Contradictions
First off, if you haven't heard already, Jeremy Roenick is back for another season with the Sharks. If you go to the Sharks website, they've got a little video of him talking about it. I love JR, but I can't condone the hat that he's wearing. It reminds me of one of those Men On Film guys from In Living Color. "Dollars didn't prevent us from doing our job," the G.M. said. The first question from the crowd had to do with ticket price increases averaging between 7 and 8 percent, and Jamison said that didn't surprise him. "There's an expectation that we will put a quality team on the ice," Jamison said, "and to be brutally honest, that's going to cost us a lot more."
But anyways, there was little news of note from the annual State of the Sharks bitchfest according to those in attendance. I skipped this year's, as it's usually just a bunch of diplomatic bullet-dodging (though Ron Wilson used to get visibly frustrated at the stupidity of some of the questions, and his snarkiness proved to be entertaining).
A few blurbs from the Mercury News seemed to show that either A) GM Doug Wilson and President Greg Jamison weren't briefed on the company line or B) they've got completely different views on their roster.
From Doug Wilson:Wilson reiterated what he has said in the past, that he has enough money to build a Stanley Cup winner.
From Greg Jamison
So the GM says that he has the dollars to put a CUP WINNER on the ice but the President says that they need more money from fans to put a QUALITY TEAM on the ice. Um...ok, well, which is it?
The only real thing to note seems to be the fact that Doug Wilson anticipates a payroll increase of about $8 million and some form of roster change. Sounds great, but when you put together the salary bumps of Patrick Marleau, Milan Michalek, Joe Thornton, and Matt Carle, along with the anticipated raises for Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe, and Christian Ehrhoff, that's your $8 million (give or take) right there. If that number's set in stone, something's gotta give, especially since Wilson's already started negotiating with Brian Campbell's agent this week (they were set to speak this past Monday). I'm guessing Wilson will be dangling Matt Carle at the draft, but I wonder who will take him after two disappointing seasons.
2 comments:
Matt Carle wasn't good last year - but he was on the All Rookie team in 2006-07. How is that a disappointing season? Carle has value, especially to a team like Philly that has holes on its blueline. If DW wants to move him for value, he can.
That comment from Jamison is particularly interesting to me. If he's just now realizing that it costs more to put a quality team on the ice, what have the Sharks been doing for the past few years? By saying that NOW, for 2008-09, you need to spend more on personnel you're basically admitting that for the past 3 years you haven't been spending enough, which also makes all the previous "we're contenders" rhetoric meaningless. The biggest mistake this franchise has made in recent years has been the fact that they are all too willing to talk about the Stanley Cup as being attainable rather than as the ultimate goal. It's a subtle distinction but by saying it is attainable you're implying that you've already accomplished something, making it a lot easier to sit back and do nothing. "Well we've put together a cup contending team..." No, no you haven't, not until they actually win the thing.
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