Sharks GM finds a way to get Mikkel Boedker’s contract off the books.
Team gets Hoffman, trades him, pick up four draft chocies
SAN JOSE >> If you slept to the alarm, you probably missed all the fun: the Sharks acquired Mike Hoffman, traded him and relieved themselves of Mikkel Boedker’s burdensome contract.
In two trades early Tuesday morning, the Sharks acquired a 2019 second-round draft pick, a 2018 fourth-round pick, a 2018 fifth-round pick, a 2020 fifthround pick and minor league defenseman Cody Donaghey for Boedker, Barracuda defenseman Julius Bergman and two selections.
First, the Sharks traded Boedker, Bergman and a 2020 sixthround draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for Hoffman, Donaghey and a 2020 fifth-round pick. Then, they turned around and traded Hoffman and a 2018 seventh-round pick to the Florida Panthers for a 2019 secondround pick, a 2018 fourth-round pick (originally belonging to the Vegas Golden Knights) and a 2018 fifth-round pick.
In doing so, Sharks general manager Doug Wilson found a creative way to get Boedker’s contract off the books, clearing more cap space to pursue a highend forward through free agency or a trade this offseason. The Sharks had owed Boedker another $8 million over two years.
“This series of trades has allowed us to accomplish several organizational goals,” Wilson said in a statement. “We have witnessed some tremendous growth in our younger forwards over the past season and we feel that we have another group of players that are ready to challenge for additional ice time.”
Wilson’s wheeling and dealing also allowed the Sharks to restock their cupboard with draft picks three days before Friday’s NHL draft in Dallas.
The Sharks are without second- and third-round selections this year. They traded those picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs in
2016 to acquire two players, James Reimer and Roman Polak, who helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final. By acquiring fourth- and fifth-round selections from the Panthers, the Sharks will have seven picks in this week’s draft.
The 2019 second-round pick obtained from the Panthers will also help the Sharks absorb the loss of their 2019 first-round pick, which went to the Buffalo Sabres as part of last winter’s Evander Kane trade.
But more than anything, the trades were about cap space and clearing enough room to take a stab at acquiring a top-six forward. Wilson made it clear in a meeting with reporters Monday that the Sharks are looking to add a high-end forward at some point this summer or during the season. By unloading Boedker’s contract, the Sharks will have roughly $15 million to $19 million in cap space to make moves this offseason.
The Sharks are expected to be major players in the John Tavares sweepstakes this summer if the New York Islanders superstar
decides to test the waters and become the biggest name to enter unrestricted free agency during the NHL’s salary cap era. The team is also interested in right winger Ilya Kovalchuk, a nine-time 30-goal scorer who’s returning to the NHL for the 2018-19 season after spending the last five years in the KHL. The Sharks met with Kovalchuk last week.
Wilson also left open the possibility that he could acquire a scoring forward through a trade this summer or during the season if the Sharks miss out on Tavares and Kovalchuk.
Acquiring scoring punch isn’t the only thing on Wilson’s to-do list this summer. The Sharks will also be looking to sign Joe Thornton to a contract and extend the contracts of restricted free agents Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo.
Regardless, the trade brings Boedker’s tumultuous tenure in San Jose to an end. The 28-year old Dane joined the Sharks with high expectations after he signed a four-year, $16 million contract in July 2016.
The Sharks expected Boedker, who played for head coach Pete DeBoer in junior hockey, to give their top-six forward group more speed and scoring. After the Sharks signed Boedker, DeBoer admitted that he wrote down his number, along with those of Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi, on a cocktail napkin, envisioning the trio as a potent line.
The vision never came to fruition.
Boedker spent his time with the Sharks moving up and down the lineup while serving as a healthy scratch on a handful of occasions, including two games in the team’s 2017 Stanley Cup playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Sharks sent the Twitter-sphere ablaze Tuesday morning when news broke that they had swung a deal for Hoffman, whose fiancee is at the center of a cyberbullying controversy involving the wife of Senators superstar Erik Karlsson. But the Hoffman acquisition proved to be just part in a larger plot by Wilson to improve the Sharks’ position heading into the offseason.