Waaaaaa,
I go away for a week and the thread goes CRAZY. Thanks for the AWESOME insite TG. Can't say that I disagree with anything that you have thrown up here.
Jumping back to give my humble opinion......
1. I really do not see the Sharks signing an offensive player of any significance. They were a solid 7 deep last season (Thornton, Marleau, Heater, Seto, Clowe, Pavelski and Couture). Seto is the only one of this group that is up for a contract and he is willing to take a discount to say as he has gone on the record saying as much. That being said, I am not sure how they let Seto go knowing that he is younger and has as much if not more potential than Laich. My prediction is 3.25 for 3 years for Seto
2. The Sharks do not need another puck moving defensemen. Boyle is their man and Demers took some SOLID steps this last season to move into the 2nd PP unit QB. If one happens to fall into our lap, I am not going to complain but I seriously doubt that White will be coming back. What the Sharks DESPERATELY need is a shut down defensemen. Someone along the lines of a younger Scott Hannan. Someone that can be thrown onto the second D pair and take all the extra minutes that Boyle had to take last season. If they can get Boyle down to 22 minutes a game, he will be much better rested and will be much more of an offensive threat. Wisneiski, although a great idea, does not fit the need that this team has. Bieksa is going to cost way too much money. They need to shore up the back end and get some guys in front of Niemi. As it stands today, if the season started tomorrow, the pairings would be:
Boyle-Murray
Demers-Vlasic
Braun-Moore
Sign a shut down guy, Vlasic drops to the third line and Moore rides the bus. And no, Regher is not what I have in mind at all. Even if there are rumors.
The other area of supreme need on this team is a fourth line that is gritty and can be used to kill penalties. I loved Scotty Nicol and I wish that they had brought him back but there are so many defensive minded forwards available in this draft class that the Sharks should have no problem picking up a couple of guys that will kill penalties and deliver a beating to the opposing teams top lines. Was impressed at times with Eager but I felt like he was in the dog house a little too much. Kyle Wellwood really did not impress me much so I would not mind seeing him go elsewhere. So really, there is a lot of room to shore up the defensive side of the puck from the forwards end.
Overall, and I know this has been said before, I really don't think the Sharks are that far off. If they were disiplined in game 3 and did not take back to back to back 5-3 hits, I really think they come out just fine but that, in my mind, was the straw that broke the camels back. Shore up the back end and this team can go a long way. And if you ARE going to make wholesale changes, trade Heatley, don't let Seto go.
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All
C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne