 60%-70% full.

It was nice to be able to see the prospects live. Mirco Mueller’s skating, as promised, was noteworthy. He had a nice stride and smooth confidence.

On camera and from a distance, Barclay Goodrow reminded me of Tommy Wingels. I don’t know why.

I thought Ryan Carpenter and Brock Higgs made a good pair around the net, very hard to get rid of.

Petter Emanuelsson had nice hands, handling the puck cleanly through traffic.

Scott Savage stood out for persistence in one fairly extended puck battle. Several times it looked like he had lost it but he kept at it and got away with the puck.

Noah Rod looked very quick and shifty making his way through traffic.

The prospect scrimmage was equipped with video review. With 6:03 left in the second, a puck bounced over Bergvik’s pad and just over the line before he swiped it back out with his glove. The referee on the ice called it a no goal (we did not hear the explanation) but after showing the play a couple of times on the jumbotron, they gave team white the goal. It was scored by Noah Rod. It was ultimately the game-winner.

If Sharks fans are up in arms about how the playoffs ended or how the off-season is going so far, they didn’t show it Wednesday night.

NHL Free Agency: Independence Day Weekend

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By Mary Walsh

The Fourth of July has come and gone without much fuss for the Sharks in the free agent market. A few Sharks have moved on, several San Jose rivals in the Pacific Division appear to have gotten better while the Sharks have only made some small moves.

Along with signing free agents John Scott and Taylor Fedun, the Sharks made qualifying offers to three of their RFAs. Jason Demers has filed for arbitration, Tommy Wingels has been signed to a three year contract and there is no news yet on James Sheppard.

The announcement that the NHLPA and the NHL agreed on a lower than expected salary cap for the upcoming season has caused some consternation around the league. The cap is set at $69 million while some had anticipated it would be over $72 million.

Only Philadelphia and Chicago find themselves over the cap right now. For the Flyers, this is a mere technicality. Chris Pronger is still on their roster until they can put him back on LTIR, and removing his salary will push them back below the cap. They still do not have a lot of room to work with, but like the Sharks they are not in “win-now” mode.

Chicago is a couple million above the cap, but they have 23 players on their roster so they are only a move or two away from the line. Their roster is pretty solid, and with the addition of Brad Richards they do not have a lot of work to do.

Dallas won the Spezza trade sweepstakes, giving up several assets including Alex Chiasson, a promising young forward. In other notable moves, they also signed goalie Anders Lindback, Ales Hemsky and Patrick Eaves. The Stars have no present plans to do more.

Closer to home, Los Angeles and Anaheim are safe under the cap after making some key additions. Los Angeles resigned Marian Gaborik, a late season acquisition who worked out very well for the Kings on their run to the Stanley Cup. They are just under the cap now but they appear set.

Anaheim added Ryan Kesler, one of the bigger names available this Summer. They also lost Teemu Selanne to retirement. You can’t compare Kesler to Hall of Fame bound Selanne, but he is a good addition, so the Ducks could be considered status quo. That status was pretty good last season. On top of that, the Ducks have over $13 million left in space, and 22 on the roster.

In terms of cap space, the Sharks are in a good position. They have plummeted to 21st on CapGeek’s list, a list you want to be at the bottom of… if you plan to add players. Even after the Sharks sign Demers and Sheppard the team will have 23 on the roster and probably have a substantial sum left over. Before signing Wingels, the Sharks had almost $14 million to work with.

The loss of Dan Boyle and Martin Havlat could be significant if either or both of them plays well and healthy this upcoming season. But for San Jose’s purposes, they were often without one or the other last season, due to injury or coaching preferences. If the Sharks are roughly as good as they were last season, will it be enough to get them into the playoffs? Have their rivals improved so significantly? Marian Gaborik is arguably the biggest difference for the California teams. The Kings might have a better regular season than last.

Ex-Shark Notes:

John McCarthy, never quite a regular in the Sharks lineup, has signed a one year two way contract with the St. Louis Blues.

Sena Acolatse, who never appeared in the San Jose lineup, has signed with the Calgary Flames.

