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How the Boyle and Blake Acquisitions Wrecked the Sharks

July 14, 2009, 3:15 PM ET [ Comments]

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Last offseason, the San Jose Sharks dealt Matt Carle, Ty Wishart, a first-round pick and a fourth-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich. The team also signed Rob Blake, and dealt Craig Rivet to the Buffalo Sabres for two second-round picks.

After the overhaul, I wrote the blog “Can’t Approve of Those Defensive Moves,” explaining how I couldn’t see the logic in making the team worse down the road, limiting salary flexibility, and sacrificing the future in pursuit of the Sharks’ first Stanley Cup. One year later, with the Sharks coming of a first-round upset, slammed against the cap and unable to move contracts, maybe people will understand the argument I made on July 5, 2008.

To articulate my point, I’m going to break the moves down into four basic questions. Is the incoming talent an upgrade over the outgoing talent? Does it make sense financially? Does it move the team closer to a Stanley Cup? What impact does it have on the team’s long-term future?

Talent

There’s no question Dan Boyle, Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich are more talented than Matt Carle, Craig Rivet and Ty Wishart. Boyle is one of the best offensive defensemen in the league, Blake is going to the Hall of Fame after he hangs up the blades, and Lukowich has provided strong defensive play in a stay-at-home role.

Offensively, there’s no comparison. Boyle and Blake are going to produce more than Carle and Rivet. Defensively, it evens up a little bit but you still have to give the edge to the more experienced trio. It’s an easy comparison. If you have to win one game, you go with Boyle, Blake and Lukowich over Carle, Rivet and Wishart.

Money

Talent costs money, and the Sharks have shelled out quite a bit for the increase in talent along their blueline. Last season, the trio of incoming defensemen made up almost 25 percent of the team’s total salary.

Boyle - $6.66
Blake - $5
Lukowich - $1.56
Total - $13.22

The huge contracts to Boyle and Blake had a major impact on the Sharks roster. The most noticeable change was the demotion of Kyle McLaren to Worcester of the American Hockey League — a salary dump more than anything else, but a move that derailed the veteran defenseman’s career. If the Sharks hadn’t altered their blueline at all, they would have spent approximately $3.8 million less on three capable defensemen. Would they have made it to the first round of the playoffs with Rivet, Carle and McLaren? I don’t know, but I’m assuming they would have.

Rivet - $3.5
Carle - $3.43
McLaren - $2.5
Total - $9.43

The other side effect of the Blake and Boyle acquisitions — less tangible but more severe — was the team’s inability to round out the roster with NHL talent. Mediocre prospects or 43-year-old veterans plugged holes, and the Sharks’ lack of depth ultimately contributed to the team’s first-round playoff exit. That extra $3.8 million would have helped meet needs, and defense wasn’t one of them after a strong 2007-08 season when scoring dried up in the playoffs.

Stanley Cup

Everyone (myself included) always makes the argument that Boyle and Blake helped the Sharks’ transition game, producing more offense. The truth is, the Sharks rarely score off the rush, so whatever advantages they had on the transition game were largely negated by the fact the team plays puck possession rather than a North-South, up-tempo style. However, they did assist the power play, which went colder than an Eskimo’s nose once the playoffs began.

I’m not convinced the moves inched the Sharks any closer to the Stanley Cup. The huge salaries reduced the Sharks’ depth, forcing veterans to take on more minutes. That led to more injuries, which disrupted the chemistry, which left the team stumbling down the stretch. Just take a quick look at these two defensive groups and decide which one you’d rather have.

Boyle-Blake-Lukowich-Vlasic-Ehrhoff-Murray-Semenov-Huskins

Campbell-Rivet-Carle-Vlasic-Ehrhoff-Murray-McLaren-Ozolinsh-Semenov

Obviously the numbers are skewed because Campbell was a deadline addition, but the Sharks haven't been able to match the talent and depth they had two playoffs ago. If you prefer Alexei Semenov as your seventh defenseman rather than your ninth defenseman, you’re lying to yourself. San Jose’s lack of depth contributed to injuries at several positions and the cap crunch forced guys to play hurt because there wasn’t legitimate NHL talent backing them up.

Future

Doug Wilson took an aggressive run at the Stanley Cup last season and the gamble proved to be a disaster. You can respect him for rolling the dice, but you can’t ignore the fact that he destroyed the future in his pursuit of a Cup. Giving up the team’s top defensive prospect and a first-round pick only did more damage to a prospect system that had been picked clean by ambitious trade deadline deals.

Blake and Boyle’s salaries contributed to even more damage at the trade deadline. Since the Sharks had limited cap space, they had to take on limited salaries through deadline deals. That meant dealing promising prospects Nick Bonino and Timo Pielmeier for Travis Moen and Kent Huskins, two players who had little to no impact down the stretch.

The future isn’t very bright in San Jose because the Sharks don’t have the cap space to bolster the roster, don’t have the prospects to force their way onto the roster, and don’t have talent they can move because of either no-trade clauses or exorbitant salaries. Plus, since the team hasn’t had a first-round pick each of the last two years, there isn’t much promise in the pipeline. The Sharks would have a first-round prospect and a little more cap space if they hadn’t made the Blake-Boyle moves.

Conclusion

If you need a final reason to convince you that the Blake and Boyle moves wrecked the Sharks, consider that this is the San Jose roster today:

Marleau-Thornton-Setoguchi
Michalek-Pavelski-Clowe
Cheechoo-Shelley

Boyle-Lukowich
Vlasic-Blake
Ehrhoff-Murray
Huskins

Nabokov

RFA: Mitchell, Staubitz, Greiss
Cap space: $1.6 million

Now, there are several players to be signed, without much cap space remaining to sign them. That means someone is on the way out and it will most likely be a salary dump, with diminished talent coming back the other way. It could be any combination of Marleau, Michalek, Cheechoo, Vlasic or Ehrhoff.

Meanwhile, Wilson made the decision to re-sign Blake for $3.5 million. This is just my opinion, but I think you treat the veteran a little differently because of his name and resume. That money could have gone to cap space, and if I had to decide whether to part with Blake, Ehrhoff or Vlasic the future Hall of Famer would be the one to go. Wilson won’t make that decision, hampering the Sharks’ future even further.

If the Sharks had stayed on the path, ignoring the Blake and Boyle options, this would be their roster today:

Marleau-Thornton-Setoguchi
Michalek-Pavelski-Clowe
Cheechoo-Shelley

Carle-Rivet
Vlasic-Ehrhoff
Murray-Huskins

Nabokov

RFA: Mitchell, Staubitz, Greiss
Cap space: $6 million

The Sharks wouldn’t have a ton of money to spend, but at least they’d be able to re-sign their restricted free agents, keep the core intact, add some pieces to fill out the roster, and continue competing at a high level for another couple years at least. Plus, they would have Wishart and another first-round prospect in the system.

Obviously the Blake and Boyle acquisitions go much deeper than simply increasing your top-end talent. Wilson committed an overabundance of salary to an area where there was limited need, while sacrificing the future and continuing to ignore the problems that have plagued his team during each of the last four abbreviated playoff runs. Toss in horrible cap management and the insistence on giving no-trade clauses to troubled assets, and you can see why the Sharks are mired in a culture of failure.

It wasn’t a popular opinion at the time, but hopefully people are starting to come around on the issue. The Blake and Boyle acquisitions were mistakes. That’s as true today as it was a year ago.

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