Sharks Claim Wellwood

The San Jose Sharks have snaked Kyle Wellwood from underneath the St. Louis Blues, who signed the free agent on Monday. Wellwood had to clear waivers before joining the Blues, but unfortunately for the brass in St. Louis, Wellwood's deal was appealing enough for the Sharks to take on.

Wellwood will add some more depth, likely to the 3rd line of the Sharks, where they have done some shuffling of players from within their system all season.  His overall impact will likely depend heavily on the linemates he is given to work with as the checking/depth centre.

The Sharks will take on the remaining chunk of Wellwood's $600,000 annual salary cap hit, which they should have room for by sending bodies down to the minors, even with the addition of Ben Eager via trade earlier this morning.  With several minor-league players on their roster, management will have some decisions to make as to who will stay up and who will go down, but with a couple of veteran forwards joining the line-up, I would expect the decision will be relatively easy.

With the Sharks making a trade and a waiver claim on Tuesday morning, the push for a playoff spot is truly on. Going into Tuesday night's action, the Sharks are only one point behind the Avalanche in 9th place in the West, but the Avalanche have two games in hand. The Sharks are also being chased down by the Minnesota Wild, who are only two points behind with two games in hand, so the Sharks have to start controlling their own destiny.  Moves for veterans should provide that extra push, but of course, nothing is guaranteed.