The Brent Burns era in San Jose is done. After
spending the last 11 seasons in the South Bay, the eccentric defenseman was
traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, along with Lane Pederson in exchange for
centerman
Steven
Lorentz, goaltender
Eetu Makiniemi and a conditional 3rd round draft pick on
Wednesday. The Sharks made the move largely to rid themselves of Burns
contract, although they will retain 33% of the remaining $24 million due to the
defenseman.
The burly defenseman played in 798 games for the Sharks
which ranks 6th all time for the franchise. He rarely missed games, playing in
every regular season game for San Jose the last 8 seasons. He missed 27 of 830
possible regular season games during his tenure.
When he was acquired
from the Minnesota Wild in the summer of 2011, the Sharks looked poised to make
real runs at the Stanley Cup. San Jose only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once
during his Sharks career.
Burns big shot worked well with teammates
like Joe Pavelski who was adept at redirecting pucks, but when Pavelski was not
retained, the defenseman's offensive productivity began to falter. Opposing
teams seemingly excelled at scoring whenever Burns was on the ice, fueling
debates that he should be move to an position on offense.
Only former
Sharks head coach Todd McClellan dabbled in Burns playing on offense, but it
was a short lived experiment. After Erik Karlsson was acquired in 2018, San
Jose were setup with a pair of former Norris Trophy winners that should have
netted San Jose lots of wins. The economics of today's NHL said otherwise. Both
contracts handcuffed the Sharks and when the productivity of aging veterans
like Thornton and Patrick Marleau started to slip, the losses started to mount.
In exchange for Burns and Lane Pederson, the Sharks
were able to rid themselves of the big dollars that prevent them from signing
mid tier players that their roster desperately needs. San Jose will eat $2.72
million in cap space, but they clear $5.28 million in each of the next three
seasons.
Lorentz played in his first full season for the Hurricanes
last season, playing in 67 games but he is a restricted free agent. Makiniemi
is a prospect who made the jump to North America last season, playing in 14
games for the Chicago Wolves (AHL). Both will likely be Barracuda regulars this
coming season.
Pederson was not likely to last in San Jose. He played
in 29 games for San Jose last year after he was acquired from the Arizona
Coyotes last summer for a 4th round draft pick.
In other moves, San
Jose signed forwards
Oskar
Lindblom,
Nico
Sturm,
Andrew
Agozzino,
Markus
Nutivaara, and defenseman
Matt Benning.
