San Jose Sharks: Recapping a wild first day of free agency

The San Jose Sharks first day of free agency wasn’t exactly full of surprises, but there were still plenty of notable departures and returns that could be broken down.

The San Jose Sharks entered the 2019 offseason anticipating that they would be forced to make multiple very difficult decisions. Some franchise mainstays and effective players would be forced out of town as the team simply did not have the cap space to keep the entire roster together.

While other teams were scouring the free agent market looking for roster improvements in the form of other team’s star players, the Sharks were simply trying to maintain what they already had. However, it was pretty clear that this was an impossible task.

But that doesn’t make the pain of the losses any easier.

San Jose already dealt with one departure of a franchise mainstay as nine-year veteran Justin Braun was dealt just ahead of the draft to clear up cap space. After all, the massive eight-year, $92 million extension given to star defenseman Erik Karlsson put the Sharks in quite the cap bind.

But the main story since Karlsson’s re-signing has centered around 13-year Sharks veteran and team captain Joe Pavelski. As the days grew nearer to the start of free agency, it became more and more apparent that it would be pretty much impossible to keep Pavelski in San Jose.

And that was proven true on Monday when Pavelski officially signed on with the Dallas Stars to a three-year, $21 million contract. In many ways, Pavelski has been the heart and soul of this Sharks team and that was never more apparent than in the team’s latest playoff run.

Nonetheless, Pavelski will be donning a new jersey next year — as strange as that may be to see.

Pavelski was far from the only player that the Sharks lost in free agency as the likes of Gustav Nyquist, Joonas Donskoi, and Joakim Ryan all found new homes as well.

Nyquist will be heading out east to join the Columbus Blue Jackets while Donskoi and Ryan will be staying in the Western Conference as they signed with the Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings respectively.

None of the above players represent surprise departures with each of their exits anticipated months in advance. But to fill the massive holes left by each of their departures — mainly Pavelski — the Sharks will need other players to step up.

Fortunately, San Jose did manage to lock up one of said players long-term on Monday.

Restricted free agent Timo Meier officially re-signed with the Sharks to a steal of a deal — a contract worth just $24 million over four years. Meier is one of the core building blocks for a Sharks team with one eye on competing in the present and one eye on the future.

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The 22-year-old has already established himself as one of the finest young players in the game today after a 30-goal, 66-point season this past year. Meier has the potential to be a perennial All-Star and it might not be long before we’re mentioning his name among some of the best forwards in the entire NHL.

With Pavelski now gone, it will be up to Meier — among others such as Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl — to pick up where their departed captain left off.

But Meier wasn’t the only restricted free agent that the Sharks brought back on Monday. While many fans were hoping for the announcement of a deal with fellow restricted free agent Kevin Labanc, San Jose instead opted to first re-sign defenseman Tim Heed.

With the aforementioned Braun and Ryan both playing elsewhere next season, Heed will be given every opportunity to be a regular fixture as a sixth defenseman.

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The 28-year-old played just 37 games last season and has just 67 regular season contests to his name but he’ll likely be asked to take on a larger role this upcoming season. And even with Braun and Ryan gone, the Sharks still look pretty deep with their defensive pairings.

Karlsson, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, a hopefully healthy Radim Simek, and Brenden Dillon will join Heed as the expected six defensemen to start the season. And when comparing that against other defenses in the NHL, it’s easy to see the Sharks still being among the league’s best.

Ultimately, there were few surprises for the Sharks in the first day of free agency — outside of Meier’s seemingly cheap contract. But that doesn’t mean that a pretty significant roster shakeup didn’t take place.

With Pavelski now off the market and Meier re-signed, the attention now shifts to Labanc and when his deal will be announced.

Of course, there’s still Joe Thornton who will undoubtedly get his new deal and the continued presence of Patrick Marleau who could ultimately find his way back to San Jose.

Day one is in the books, but the Sharks work this offseason is far from over.