It’s no secret that the San Jose Sharks don’t have a lot of cap space left.
Between Brent Burns, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Martin Jones, Evander Kane, Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, the Sharks have about $59 million tied up in eight players. Assuming the cap stays right around the $81.5M mark next season, they’ll have a little more than $22.5M to spend on the remaining 15 players to fill out their roster.
The solution here is that, like many other teams, they’ll need to look to fill in the rest of the roster with cheap additions. The Sharks tried going the call-up route for many of the openings this season but that didn’t work overly well. As for other prospects in the system, there aren’t any true A-level prospects to come in and become impact players right away. Many of the prospects like Lean Bergmann, Joachim Blichfield and Noah Gregor may turn into solid depth pieces at some point but they can't be counted on to make up the majority of San Jose's secondary scoring right now.
The best route for the Sharks to go is to work on bringing in cheap depth pieces who have NHL experience and can still contribute. We’ve seen this with Tyler Ennis in Ottawa, as well as Derick Brassard in New York and Jason Spezza in Toronto, to name a few. Also, all three could be options for San Jose to go after this summer in free agency.
If Ilya Kovalchuk heads to free agency, he should be a target for the Sharks. Then there’s also Brian Boyle, Sam Gagner, Mikko Koivu, Patrick Maroon, Corey Perry and Tyler Pitlick. Maybe Patrick Marleau returns to San Jose one more time? It’s important to remember the Sharks really can’t afford to be picky and any of the players listed above would be a cheap upgrade.
Another massive benefit for the Sharks would be if compliance buyouts become a reality. This would mean up to 30 players become available, with many still very capable but just aren’t worth the contract they’re on.
If the Sharks are going to bounce back and be a competitive team next year, adding cheap depth, especially up front, will be key. With the help of adding cheap free agents, San Jose may be able to add enough depth to form a more well-rounded roster.
Here's today's poll question (results and discussion will be posted this weeked):
If the Sharks could add one forward listed above for under $1M in free agency, who would you choose?
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