The Sharks have 12.5ish mil in cap space tied up in Joe Thornton and Evgeni Nabokov.  As long as that is the case, they are doomed.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 07/21/09 at 02:42 PM ET

It’s even worse than that, HD. They have $57.3M ($500k over the cap max) tied up in just 18 players. If they got rid of Marleau and took no salary in return, they’d have $5.8M with which to sign four forwards and a backup goalie.

That probably would get them one third-line guy, three fourth line guys and a lower-level backup. But they already have two fourth-line guys, so they’d basically be a two-and-a-half-line team.

That’s hardly going to prevent them from having another paroxysm in next year’s playoffs.

paroxysm: n. a word used by no-nothing reporters to make themselves look smarter than they really are.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/21/09 at 05:38 PM ET

Ehrhoff and Cheechoo are two names that come to mind.  They also have seven defensemen and one could easily play as forward. 

Also, they have a number of players that I think are ready to taste the NHL.  Dwight Helminen I think is a good pick-up as a replacement for Mike Grier.  Danny Groulx should help as he’s been in the Calder Playoffs and won the Championship.  Ryan Vesce will also be good for the organization.  I seriously think they’ll be trading Marleau sometime before the trade deadline (even with his no-trade clause).  Also, I believe Cheechoo and/or Ehrhoff will be gone before October. 

You don’t want to change up the team a heck of a lot because they still have a great team, even if they can’t make the grade.  Look, they added a ton of Stanley Cup experience last year and it didn’t do it.  I think the attitude of the team changed after that first round loss.  They seemed really pissed about it.

Posted by Matt Fry from Winnipeg on 07/21/09 at 07:47 PM ET

Great article and very acurrate too. Wilson has a few chips to trade, mainly Erhroff, Vlasic, and Michalek, but he won’t trade any of those players. Instead Wilson is trying to trade a player like Cheechoo who has no value, and is vastly overpaid.
Turning down the Erhroff for Chimera deal was stupid, because not only does Chimera play a position of need for the Sharks, but it would also help the Sharks with Cap relief. But like always if the deal is for a Wilson favorite then it will never get done.

The Sharks biggest problem is the GM, who trades away draft picks, refuses to sign decent free agents, and trades away prospects like they are apples on a tree. Wilson has mortgaged the future by making deadline deal after deadline deal. His strategy of trading at the deadline for players who end up someplace else, or who don’t want to play in San Jose is killing the teams futre and prospect base. It’s two seasons in a row without a first round pick because of Wilson’s stupidity. Now he’s telling fans that the team won’t be built fully until the trade deadline, and what is he going to trade away then? You guessed it more draft picks and prospects. Deadline deals with teams out of the playoffs never involve players traded for players, its always about players for draft picks and prospects. And since the Sharks don’t have any real prospects where does that leave us? Our ownership group has no clue when it comes to running a real hockey organization either, too them its all about making money and that’s it.

Wilson is good at spin, and good at working the local media (which has no hockey knowledge, our local reporter, has zero hockey background), but when talk comes to action, Wilson takes a powder. The Sharks will never and I repeat NEVER win a Stanley Cup with Wilson as GM. That’s of course if the real goal of the Sharks ownership group is to actually win the Cup.

Wilson recently buffaloed the local media into believing that with one phone call he could get the Sharks under the cap, yeah Doug and Santa Claus is real too.

Posted by Fire Doug Wilson on 07/21/09 at 10:30 PM ET