Martin Havlat, after the Sharks used one of their compliance buyouts on the remainder of his contract, signed with the New Jersey Devils.

As has been widely announced, Dan Boyle signed with the New York Rangers for two years at $4.5 million. For those concerned that he and Brian Boyle might have a conflict of 22s, no need to worry. Brian has moved on to Tampa Bay.

Also in Tampa Bay now is Evgeni Nabokov, presumably to back up Ben Bishop in goal. The Lightning roster has a very young average age, so another veteran was probably on GM Steve Yzerman’s shopping list.

Thomas Greiss, last year of the Phoenix Coyotes, has signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Depending on the sort of year Marc-Andre Fleury is having, Greiss may get to start quite a few games, or at least play in several.

NHL Free Agency Day 2: What Are The Sharks Doing?

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By Mary Walsh

What are the Sharks doing? This is a question that came up over and over on Twitter today, from near and far. Today the team made three announcements. The first announcement was that the Sharks are holding auditions for women to join their co-ed ice crew, and they will wear short tops and tights. Men’s auditions tba. Second, the Sharks signed 31 year old left wing John Scott. Third, they traded a 2015 3rd round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for 23 year old left wing Tye McGinn.

The team’s activity at the draft and on the first day of free agency seemed consistent with General Manager Doug Wilson’s promise that he was not going to make any big moves that would cost picks, prospects, or young players. He used his picks, trading them only for more picks.

He signed Taylor Fedun, a 26-year old free agent defenseman from the Oilers system on the first day of free agency. He signed him to a low-risk two-way, one year contract at a modest salary. Fedun spent last season with the Oklahoma City Barons of the AHL, scoring 38 points in 65 games.  Fedun has played 4 NHL games. He played four seasons with Princeton University, finishing with 68 points in 127 games, and receiving collegiate honors.

All seemed to be going as promised. On the second day of free agency, the gloves came off.

The ice crew is not exactly an addition, though broadcasting public tryouts for it is new. Additionally, while the ice cleaners of the past all wore simple pants and shirt, the female crew members will now wear a sort of midriff-baring modified jersey and tights, while the men will wear a style-coordinated version of what they have always worn: top and pants. The team is not calling these female crew members ice girls, but few teams do. While that news was sinking in, the Scott signing was announced.

The last GM to acquire Scott is now out of a job, after he put together a team that broke records with its awfulness. On a team that performed as badly as last season’s Sabres, Scott averaged 6:45 of ice time and managed to rack up 125 penalty minutes (25 minors, 5 majors, 4 misconducts) in 56 games. He had one goal, his first since 2009. Scoring is not what Doug Wilson expects Scott to do.

“John brings a physical, no-nonsense element to our lineup,” said Wilson. “As we integrate more younger players to our team, John’s presence alone can act as a deterrent and help keep teams and opposing players honest.”

Wilson has brought other players to the team over the last two seasons, advertising their toughness, grit, energy, or combination of those. Raffi Torres, Adam Burish and Mike Brown all got introductions of that sort. Unlike those players, the 6’8″, 259 pound Scott has not demonstrated a lot of versatility in his game. He is unlikely to surprise the team with a multi-point game just back from injury, or a timely goal, or bursts of speed at just the right moment. It is hard to say how his fighting ability will help the team, since few players will engage him. In any case, he is now a Shark. It may be safe to say that this dwarfs recent roster moves in shock value.

Tye McGinn is an interesting acquisition. Younger brother of former Shark Jamie McGinn, Tye has spent his professional career with the Flyers organization. Early last season, while the Flyers were flatlining in the starting gate, while captain Claude Giroux couldn’t score a goal to save his life, McGinn was given a chance with the big club. He scored three goals in his first two games of the season, all in losing efforts to Vancouver and Detroit. Like his brother Jamie, he seems to have a knack for performing well when everyone else is reeling. After that, he went pointless for four games before being sent back to the AHL for most of the season. The Flyers’ rationale for this is unclear, in view of the players who were put in the lineup in his place. Zac Rinaldo, penalty-taker of some repute, was probably the most productive of them. What a struggling team does might not be a model anyone should follow.

