Sharks swim into sea of uncertainty
Cap room in San Jose with Thornton, Kane potential free agents
SAN JOSE, CALIF.— The scene was all too familiar for the San Jose Sharks: a postgame handshake line on their home ice with the other team celebrating a series win while the Sharks wonder what might have been.
A team that seemed to have the ingredients necessary for a long playoff run went out instead in the second round with a 3-0 loss Sunday in Game 6 against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
“For periods of this series I thought we were a better team, I thought we played the game that we know we’re capable of, we showed we could beat them,” forward Logan Couture said. “We just didn’t do it long enough.”
That’s what perhaps makes this the most bitter playoff loss in coach Peter DeBoer’s three seasons in San Jose, all of which ended with home playoff losses.
The biggest difference was the performance of the top lines with Vegas’ trio of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith combining for eight goals and 17 assists, while Evander Kane, Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi had just three goals and two assists for the Sharks.
Here are some other takeaways from the season and things to watch this summer:
Jumbo Joe
Thornton injured his right knee on Jan. 23, and never was able to make it back into the lineup. He practised all post-season and even took part in all the pregame skates but never felt quite healthy enough to get back into the lineup. The 38year-old Thornton, who had 13 goals and 23 assists in 47 games, is now eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, leaving his future in San Jose in doubt.
Kane’s call
Acquiring Kane from Buffalo at the trade deadline provided a major spark. He had nine goals and five assists in 17 games, providing needed speed on San Jose’s top line. That carried over to the first round when he had three goals and an assist in a sweep against Anaheim but Kane wasn’t nearly as effective against Vegas as he played through injuries. If Kane signs with Sharks,, they owe Buffalo a first-round pick in 2019. If he leaves as a free agent, that pick becomes a second-rounder.
Cap room
The Sharks head into the offseason with projected salary cap room of more than $15 million (U.S.). While some of that could be used up by keeping Thornton or Kane, GM Doug Wilson also could use that money to target a top free agent like John Tavares of the New York Islanders. Wilson has been planning for that flexibility for years and now the question becomes how he will use it.