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Doug Wilson
Overpaid Roster is Now Over-Made
2/23/16 - By Zach Bodenstein -
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On Monday morning, The San Jose Sharks hooked up
with the Toronto Maple Leafs for a five-piece deal that brought rugged
blueliner Roman Polak and underrated speedster Nick Spaling to San Jose in
exchange for the contract of Raffi Torres, a second-round pick in 2017, and a
second-round pick in 2018. Most are overreacting to Doug Wilson perhaps giving
Toronto too much in the midst of their rebuild, but the move was one that had
to be made and will pay dividends come playoff time.
An underrated
part of this deal on San Jose's end is to unload the contract of Torres, as he
has suffered multiple setbacks recently and it is doubtful that he will play in
the NHL again, but he remains with the Barracuda, the Sharks' AHL affiliate.
Torres was making more than $2 million this year before he inevitably departs
for free agency next year, when his career may finally end.
Doug
Wilson recently told the media that giving the picks in later years is big
because, "It gives us ample time to replenish those picks" via @CraigCustance
on Twitter. Second-round picks are valuable, and Doug Wilson has questionably
thrown them away over the years for players who were not fits on the team, but
this time is different.
It's a fair assessment that the Sharks have
never had six solid defensemen in their lineup that they can role, and play all
roles in terms of versatility. The Sharks have that now, with a third-pairing
of Brenden Dillon and Roman Polak, they have two guys whom are physical, block
a ton of shots, can penalty kill, and take some tough minutes away from Brent
Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Polak averaged almost 20:00 minutes a game and
played against some of the top competition on other clubs, while posting a
plus-eight rating on hockey's worst team.
Polak is fifth in the NHL
with 220 hits via Yahoo! Sports. He is the guy that the Sharks needed, and they
pounced on him before teams like Chicago, LA, Anaheim, and Dallas could, teams
that needed Polak and will challenge the Sharks for the Western Conference
title this season. In a seller's market, where guys far worse than Polak will
be going for higher prices, this is essentially a home run deal for Doug Wilson
with his team in win-now mode and in the best shape that they've been in years.
The hole has been plugged on the back end with the acquisition of Polak, and it
will improve the penalty kill as well as Jones' play with six solid defensemen
in front of him, rather than five and benching the sixth man for the better
part of every third period.
With the main acquisition being Polak, do not let Nick
Spaling fool you as a throw-in to this deal. Spaling did not get many
opportunities to produce in Toronto like he did in Nashville and Pittsburgh,
but now he is projected to play alongside red-hot Logan Couture and the puck
wizard in Joonas Donskoi. As all Sharks forwards are, he is versatile, with the
ability to shoot, play fast, physical, take draws, and kill penalties, Spaling
seems to be a great fit for the roster.
He is a very physical player
that could help the scoring depth on the bottom-six despite its surge, and can
help Tommy Wingels refocus his offensive game, bumping him down to the fourth
line. Spaling is a clear upgrade over Zubrus, as the only thing he does not
possess that favours him over Zubrus is the experience, but the Sharks contain
plenty of that in their current lineup. The Sharks are one of hockey's only
teams that can effectively role four lines, with the best depth up the middle
in hockey, and six solid defensemen, all containing versatility.
While
the two picks may sting the Sharks later, the reality is that this may be their
best shot at Lord Stanley's mug, with scoring from everybody, the best hockey
of Joe Thornton's last years, the depth, speed, size, offense, goaltending, you
name it. Wilson pulled the trigger on Polak and Spaling before his competition
could, as Anaheim and LA have already beefed up with trades earlier this
season.
The departure of Torres' contract could also help bring in a
backup goalie to limit Martin Jones' workload down the stretch with the futile
play of Alex Stalock this season. This is arguably the deepest roster that the
Sharks have ever had, and it is built for the playoffs. There is still less
than a week until the deadline, but this trade makes the Sharks a much better
team by filling their needed holes at a fair price in a seller's market.
Here's how the Sharks should line up when they are healthy:
Hertl-Thornton-Pavelski
Nieto-Marleau-Ward
Spaling-Couture-Donskoi
Wingels-Tierney-Karlsson
Vlasic-Braun
Martin-Burns
Dillon-Polak
Jones
Stalock
Contact Ryan at at
zachbodenstein@letsgosharks.com
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