San Jose Sharks: Predicting odds that top free agents re-sign
By Justin Fried
The San Jose Sharks will have multiple major decisions to make this Monday when free agency officially kicks off. We went through and ranked each of the top Sharks free agents in order of their likeliness to return.
The San Jose Sharks are set to enter a free agency period in which their money management skills will be put to the ultimate test.
With just under $15 million in cap space, general manager Doug Wilson will have his hands full as he tries to keep as much of the team’s core together as possible.
The first domino of the offseason fell when the Sharks officially re-signed star defenseman Erik Karlsson to a massive eight-year, $92 million extension nearly two weeks ago. But the Sharks’ work is far from over.
San Jose still has a number of key free agents set to hit the open market that the team could be interested in re-signing. Because of that, we felt it would be interesting to rank each of the team’s top unrestricted free agents based on the odds that they re-sign with the Sharks.
Please note that this will not be including restricted free agents such as Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc. The hope is that each of them will ultimately be given new deals — preferably bridge contracts — and we won’t have to worry about them departing just yet.
But for the following four unrestricted free agents, nothing is certain.
4. Joonas Donskoi
The master of the clutch goal, Joonas Donskoi could soon find his way to another team in free agency after spending four seasons in San Jose.
While Donskoi set a new career high in total points with 37 and tied a career high in goals with 14, his 2018-19 campaign was ultimately too inconsistent for the Sharks liking. Donskoi ended the season on a 34-game scoring drought which hurt his playoff playing time down the stretch.
The 27-year-old was in and out of the lineup in the postseason with his one notable moment coming via a series-clinching goal scored in Game 7 of the Sharks’ second-round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.
Donskoi is a solid player who fell victim of the numbers game last season — and unfortunately the same could be true this offseason. Kevin Kurz of The Athletic has reported that there is strong interest in Donskoi from other teams which will likely spell an end to his tenure in San Jose.
Given the Sharks tricky cap situation, it’s hard to see the team matching any kind of offers from other organizations if the bidding war is as active as reported.
Ultimately, a change of scenery will likely be good for Donskoi and he could look to contribute as a solid top-nine forward elsewhere.