A San Jose Sharks Blog

Anaheim Ducks win the Stanley Cup: Throughout the season, I knew that the Ducks were the team to go through if San Jose wanted to win its first Stanley Cup. The regular season games between the two squads were amazing and almost all of California was hoping to see a head-to-head series (especially the guys at Battle of California). Unfortunately, the Sharks fell short and could only watch their SoCal rivals lift The Cup.

Toskala and Bell Trade: After a full season of "Which goalie should we trade?", the Sharks organization decided that Tosk would be the one to go. Fortunately, Doug Wilson made the wise move of adding in Mark Bell who many would agree was a major disappointment. I applauded the decision as it: freed cap space, designated Nabby as our "go-to-guy", opened up a forward position for our youngsters, and brought back three picks (2007: 1st and 2nd rounders; 2009: 4th rounder).

2007 San Jose Sharks Draft: As usual, the San Jose Sharks traded a number of picks to move up and get their guy. This year, that guy was Logan Couture. Thanks to the Toskala/Bell trade, Team Teal was able to land a well-respected hockey player that can work both ends of the ice. I looked at a few scout evaluations (before his bout with mononucleosis) and many thought Logan would be a top three pick. In regards to the Sharks' second 1st round pick, Nick Petrecki, I think he's going to be a mean one. While watching his video clips, I couldn't help but laugh when he busted a guy in the chops on a simple play.

Off Season Transactions: The majority of this post would have been about re-signings and players leaving rather than Team Teal's free agent acquisitions...or lack thereof.

Players Leaving - No surprises here; with Hannan and Guerin gone, the Sharks lost a lot of skill. However, I'm not too worried about it. Both players were relatively solid, but with some of our signings and youngsters, I don't think we'll feel their absence.

Players Signed - There were a number of minor league signings that occurred which were good for the organization, but there weren't any major transactions. The only one of interest was the signing of Alexei Semenov. He's not going to put up any numbers, but he will serve as a big body when we need it.

Players Re-signed - Doug Wilson did well to by signing Rob Davison and Craig Rivet. Davison is a tough guy who will get the opportunity to prove himself as an every day defenseman. As for Rivet, he showed some offensive upside and I'm excited to see him healthy for an entire year. More importantly, the Sharks organization locked up Joe Thornton and Milan Michalek. These two accounted for the majority of Team Teal's points down the stretch before the playoffs, and keeping them in San Jose Sharks jerseys ensures that we will be strong up front.

Marleau Trade Rumors: I'll agree that the captain of the Sharks had a number of bad games against the Detroit Red Wings, but never did I want to trade him. Patrick is skilled, experienced, and young...though he hit a rough patch for a few games, he still had 32 goals and 46 assists during the regular season. Not too shabby. Besides, with Thornton and Marleau, we have a Sakic-Forsberg type of combination and that seemed to work pretty well for Colorado.

Return of Drew Remenda: I've never been a crazy Remenda fan, but I have always appreciated his insight and ability to dissect a play. What I am more excited about is having Drew host Shark Byte again. His on-ice segments were always good and the players seemed to really relate well to him.

The New Logo: At first, I was a bit under whelmed with the changes. It's basically the same logo, but with more of an AHL feel to it. However, over the past few weeks, it has grown on me and I'm sure I will be buying a new jersey. The funniest part of the entire "logo switch" was that it was leaked 11 days before the official release; sort of stole the thunder from the Sharks' marketing department.

Overall, it was a relatively calm off season. I am excited that hockey is back and that the boys in teal will be taking the ice soon. Let's hope that we hit the ground running and take the Pacific Division wire-to-wire. More importantly, let's hope that we win The Cup this time...I've got my annual $20 riding on them and I want Vegas to finally pay up!