Confirmed with Link: Tomas Hertl 17% retained, 2025 3rd, 2027 3rd to Vegas for C David Edstrom, 2025 1st

[weastern bias]

Honestly, at this point it's looking more likely than not that Couture is done, so Vlasic might legitimately end up as the last of the bad contracts we have, which is fitting in a way

That can still work against us when it comes to team building as LTIR in only accessible during the regular season and you can only go over the cap by 10% during the offseason

Realistically though, having those 2 be the only real bad deals left on the team means we're functionally out of cap hell right now

Vlasic expires in 2026 and Couture expires in 2027, we're not going to be a salary cap team by the time one or both of those deals are done

But having those cap hits on the books as training weights will make it feel like our ceiling will explode in 2 and 3 years when we add $7M and $8M in instant cap space in back to back offseasons, hopefully coinciding with the time frame where we have players worth enough money for us to have to make hard decisions about our salary structure once again

We're also freeing up the following in the surrounding years:

Burns retention ends in 2025
Add $2.72M cap space

Karlsson retention ends in 2027
Add $1.5M cap space

Jones buyout ends in 2027
Add $1.666M cap space

The only long term dead money that will be left on our ledger at that time will be the Hertl retention at $1.3875M through 2030, which is pretty manageable if it is the only dead cap we're factoring rather than one of 4 hits, and at that point Couture and Vlasic are both off the books as well

It's still a pinhole right now, but we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

 

[weastern bias]

I actually think that Quinn is doing a great job considering the crap he has to work with and also has developed a playing style according to the types of players we currently have. I think his coaching style will evolve as we get better players, especially on D. I personally appreciate how he catered the style of play to magnify the value of Karlsson last year. That shows he is willing to adapt based on what’s necessary.

On the other hand, if he is not able to adapt and things don’t improve with a better roster, a coaching change is easy to do.

Seeing how little Quinn got out of some very talented NYR teams makes me incredibly skeptical of his ability to do much at the NHL level

That team instantly got much better when he was replaced by Gerard Gallant, who is also a terrible coach

My hope is that all the lipservice we hear about Quinn is platitudinal nonsense to sell to the fans and he's being used as an excellent tank commander, when it comes time to turn the corner this team needs a real coach

 

[YUPPY 2 7 10 11]

Seeing how little Quinn got out of some very talented NYR teams makes me incredibly skeptical of his ability to do much at the NHL level

That team instantly got much better when he was replaced by Gerard Gallant, who is also a terrible coach

My hope is that all the lipservice we hear about Quinn is platitudinal nonsense to sell to the fans and he's being used as an excellent tank commander, when it comes time to turn the corner this team needs a real coach

That's the plan. But I would like to see Jared Bednar after he finish with Colorado to coach the Sharks.

 

[weastern bias]

That's the plan. But I would like to see Jared Bednar after he finish with Colorado to coach the Sharks.

That would be excellent, but you just never know who will be available at a given time, basically just have to be ready to pounce on the best coach available when the time comes

 

[Celly4Celebrini]

That's the plan. But I would like to see Jared Bednar after he finish with Colorado to coach the Sharks.

im rooting for David Carle outta Denver

 

[Hodge]

We all know our next head coach will be BU boy Mike Sullivan.

 

[weastern bias]

We all know our next head coach will be BU boy Mike Sullivan.

 

[zombie kopitar]

Grier inherited a mess because DW tried to make a trade that was wholly unnecessary at the time (Karlsson) pan out more in the long run by doubling down and giving him the largest deal for a D-Man in league history. That was on top of handing out 7 year deals like candy to Vlasic, Jones (6 years), Kane, Couture, and Burns which thereby sucked any cap space out of the team and forced them to ice the mediocre draft prospects that they had drafted along with mediocre to bad Euro free agents that he believed could make up the entirety of the bottom 6.

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

 

[Cas]

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

The problems were a bit larger than that, but replacing Vlasic with a competent defenseman, Jones with a competent goaltender, and keeping Pavelski instead of playing garbage like Noah Gregor would have helped a lot.

Unfortunately, Thornton declining to mediocre offensive 3C and the bottom six collapsing would still hurt a fair amount.

 

[Jargon]

I actually think that Quinn is doing a great job considering the crap he has to work with and also has developed a playing style according to the types of players we currently have. I think his coaching style will evolve as we get better players, especially on D. I personally appreciate how he catered the style of play to magnify the value of Karlsson last year. That shows he is willing to adapt based on what’s necessary.

On the other hand, if he is not able to adapt and things don’t improve with a better roster, a coaching change is easy to do.

I also like how Eklund and Zetterlund have grown under his guidance (and the other coaches). I don’t know how he is strategically but it’s hard to deny that the young guys are developing with him. Even Zadina has looked better lately. He seems like a good teacher and a good dude, I think he’s important for the state of the rebuild — it’ll be interesting to yeah, see how good he is when we have a real team.

