The Good, the Bad, and the Future; Part 1: The Good

As the upcoming season draws ever closer, Sharks fans still have a wound from last year that hasn’t quite healed. The first round playoff exit after a regular season that brought home the President’s Trophy did not go as planned. Needless to say, the Sharks and their fans had some different hardware in mind after clinching the West’s Number one seed. Now the time has come to turn the page and set the sights forward.

Even with the sting of last year’s first round playoff exit, Sharks fans have plenty to look forward to in the offseason. General Manager Doug Wilson promised changes at the recent “State of the Sharks” meeting, and at this point he has to because…this is HIS team now.

When he took over for former GM Dean Lombardi after the mistaken firing of coach Darryl Sutter, Wilson needed to change the way things were done. He did so by beginning to trust his young players, those who had paid their dues through the system. Of course, Wilson used a big move to shake things up by bringing in Joe Thornton. With this move changing the whole equation, Wilson has also changed his thinking on personnel. Nevertheless, now that the off-season dust has settled, we will examine the strong points of the Sharks as they stand currently.

Decreased Reliance on Veterans:  Usually teams strive for the right balance of young and old on the active roster, but some of the recent moves have been baffling. Outside of Jeremy Roenick, who was not only popular but also a key contributor, not much was to write home about.

I personally was wondering the thought behind signing Claude Lemieux towards the end of the season. To me he was Jody Shelley, except more Stanley Cup rings to his credit. In fact, a lot of Sharks fans were wondering why Shelley wasn’t on the playoff roster, and the same went for Brad Staubitz and Jamie McGinn. Especially with this fight Staubitz put up that endeared him to the fan base, it would have helped the Sharks counter the Ducks’ physical play.

Moves That Had to be Made:  The recent move of sending Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich to Vancouver was one made for both clubhouse and financial reasons. Ehrhoff seemed top be developing into a good blue-liner, but seemed to regress last season with 42 points and a -12 rating. His regression then was magnified in the playoffs, more with making mental errors than anything else. Lukowich, on the other hand, just didn’t seem to live up to expectations when he arrived with Dan Boyle from Tampa Bay. He seemed to disappear a lot of times, especially during the playoffs as well. Plus, with the Sharks up against the salary cap ceiling they had to clear some space. Although, there is also some speculation about this move paving the way for another trade down the line, perhaps for Dany Heatley of Ottawa.

Recognizing the Leaders:  Patrick Marleau is still a good player, and proved as much revitalizing his career under new coach Todd McLellan with 38 goals, 71 points, and a +16 rating. However, not all good players make good leaders, and kudos to McLellan for acknowledging this by removing Marleau as captain. In a complete shakeup, McLellan even took the Alternate Captain spot from Thornton as well. It is clear that McLellan is trying to change the clubhouse mentality, and he comes from one of the best ones during his time in Detroit. There are just those types of players that don’t do well in leadership roles, which is fine as long as McLellan finds the ones that do. He may have already done so as Boyle seems to be the first choice to don the “C” on his jersey.

Talent is Still There:  Even with the postseason shortcomings, this is not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination. Many teams in the NHL would love to have the talent base of Thornton, Marleau, Boyle, Devin Setoguchi, Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe, Evgeni Nabokov, Rob Blake, Milan Michalek and so forth. Many of these aforementioned players still have some of their prime years ahead of them also. Windows of opportunity do not stay open for very long though, so the time would seem to be now to capitalize on this wealth of talent under the HP Pavilion roof. This is what will make this season so intriguing to watch. Postseason failures have led fans and pundits alike to believe that some changes need to be made, which is quite accurate. It is up to Wilson to determine the degree of those changes, and seeing how he does business, he will end up surprising the fan base in some way. Did anyone expect Wilson to go and get Thornton when he did? That is probably how the next deal will come down, from the dark of night and onto the front of the sports section in the San Jose Mercury News (or wherever else you may get your hockey news).

Until next time, stay tuned for part two of this series. Because after all, there really is no such thing as a perfect team. Cheers.

Tags: Season Preview