Of McGinn, the Sharks’ news release said:

“Tye is a hardworking player who plays an honest game,” said Wilson. “We’re excited to add him to our group of young forwards.”

McGinn could be a very good addition to the Sharks, if they can instill the confidence and structure he needs. He has speed and grit and has shown flashes of skill. Despite playing only 18 games a season in the NHL, his shooting percentage went up significantly from season one to season two. In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, he had 33 shots and 3 goals. Last season, he took 19 shots and scored four goals. He also cut down on his penalty minutes by a large margin, going from 19 to 4. The addition of John Scott makes me wonder if the Sharks care about minimizing penalties, but fans might. McGinn is a bit of a dark horse, but he is still young enough to grow into a bright spot.

These moves still do not answer the question “what are the Sharks doing?” They do, however, open up a host of possibilities. The team appears to be determined to change its image, every which way it can. Who knows, they may move after all, to Seattle or parts unknown. Maybe it’s time for the NHL to go south of the border.

Sharks Draft Weekend: Europe First

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By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were busy on NHL Draft weekend, starting with something of a European focus.

The team announced on Friday that they had added popular former Shark Niklas Sundstrom to their European scouting staff. In the announcement, GM Doug Wilson said:

“One of Nicky’s strongest assets has always been his hockey sense, which is off the charts,” said Wilson. “We are excited to add Nicky’s insight and abilities to our talented scouting group and welcome him back to the Sharks family.”

In that same vein, the Sharks’ first three draft picks were all from overseas. The Sharks traded their 20th and 179th picks for Chicago’s 27th and 62nd.

With that 27th pick, San Jose chose Russian born right wing Nikolay Goldobin. Goldobin spent last season with the OHL’s Sarnia, where he earned 94 points in 67 games. That was good for seventh in the league.

Early Saturday, the Sharks traded their 51st pick and a 2015 fourth rounder for the 46th pick from the Nashville Predators. they used that to acquire Swedish defenseman Julius Bergman. In the Swedish Junior League last season, he recorded 34 points and 54 penalty minutes in 45 games. He was ranked 19th among European skaters by Central Scouting.

With their 53rd pick, the Sharks chose Swiss right wing Noah Rod. In the Swiss Junior League last season, Rod earned 37 points and 51 penalty minutes in 31 games. In 28 games with the Swiss top league, he scored a goal and two assists.

Returning to North America, the Sharks have re-signed Travis Oleksuk to a one year contract. Oleksuk was voted the “Unsugn Hero” of the Worcester Sharks last season. He finished last season with 40 points and 20 penalty minutes in 74 games. Oleksuk is not European. He is from Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The Sharks used a third round pick acquired from Nashville to select Alex Schoenborn. The North Dakotan forward spent last season with the WHL’s Portland, earning 36 points and 121 penalty minutes in 72 games.

With a second third round pick, the Sharks selected Dylan Sadowy. Of Sadowy, the Sharks said:

The five-foot-eleven, 183-pound left wing recorded 36 points (27-9=36) and 69 penalty minutes in 68 games with Saginaw. Sadowy was Saginaw’s nominee for the 2013-14 Ontario Hockey League Most Outstanding Player of the Year after leading the team with 27 goals.

In the fourth round, the Sharks selected QMJHL defenseman Alexis Vanier from Baie-Comeau. At six-foot-four, 215 pounds, Vanier finished last season tied for first among the team’s blueliners in goals and second in points.

In the fifth round, the Sharks chose center Rourke Chartier 149th. Ranked 136th among North-American skaters by Central Scouting, Chartier finished last season with 58 points and 8 penalty minutes in 72 games.

The Sharks used their final pick to select Brooklyn native Kevin Labanc 171st overall. Labanc played with Barrie of the OHL last season, posting 35 points and 30 penalty minutes in 65 games. He was a member of the Team USA that won a silvermedal at the 2013 U-18 World Junior Championship.