 

[ChompChomp]

My hope is that all the lipservice we hear about Quinn is platitudinal nonsense to sell to the fans and he's being used as an excellent tank commander, when it comes time to turn the corner this team needs a real coach

His name is Ryan Warsofsky. I'll die on the hill that Warsofsky, who was interviewing for NHL HC positions when hired, was hired as an Assistant Coach with a wink wink promise from Grier that once the new core is established for the Sharks, Quinn will be gone and it will be Warsofsky's team.

 

[weastern bias]

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

The Jones and Vlasic contracts were signed in the summer of 2017, so the wheels were in motion on those well before Pavelski left

Everyone knew the Vlasic contract was a big mistake the moment it was signed, but Jones completely imploding the moment he got big money was the unforseen killer that capped the competetive ceiling of the team

Unfortunately they were 2 years into those deals by the time 2019 rolled around, Doug started sinking the ship in the 2017 offseason after they followed up the cup final by losing in the first round, it was when he really started to get desperate and stopped making forward thinking moves

His name is Ryan Warsofsky. I'll die on the hill that Warsofsky, who was interviewing for NHL HC positions when hired, was hired as an Assistant Coach with a wink wink promise from Grier that once the new core is established for the Sharks, Quinn will be gone and it will be Warsofsky's team.

I wouldn't be mad, it would hard for him to be worse than Quinn

 

[gaucholoco3]

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

It was not Pavs vs Vlassic. The decision was Pavs or EK.

People also forget that Pavs was not good his first year in Dallas.

I don’t think it was wrong to go for it after the 2019 WCF and the team had bad luck and regression from too many players. The wrong decision was to double down after the 19-20 season and continue to try to compete.

 

[Pavelski2112]

His name is Ryan Warsofsky. I'll die on the hill that Warsofsky, who was interviewing for NHL HC positions when hired, was hired as an Assistant Coach with a wink wink promise from Grier that once the new core is established for the Sharks, Quinn will be gone and it will be Warsofsky's team.

He's who a lot of us wanted before Quinn got hired so I'd be stoked about it

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[coooldude]

For as much as I hate Quinn's defensive shell system, 1) the players seem to like the staff and 2) we compete hard for who we are.

The roster is a disaster by design, but you have to give credit to Quinn and staff for icing a team that at least rarely gives up entirely and mostly works pretty hard for each other despite a nightmare season.

I have no doubt he's not the coach for a competitive team, but I also think he seems like a pretty good choice for this period of time.

Can't watch that

 

[timorous me]

Can't watch that

Good news, then: there's not actually any video there!

 

[STL Shark]

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

Jones stunk, but it was the fact that we went into Game 6 with Dylan Gambrell as 2C because Pavs, Karlsson, Hertl, and Thornton out with injuries.

 

[Jargon]

Jones stunk, but it was the fact that we went into Game 6 with Dylan Gambrell as 2C because Pavs, Karlsson, Hertl, and Thornton out with injuries.

Yeah, the “break their heads” path to victory. Thank God we got some lucky ref breaks that made them entirely unable to call headshot penalties. I’m still angry about that series, it felt extremely irresponsible.

 

[LadyStanley]

Can't watch that

Full interview

 

[STL Shark]

Yeah, the “break their heads” path to victory. Thank God we got some lucky ref breaks that made them entirely unable to call headshot penalties. I’m still angry about that series, it felt extremely irresponsible.

Try living here and the whiny pricks still whine about the hand pass 5 years after they won the Cup.

 

[coooldude]

Full interview

Ah, sorry, meant to be a bit more descriptive: "can't watch that for my personal health and emotional stability."

 

[Shark in Hockeytown]

This has been talked about so much and I know this sentiment is more or less the consensus around here. But I just have to say if there was a competent goaltender instead of Jones, and had DW kept Pavs over Vlasic, I think the team could have competed a couple more years. I mean they were 2 wins away from the finals in 2019, Jones lost the last couple games there. And then Pavs leaves and goes on a Conn Smythe level run for the Stars the next year, and we've been a wasteland since. 2019 was a really fun year and Karlsson looked great in the postseason run, as soon as Pavs left everything was off, and my personal interest and enthuisasm quickly dropped off a crater

Yes in the end DW overpaid too many guys and it was all going to implode sooner than later; but those 2 were the anchors that weighed down something that could have possibly panned out in the short term

Look at the number of players who left in the summer of 2019: Pavelski, Braun, Donskoi, Nyquist from the deadline pickups. Thornton left off a cliff at age 40. There are more reasons that just bad goaltending why the 19-20 was almost 40 points worse than the 18-19 team.

 

[Alaskanice]

Jones stunk, but it was the fact that we went into Game 6 with Dylan Gambrell as 2C because Pavs, Karlsson, Hertl, and Thornton out with injuries.

Jones did not stink that playoff year. He was fantastic!!

 

[one2gamble]

People keep talking about cap space and the hertl trade. They are like 60 million from the cap floor in two years time. The cap space isn't valuable