In a very brief press conference GM Paras announced the acquisition of 22 year old Centerman Eric Staal from the Flyers in exchange for R.J. Umberger, Henrik Sedin and Peter Sykora.
“The team is loosing, we had to do something!!” said the Sharks GM. “Yes we gave a lot, but we got a very special player in Eric Staal. Guys like that are rarely available, so we had to make the move. Depth is replaceable; however 22 year old superstar players are rare.”
The loosing has continued in San Jose despite the recent addition of veterans Roenick, Nedved, Daze, Robitaille and Leclerc. To make matters worse, due to a glitch in the random scheduling system, the Sharks recently played 6 consecutive games vs the LA Kings; a team that has consistently been at the bottom of the BRHL2 standings and the Sharks didn’t fair well at all.
“We went 2-3-1 vs the Kings! How are we going to make the playoffs if we can’t beat the teams behind us in the standings?”
When asked about his team’s playoff chances for Season 1, GM Paras said: “Yes we can still make the playoffs, Eric Staal is young but his 77PA will help AO be more productive and his 83SC will help us improve our league worst GF/G. This trade helps us both short and long term as Staal is a legit 1st line Center and that is something we were lacking”
Perhaps on ice performance was not the only factor that played into the GMs decision in making the trade. Rumors out of San Jose suggest that Henrik Sedin is seeking over $3million per season as a RFA, a number that the CAP conscious Sharks were unlikely to match. Other rumors suggest that the Sharks have been disappointed with Sykora’s poor play in the NHL and wanted to make a deal while his stock was still high.
GM Paras refused to comment on contract negotiations however did state that “In a CAP system, every dollar is precious so me need to spend wisely” Leading journalists to believe that the Sharks were concerned that Sedin is simply not worth the 3M he is requesting and the team would be better off investing a little more money in a guy like Eric Staal where they can get more “bang for their buck”.
Overall, the Sharks have acquired a young star centerman but sacrifice high quality depth to do so. Only time will tell if GM Paras’ trade will pay short and long term dividends.
A positive note for the San Jose fans is that this trade also frees up even more cap space for the team who everyone expects to be very active in terms of making off-season Free Agent acquisitions.
Great deal for SJ, I also think Philly just kissed cup contention goodbye, gonna be pretty hard to win with Sedin and Conroy as your top two centres, not to mention Svatos being out for 3 months.
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To NYIslander: Daniel Tjarnqvist, Duvie Westcott, Ilja Bryzgalov, Pat Rissmiller, Tom Poti, Bjorn Melin, Karri Ramo, Tom Gilbert
To Boston: Chris Pronger, Doug Murray, Jocelyn Thibault, Ken Klee, Wade Brookbank, Denis Istomin, Viktor Dovgan