[Rumor] EKane and Sharks closing in on 7yr extension

[Pengwin7]

Ugh (reading replies) - maybe we should think about this like a girl.

You are at the high school dance.
There's 31 dudes there... four pretty girls, a bunch of not-so-pretty girls.
You get to dance with one for the next... say... 7 hours.
Every dance lasts an hour.
After every dance, maybe you get some "extra time".
You have a girl that likes you, wants to dance with you... she's not the prettiest one, but she's definitely pretty.
Your girl is still young, energetic, occasionally she runs off to the bathroom in the middle of the dance.
But she is willing to dance with you for the next 7 hours.

I mean... here is what we all do.
We speculate "best case".
We just go ahead and speculate that we can just let her walk and sign up some other pretty one.
No.Problem.
But... really, be realistic on discussion... we would have to compete with the other 30 guys for those three pretty girls.

IDK - in my world, you get one of the few pretty girls, maybe you overpay her a bit with compliments, enjoy her while you have her, and hope she has some lasting-power and gets you into "extra time" a bit.


Or... you can just let her walk...
Sit on the bench...
expecting the next pretty thing to walk through the door...
Because she's gonna pick YOU - we'll call her "JVR"... out of the other 30 guys.
That's a given, right - we'll just speculate that.
Or that girl "Wayne"... she'll pick you.

Meh, Evander's a bit high-maintenance... but she's pretty enough to dance with.
My 2 cents.

[fungchen3]

I rather spend the 1mill more and get JvR really. Kane will be 27 come the start of the season, so he'll be 34 when this 7yr deals done. JvR is 2yrs older, but can stay healthy and has a bit more of a track record of 60pts.

But if they want to go for it this yr and the next yr, Kane can be a solid choice? I dunno. If he's smartened up maybe he can stay healthy.

Yeah, I like JVR better than E.Kane as well. But even JVR will likely be overpaid... maybe by a lot!
I think the Sharks are entering dangerous territories with these types of signings.

If modern history proves anything, there's really only two ways to be a very successful team - in terms of winning a Cup or being an annual, top contender:

1. Rebuild, draft extremely high, feel some pain. The Pens, Hawks, Kings all went this route and have been the 3 most successful teams of the era. Oilers, Leafs, Sabres, currently going this route. Even Tampa with high picks like Stamkos, Hedman.

2. Pull a Vegas and use leverage to your advantage. Most teams aren't in this situation obviously, but if I were running a terrible team, I would eat bad contracts en lieu of gaining some nice assets in the process. I would assemble a team of "castoffs" and wish for the best until my team has collected enough high-end assets to really make an impact.

Either way, the worst place for a team to be is "mid-pack-ish." Pretty good, but not good enough. Just "ok" prospect pool but nothing to brag about. No top draft picks. The Sharks fit this description like a glove. Committing long-term to, and overpaying Evander Kane, is just digging a deeper hole. When they realize in 2-3 years they need to flush and completely rebuild, Kane's contract is going to be a huge burden.
They got smoked by VGK and Pavelski, Burns and Thornton aren't getting any younger. Plus teams like Winnipeg are emerging.

Montreal is another headscratcher. Trade PK for an older Weber. Trade your best D chip in Sergachev for Drouin. Then, sign Carey Price to a 532 year, $823 million contract.
Now they're a team with a major identity crisis, stuck with contracts like Weber's and Price's. At least the Habs have some great picks this draft.
If the Vegas situation has done anything, it has exposed the fact that a bunch of NHL GM's have no freaking clue what they're doing.

[2014olympicgold]

@P7

Evander = the girl you have been going out with for 2 weeks. Not a real big thing yet, not Bf/Gf, but you're a thing. You're crossing into the point where you both are either going to walk, or be in it for the long haul. While she was with you she was good, nothing went wrong besides this one time you guys didn't perform well enough to get to the finish line... (teehee). So now you're asking yourself, "ok is this my girl, or do I end it". Then you see Ms.JvR go by, she's with this guy she's been with a while but the guys always working and there's a very high chance they don't stick together.

Do you, a.) get down on one knee and ask Evander to marry you, or b.) wait it out to see if JvR wants to go out with you. Evander is a 7, only brought down from an 8 because (s)he can't go a full yr without some form of a break typically, and JvR is an 8, and had that 8.5potential if (s)he was able to get that wife (husband? I dunno where I'm at on the gender thing anymore) time.

So do you ask Evander Kane (7/10) to marry you now, or take the bigger chance and ask JvR (8/10) to marry you?

