I don’t get the fascination with Necas. Unless you think he’s an absolute true superstar, there’s no use in trading for him right now. Adding a player like Necas is something the Sharks should be doing in two years, not now.
Necas is right on the line of "too old to spend significant assets to acquire at this stage in our rebuild."
I'm not suggesting we trade Will Smith for him. I just think this is a rare opportunity to move some of our surplus futures for a guaranteed top line forward we can potentially lock up at a good number through the rest of his prime. No guarantee someone as good as Necas will be available in two years.
What do we have that is actually surplus futures that anyone is going to want? A lot of the players you put on the table for this are guys that are not excess or not valuable in a trade.
Basically any of our prospects except Celebrini, Smith and Mukhamadullin should be on the table along with the PIT and VGK 1sts and roster players like Ferraro and Granlund. All of them have varying degrees of value.
There's no rush right now. We should really see how this season plays out before we start dealing away picks and prospects. Granlund and Ferraro can be dealt at the deadline, unless someone offers a 1st or 2nd for either one at the draft.
Even if we finish 32nd again, which I fully expect us to, I would still rather go into 25-26 and beyond with Necas on the roster at a ~7.5-8M cap hit than whoever we draft with the 14th pick this year, Ferraro or the 2nd we trade him for at the deadline and whichever of our 5th-10th best prospects we need to send to Carolina in the trade. The point of acquiring Necas wouldn't be to improve in the short term but to add a long term piece of the puzzle around Celebrini and Smith.
We know they like Ferraro and they're probably looking to replenish some of the picks and prospects lost in the Guentzel trade. No one is moving a top pairing defender for Necas' RFA rights so I'm not sure how they can expect to do better than #14 + Ferraro + other stuff.
I don't think we know that but we'll see. I think Carolina is going to prioritize lineup issues that will help them be better now. They need a replacement for Pesce probably more than anything else with Burns getting old and Morrow coming in as a rookie. They're also looking for a real 2C to depend on since Staal is getting too old, Kuznetsov can't be trusted, and Kotkaniemi sucks. They're making a player like Necas available to address those concerns first and foremost and since we don't have that they'll get it somewhere else.
Not me. For the Sharks, 1st round picks should be used to draft until a #1D is acquired. That's more important than getting another expensive winger you're giving 8 years to.
Oddly enough, this is a very Doug Wilson approach to trading and asset usage. Take the known over the "mystery box." I would be all for this if much more of the core was established, but we have 3-4 holes in the top 6 right now, and 0-1 Dmen. Adding a player to the top 6 like Necas when Celebrini, Smith, Eklund and (Musty/whoever) have firmly established their places in the top 6, then that makes sense. Especially when it's harder to fill that role internally, due to development and the timelines of mid to late 1st round picks. As it is right now, I think the Sharks need to focus on drafting really well in the first 2 rounds to fill out their top 9 and all 6 D.
Can't sign a 25 year old 1st line RW in free agency.
That objectively terrible management. Trade future assets (which a rebuilding team needs) & overpay FA's further hampering the future of the team. I'm fine with taking one of these approaches, but to do both is quite literally just Doug Wilson Era 2.0-esque.
If there's a plan in place to get a legitimate 1D to build around and get Necas then I'd be open to it but a 1D this off-season seems unrealistic and we're not going to come close to competitive without a 1D. Spending assets before something like that is realized that could take many years doesn't seem wise when wingers are pretty easy to find.
That kind of thinking is more defendable when you think you're in Cup contention. However, as executed by Doug Wilson, I felt that he was giving up way too many draft picks in that pursuit to the point where he completely decimated his prospect pool, which is something I don't think any hockey franchise should ever ever do. When a team like the Red Wings was still on top back in the Sharks heyday, they still always had young and upcoming talent being added to the mix. And I didn't think much of his cap management.
In the 2026-27 season we will have a 20 year old Celebrini and 21 year old Smith making a combined ~$2 million against the cap before performance bonuses. That will be one of the greatest competitive advantages any team has had in a long time and I don't want us to squander it.
It's kind of funny, but Doug was all about taking big swings. The problem was, when you only target big fish, and those are easy targets, like Boyle, Burns, Heatley, Karlsson, Thornton, you don't need anyone of note in your professional scouting department. Everyone knew those guys were good at the time. On top of that, you are constantly throwing all your picks and prospects at teams to get those big fish, so your amateur scouting department doesn't actually have to be good either. You're not relying on them for anything of consequence anyway. Doug was able to ride the core of Marleau, Thornton, Pavs, Boyle, Burns, Karlsson, Couture, Hertl until they all got old, but when the moment came where, if he wanted to extend that window again by swinging big, he chickened out. That would've been Eichel acquired using the Eklund pick and whatever else was left. I fully expected to see a top 6 of Eichel, Couture, Meier, Hertl, Kane, Labanc/whoever with Karlsson and Burns still on the back end in 2021. When he didn't make the trade for Eichel, and sacrifice the future again, there was no one in the building who had any idea what to do next. With the new regime, I'd prefer they keep one eye on the present, and one on the future. Take the big swings at the right times, but keep the plenty of assets within the organization.
I'm for more draft picks and taking shots especially on defense considering that's our biggest need moving forward and our best chance of addressing it properly for the purposes of our next competitive window is the draft.
True but in order to do that, they have to be incredibly aggressive addressing most of the holes in the lineup. The biggest one being who would be their top guy on defense to shoulder most of the load. Out of the names you put out there, only Dobson makes sense to address that and I think that need is so large that not having an answer severely limits a team's ability to compete. We won't have an option but to squander that window if none become available to us.
That certainly is an aggressive way to add pieces...what are we trading for Dobson? Vegas 1st + a few depth prospects (ie Bordeleau, Gushchin, Lund, Havelid, Haltunnen?)? I don't think the Rangers trade Miller since he's probably their 2nd most important defenseman after Fox. Islanders have Pulock and Pelech signed long-term, and even if they are willing to let Dobson go, is that package enough to get him?
