A trade could help struggling Sharks
As the Sharks enter the All-Star break, they sit 11 points out of a playoff spot, with 32 games to go. Depending on your source for such things, the Sharks have between a 0.9 percent and 5 percent chance of making the playoffs.
Having already earned just two regulation losses shy of last year’s total, it is clear that the Sharks season is effectively decided. Barring a miracle beyond that of the 2019 St. Louis Blues, the team will miss the playoffs for the second time in the Joe Thornton era.
Often teams suffering a disappointing season can look forward to a wealth of high-quality prospects and a chance in the NHL’s draft lottery. However, Sharks general manager Doug Wilson lost the team’s 2020 first-round pick when he traded for Erik Karlsson in 2018. Further, the team is also without a fourthor sixth-round pick this year.
The team is not only missing out on the playoffs, but the chance to draft in the top five for the first time since 1998. The Sharks’ selection would have almost certainly been their highest pick since taking Timo Meier at No. 9 in 2015.
Wilson faces a number of decisions. Namely, which players should be rented off to playoffbound teams and for how much. Before diving into the entire list of players on expiring contracts, a big question exists:
DOES JOE THORNTON WANT TO BE TRADED FOR A CHANCE AT A CUP? >> Matters of the heart must be dealt with first.
Speculation has already begun about whether or not the Sharks should give Jumbo Joe the Ray Bourque treatment. Bourque, the Hall of Fame defender who spent nearly his entire career with the Boston Bruins, was traded to the Colorado Avalanche at the end of his career and played with them for a season and a half in pursuit of a championship. He ultimately was handed the Stanley Cup by Joe Sakic, leading to an iconic image of perseverance, sacrifice and victory.
Such romance, one would assume, might lead Sharks fans to wish the same for the bearded face of their franchise. As the trade deadline approaches on Feb. 24, expect to hear increasing Bourque references, and calls to get Joe a Cup.