Keeping Kane makes sense, but Wilson has some options
CALGARY, ALBERTA » With six points in seven games, Evander Kane is clearly a good fit for the Sharks’ heavy forechecking style of play. He’s also enthusiastic about living in the Bay Area after tumultuous runs in Winnipeg and Buffalo, another plus.
The Sharks want speed, youth and physicality. Kane should be a 30 goal scorer every year, andhe’s just hitting his prime at age 26. Sounds like a match made on hockey Tinder, right?
Well, in the salary- cap era, things are never quite this simple. With roughly $20 million in cap space available this summer, the Sharks will get an opportunity to re-sign Kane in the offseason. That said, general manager Doug Wilson is tackling a full docket and getting all the pieces to fall into place will be a lot like trying to solveaRubik’s cube.
At this point, Wilson’s top priority is hooking the Islanders’ John Tavares, who could be the biggest unrestricted free agent to hit the open market in the salary cap era. The Sharks will be able to make a strong pitch. They have the cap space to win a bidding war, Canadians love playing in California, and they will probably be able to give Tavares his best chance at winning a Stanley Cup in the near future.
But signing Tavares likely means saying good- bye to Kane because the embattled forward is likely going to want tomake this contact count and earn an average annual salary in the neighborhood of $7 million. In addition, Joe Thornton is a pending unrestricted free agent, and Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo are pending restricted free agents.
Granted, a Tavares, Thornton and Logan Couture center alignment with Kane, Joe Pavelski and Timo Meier on the wings would certainly make Hertl and Tierney expendable. But knowing Wilson, it seems uncharacteristic that he’d burn Hertl after the affable Czech signed a team-friendly two-year, $6 million contract in 2016 and landing Tavares, Thornton and Kane would require serious, and unlikely, compromises unless he finds creative ways to open upmore cap space.
Where things could get interesting for Wilson is the challenge of keeping Kane on the line as a consolation prize while he chases after his No. 1 choice, Tavares. The Toronto Maple Leafs swooped in with an $18.75 million to win the Patrick Marleau sweepstakes last summer. Wilson can’t afford to be stood up at the alter this offseason without snagging an elitecaliber forward to pave the road for the organization’s post-Thornton-Marleau future.
• Wilson’s busy summer won’t end with the courtship of Tavares and Kane. Couture and Pavelski will both be eligible for contract extensions come July 1. Last year, Wilson made it a top priority to extend Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Martin Jones without letting them hit the market. Will he take a similar approach with his next big name pending unrestricted free agents this summer?
In all likelihood, Wilson will give Couture an eightyear contract extension probably in the ballpark of what Brent Burns is making. Couture is driving the bus now. He deserves his payday.
Pavelski’s contract situation is a little trickier.
Although Pavelski is putting together another strong year after a slow start — he’s leading the Sharks in scoring with 56 points— he’ll be approaching his 35th birthday on July 1, 2019. Wilson will probably want to see what Pavelski does in his contract year before he opens the vault for another aging forward.
But judging by how things tend to go in San Jose, it seems likely that Wilson and his captain will find a way to make things work when the day comes.
• Wilson has received a lot of praise for his creativity this winter, landing Kane without giving up a first-round pick (in a rental scenario anyway) and finding Eric Fehr toiling in the minor leagues.
One move that continues to be a head scratcher, though, is his decision to waive Ryan Carpenter after just 16 games, creating a revolvingdoor inthemiddle of the fourth line.
The Sharks entered the offseason last year with such a high opinion of Carpenter after he scored nine goals and compiled 17 points in 15 Calder Cup playoff games that they protected him fromthe Vegas Golden Knights in last year’s expansion draft.
Guess where Carpenter landed after the Sharks put him on waivers? Granted, Carpenter struggled to produce during his 16-game audition, producing just one assist. But it wasn’t like he was hurting the teameither. He posted a plus- one rating and a 48.94 percent possession rating during his run on the fourth line.
Now, his career is taking off in Vegas where he’s scored eight goals, collected 12 points and posted a 50.29 percent possession rating in 24 games while seeing minutes at thirdline center. The only scenarios that make sense here are that a) Wilson thought he could pass Carpenter through waivers without getting claimed, or b) he wanted to give the 27-year-old a chance to play after he clearly fell into DeBoer’s doghouse.
Wilson is known for keeping his promises, and by doing right by Carpenter the favor might come back around the next time he deals with his agent.