Pool Outlook for San Jose

We have seen some pretty good regular seasons in recent years from the San Jose Sharks, but the 2016 was pretty impressive on its own merits.  Most impressively though, was their playoff campaign, something us poolies have been waiting for, for a long, long time.  It's really a shame, for the sake of players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, that the result wasn't much better than a loss in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Still, there really was nothing to be ashamed of, in terms of the end result for the Sharks, they had never been to the Stanley Cup Finals before and they were fairly convincing through the Western Conference route, no matter how much punch they lacked in those final six games.

After years of believing that they had the framework in place, yet very little to show for it, they can at least be confident in the fact that this framework finally did what they were believed to be capable of and that was to make it as deep as you can go in the playoffs, so now it will be trying to find the right modifications to their formula, so they can finally take that last step.

As for us poolies, confidence will likely be through the roof again for some of these Sharks players and rightfully so.  We'll be looking quite fondly at some of their depth and definitely their goaltending, so I would expect them to be very popular, come September/October.

At this past year's draft, the Sharks were not the most popular team in the Western Conference, only seeing 12 of their players picked up in September, a far cry from some teams.  They did have a 1st round pick in Martin Jones, taken 25th overall, thanks to his new starting job.  Logan Couture was dropped and picked, thanks to his injury and his soon-to-be return in Week Nine, while Tommy Wingels was just dropped.  Week Eighteen saw one more drop and one more pick, but the Sharks also acquired James Reimer at the deadline, which brought their overall total back up to 12 players at the end of the season.

Jones turned out to be quite the bargain at the 25th pick, as he finished 5th overall in pool scoring, thanks to a strong regular season, finishing with 37 wins and 6 shutouts for 86 points.  His strong playoff performance should also earn him a much higher pick position, come this year's upcoming draft.

Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns all finished within the 1st round rankings, all finishing within the top 20 in pool scoring altogether, showing some real top end dominance in the regular season.  This was the kind of production a lot of people were hoping for years ago and never saw.

Also having pool worthy seasons were Patrick Marleau, Tomas Hertl, Joel Ward, Logan Couture and rookie Joonas Donskoi up front, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Justin Braun and Paul Martin on the blueline and James Reimer also finished as a worthy keeper, playing between Toronto and San Jose.

What I Said Last Year, At This Time...

In 2016, the culture forecast for the Sharks is still pretty stormy with no sign of letting up right now.  The coaching change will play a big part of how the storm plays out, but I couldn't imagine that there will be too many coaches that will want to walk into that public situation.  With management not budging, according to the top brass of the team, the top players not moving, according to their long-term contracts.  The Sharks will need to pay a goalie to play behind the stars and all of these things will decide the severity of the fate of this team.  Until management or the Thornton/Marleau combination moves, I can't see this team making any big improvements.  It's not impossible for this group to get into the wild card, but it is highly improbable at this point in time.

How the hell did they pull this one off?  When things were looking so bleak in San Jose, they turned to Little Joe, gave him the captaincy and all of a sudden, everything fell into line.  The addition of a blossoming keeper in Jones really went a long ways, no question, but it was a remarkable turn of events for this Sharks team.  For a team that I believed to only be battling for a wild card spot to come up big in the playoffs is a huge success and that's all thanks to riding the hot goalie.

2017 Pool Outlook

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Joe Thornton	6.750	Brent Burns	5.760	Martin Jones	3.000
Patrick Marleau	6.667	Marc-Edouard Vlasic	4.250
Joe Pavelski	6.000	Justin Braun	3.800
Logan Couture	6.000	Paul Martin	4.850
Joel Ward	3.275
Joonas Donskoi	0.925
Tommy Wingels	2.475	Brenden Dillon	3.270
Melker Karlsson	1.625
Chris Tierney	0.712
Timo Meier	0.894	Mirco Mueller	0.925	Mantas Armalis	0.925
Nikolay Goldobin	0.863	Jeremy Roy	0.858	Troy Grosenick	0.600
Danny O'Regan	0.859	Patrick McNally	0.800
Jon Martin	0.801	Michael Brodzinski	0.778
Kevin Labanc	0.718	Tim Heed	0.775
Alex Schoenborn	0.718	Julius Bergman	0.714
Adam Helewka	0.705	Joakim Ryan	0.680
Rourke Chartier	0.703
Nikita Jevpalovs	0.633
Barclay Goodrow	0.627

In my off-season work, I've separated the tables a little differently for the last two teams, but I have also adjusted the salary cap numbers for those entry-level deals that slid and kept their extra year.  On top, we have the pool-worthy players, to which the Sharks are rich in for next season, the middle are the three players that were not worthy, but should have a roster spot, all but locked up.  The latter includes the minor-league and prospect players that will certainly get a look in camp.

Considering how the Sharks did in the 2016 season and how much of that group is carrying over already, their outlook is very positive.

The Sharks are likely looking forward to seeing Timo Meier in their training camp, especially after his impressive run to the Memorial Cup with Rouyn-Nouranda of the QMJHL.  Meier did well to impress a lot of people, both in the run to the Quebec championship and through to the national tournament, which is awfully exciting for the Sharks, who may need to trim some of the larger costs and replace them with some quality youth.

Needs at the 2016 Entry Draft

The Sharks don't have their 1st round pick this year, but you won't hear them complain about that.  In the off-season, they used their pick to acquire their starting goalie and look where it took them.  Boston will instead get to use their pick, which will be highlighted in the mock draft very soon.  The Sharks will have their 2nd round pick, which is a plus, but they don't have their 3rd round pick, adding the Rangers' 4th round pick to their last four picks.  They should be able to get a good number of players to look from in a couple of weeks.

Free Agency and the Salary Cap

The core portion of this team is already signed on for the 2017 season, which has to be good news for the fans and the entire group, By my current count, the Sharks already have 15 players poised to make the roster for next season, coming in at a very reasonable $60 million, including a buyout that is still on their books.

Their biggest commitment to signing a new deal will be Tomas Hertl, who is a restricted free agent, while James Reimer, who is pool worthy, may be asking for a little bit too much, when it comes to being a back-up in the unrestricted free agent market.  I would expect Reimer to test the market, looking for a spot where he has an actual shot at being a number one.

With Thornton and Marleau turning 37 this Summer, questions are abound about how much longer they have, playing at this high level and trying to make it deeper and deeper into the playoffs, as they still played a big role in their push this year.  The team is in pretty good hands though, as Pavelski, Couture, Burns and Jones are already starting form a fresh core, taking over at just the right time to ensure consistent playoff berths.  The big push over the Summer will be to upgrade their depth, aiming to have a more complete team for the next step.  I don't think the Sharks will have any problem making the playoffs next season, but with how wide open and competitive the conference is, the Sharks are no lock for the Conference Finals or a return to the Finals, but they'll certainly compete.