Wilson is no Bill Walsh who knew when players were getting close to done (Lott, Montana ETC). Wilson hung onto Marleau & Thornton way to long & tried to build around them(Raffi Torres for 1).
Unlike like Wilson holding onto players, I got rid of my season tickets after 20 years.
Good Luck to the next GM
- Sharks77
Personally, I think that a stretch of really bad drafting is the root cause of the Sharks issues. It kind of cascades from there. Wilson was more dependent on retaining guys beyond their "best-by" dates. He had less guys on the cheap who could be impact players. He was more inclined to try to trade additional draft picks for that "missing piece" at the deadline. Less power to negotiate with his UFAs since guys like Vlasic or Jones or Couture didn't have guys pushing them for playing time.
Even if they did have the cap space, I don't think they'd be able to buy themselves into a much better position. Without drafting/developing a couple of legit top players they'll probably either naturally sink to the bottom and have a more natural rebuild (as opposed to a Arizona scorched-earth rebuild) or worse, get stuck in that rut of mediocrity... flirt with the playoffs...maybe make it here or there only to get curb stomped by legit contenders.