[fungchen3]

Ugh (reading replies) - maybe we should think about this like a girl.

You are at the high school dance.
There's 31 dudes there... four pretty girls, a bunch of not-so-pretty girls.
You get to dance with one for the next... say... 7 hours.
Every dance lasts an hour.
After every dance, maybe you get some "extra time".
You have a girl that likes you, wants to dance with you... she's not the prettiest one, but she's definitely pretty.
Your girl is still young, energetic, occasionally she runs off to the bathroom in the middle of the dance.
But she is willing to dance with you for the next 7 hours.

I mean... here is what we all do.
We speculate "best case".
We just go ahead and speculate that we can just let her walk and sign up some other pretty one.
No.Problem.
But... really, be realistic on discussion... we would have to compete with the other 30 guys for those three pretty girls.

IDK - in my world, you get one of the few pretty girls, maybe you overpay her a bit with compliments, enjoy her while you have her, and hope she has some lasting-power and gets you into "extra time" a bit.


Or... you can just let her walk...
Sit on the bench...
expecting the next pretty thing to walk through the door...
Because she's gonna pick YOU - we'll call her "JVR"... out of the other 30 guys.
That's a given, right - we'll just speculate that.
Or that girl "Wayne"... she'll pick you.

Meh, Evander's a bit high-maintenance... but she's pretty enough to dance with.
My 2 cents.

This is gold

I guess, I'd try to get a quick dance with the cutest girl possible, but would run the other way if I heard she had an STD or thought she would be a crazy mother that drowns her kids in the tub.
Then I'd leave empty-handed, suck it up, go home and talk hockey on the Internet.

Definitely wouldn't be putting a ring on that finger though, no matter what.
Signing Kane to 7x7 isn't a dance, or even dating, it's a marriage and unhappy life together lol.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I'm not a huge Kane fan... but there just isn't much out there for teams to "sign".
The free agent class is old... and slow... and soft.

There's Tavares ($12m est), Carlson ($10m est), and JVR ($8m est)... and I think those guys will get close to those numbers because the rest of the market is just really unflattering.
Which means that teams will be shelling out $5m-$6m to patch-in James Neal... or Val Filppula... or David Perron - gross.
I'd rather pay an extra $1m-2m and have Evander Kane!!


Think of this as a 2-for-2 choice at $8m.

SJ could go with E.Kane($7m) and a kid (RFA @ $925k)
or
SJ could go with two ho-hum UFAs at $4m each.
[Which they've already tried with guys like Boedker-$4m and Joel Ward-$3.3m.... I mean, if Boedker/J.Ward is what the market can fetch for $7m... isn't E.Kane the better side!?!]

I don't see the salary being such an issue, term is the much bigger issue here (which is very common with UFAs). $7M for 2 years? Fine, I'll do that. Not great value but it's fine. But for 7 years? That's a buyout candidate if I've ever seen one. Maybe they can front-load the deal and then ship him to a team like Ottawa when he's not owed much money but still has that high cap hit. That's probably the best case scenario.

2. Pull a Vegas and use leverage to your advantage. Most teams aren't in this situation obviously, but if I were running a terrible team, I would eat bad contracts en lieu of gaining some nice assets in the process. I would assemble a team of "castoffs" and wish for the best until my team has collected enough high-end assets to really make an impact.

Most owners aren't willing to do that for obvious reasons, that's the problem.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Is there another team in the league that's willing to offer Kane 7x7 with all the red flags he has? The teams that have had him don't want him back. Are other teams really willing to take that risk without having him on their team for even a second? Feels like the Sharks are negotiating against themselves here. They should just let Kane get to free agency and ask him to get back to them when he doesn't like the offers he's getting.

It's just very difficult to believe any other team in the league would be willing to take the same risk Sharks are willing to take, so they have that leverage. I have no idea why they're not using it.

[fungchen3]

Most owners aren't willing to do that for obvious reasons, that's the problem.

Correct.
Many owners to their GMs: "Be competitive, sell tickets, make the playoffs, get me the postseason revenue."
But some GM's compound the problem by doing things like overpaying Evander Kane for 7 years!
Not only does it harm their team, but it knocks salaries out of whack. Hence lockout after lockout.

Is there another team in the league that's willing to offer Kane 7x7 with all the red flags he has? The teams that have had him don't want him back. Are other teams really willing to take that risk without having him on their team for even a second? Feels like the Sharks are negotiating against themselves here. They should just let Kane get to free agency and ask him to get back to them when he doesn't like the offers he's getting.

It's just very difficult to believe any other team in the league would be willing to take the same risk Sharks are willing to take, so they have that leverage. I have no idea why they're not using it.

This. 100%. It has "Flyers and Bryzgalov" stamped all over it.

[PenguinHunter]

If this was the cost to re-sign Kane I would gladly let him walk just to keep the 1st round pick. This is just bad cap/asset management.

Exactly!! Did the NHL not learn from the MLB this passed off season. Make these guys wait and sweat it out... then someone can sign them for a reasonable contract.

[SeaDawg]

imo, even if the other potential free agent options are worse and/or more expensive, I'd just keep the money and the pick and try to find a player via some other avenue. Build through the draft, make a trade, whatever. I'm just not spending that kind of money, and giving up a first round pick, on a player with a career-high under 60 pts. Maybe they are basing this on him scoring 14 pts in 17 games since he joined them, but that is a huge gamble and one I wouldn't take.

Making a bad decision (signing Kane) to avoid making a worse decision later (signing Neal, JvR, or Vanek, etc.) is ridiculous. Just be patient and don't make any bad decisions at all!

[Godin]

Ugh (reading replies) - maybe we should think about this like a girl.

You are at the high school dance.
There's 31 dudes there... four pretty girls, a bunch of not-so-pretty girls.
You get to dance with one for the next... say... 7 hours.
Every dance lasts an hour.
After every dance, maybe you get some "extra time".
You have a girl that likes you, wants to dance with you... she's not the prettiest one, but she's definitely pretty.
Your girl is still young, energetic, occasionally she runs off to the bathroom in the middle of the dance.
But she is willing to dance with you for the next 7 hours.

I mean... here is what we all do.
We speculate "best case".
We just go ahead and speculate that we can just let her walk and sign up some other pretty one.
No.Problem.
But... really, be realistic on discussion... we would have to compete with the other 30 guys for those three pretty girls.

IDK - in my world, you get one of the few pretty girls, maybe you overpay her a bit with compliments, enjoy her while you have her, and hope she has some lasting-power and gets you into "extra time" a bit.


Or... you can just let her walk...
Sit on the bench...
expecting the next pretty thing to walk through the door...
Because she's gonna pick YOU - we'll call her "JVR"... out of the other 30 guys.
That's a given, right - we'll just speculate that.
Or that girl "Wayne"... she'll pick you.

Meh, Evander's a bit high-maintenance... but she's pretty enough to dance with.
My 2 cents.

Too funny P7. The thing is, you hope one screws you but not the other and in this case, EK will probably screw you quicker than she would.

[SeaDawg]

If modern history proves anything, there's really only two ways to be a very successful team - in terms of winning a Cup or being an annual, top contender:

1. Rebuild, draft extremely high, feel some pain. The Pens, Hawks, Kings all went this route and have been the 3 most successful teams of the era. Oilers, Leafs, Sabres, currently going this route. Even Tampa with high picks like Stamkos, Hedman.

You don't necessarily have to draft "extremely high" to be successful. You just have to draft well. Tampa and Winnipeg are examples of teams that have had terrific success via the draft without having many top 5 picks in recent years (Laine is the exception). Tampa may have drafted Stamkos and Hedman early, but their real success comes from drafting players like Kucherov, Johnson, Palat, and Point in the later rounds. Not to mention Vasilevsky, who was a mid-first round pick. Winnipeg has struck gold in the draft many times (Schiefele, Ehlers, Connor, Hellebuyck, Trouba).

Other teams have done well by making smart trades (Nashville comes to mind immediately) and not over-spending at Free Agency.

I think San Jose feels immense pressure in the California market to stay as competitive as Anaheim and LA. Hence, part of the explanation for the poor decision to sign Kane. However, if they had done a better job drafting, they wouldn't necessarily feel so much pressure to sign someone like Kane.

[hockeymanG23]

Good comparison in an unfortunate kind of way.

This. 100%. It has "Flyers and Bryzgalov" stamped all over it.

I guess Wilson isn’t worried about year 6 and 7, he’s just worried about year 1 and in year 1 he knows he has a good player

[rtstr]

This is such a horrible, horrible deal. How do GMs come to make these decisions? I mean really. What is going on in these front offices?

[lucafen4]

There will just be another lock out to force more controls on themselves.

[Pengwin7]

I'm just glad I could bring a few laughs to the table!