HockeyBuzz Hotstove: Thoughts on San Jose's decision to fire Pete DeBoer?

They should have shook things up in off season and tried to get a bit younger, and NOT sign E.K. for a contract that is already being regretted in year 1.

Not coaches fault. Maybe Sharks will get a short boost after his firing, but after a week or so, they are still the same team. Should of started to rebuild a year or so ago.

EK is a great player, but he can't do everything. They need guys who can skate... Hopefully they sell off some useful pieces while they can and rebuild it.

HockeyBuzz Hotstove: Thoughts on San Jose's decision to fire Pete DeBoer?
- ToddCordellVAN

I'm indifferent.

I know Pavelski's getting up there in years, but they just let 38 goals walk out the door without acquiring significant offense. I think this was a bad decision. They already had one of the best offensive defensemen in the league in Burns, didn't need to add another insanely expensive d man.

Go back to the summer of 2018, when the Sharks goal was to sign Tavares as a #1 C for $13mm a year for 7 years. Had that happened, you wouldn't have EK65 now, you would have Vlasic and Burns as Top D and Tavares as Top C. Instead, you have the 3 Top D.
Tavares would be $1.5mm more against the cap than EK65 is today, putting you deeper into Cap Hell. Pavs was never going to be able to fit in cap wise under any scenario and not only would you have lost Nyquist and Donskoii (who is the one you really wanted to keep) but probably Dillon as well.
So, here we are today. Goodrow is playing his heart out but realistically he is not a Top 6 forward in today's NHL. Hertl and Logan are two very good C's but not elite as Tavares. Marleau at $700k is playing better than his salary and can still contribute. Jumbo is slowing down. Ferraro is showing that he will be a Top 4 D in the future ( a plus this year). Burns has earned his plus/minus status (4th worst in the League) and hasn't looked like a Burns of yesteryear. That might be because Pavs is not here to tip as many pucks in as before. A possible short term idea to try would be to move Burns back to forward , his natural position, and insert Heed (who has a very good shot) in as the D replacement. You won't suffer in the D zone anymore than you are now, and you add a Top 9 Forward who has scored 20 goals in that position who wont have the defensive responsibilities as he does now so perhaps you'd be better off. The off season will be the time to revamp the roster going forward...

EK is a great player, but he can't do everything. They need guys who can skate... Hopefully they sell off some useful pieces while they can and rebuild it.
- kaptaan

EK is a shadow of his former self in year 1 of that deal...

Go back to the summer of 2018, when the Sharks goal was to sign Tavares as a #1 C for $13mm a year for 7 years. Had that happened, you wouldn't have EK65 now, you would have Vlasic and Burns as Top D and Tavares as Top C. Instead, you have the 3 Top D.
Tavares would be $1.5mm more against the cap than EK65 is today, putting you deeper into Cap Hell. Pavs was never going to be able to fit in cap wise under any scenario and not only would you have lost Nyquist and Donskoii (who is the one you really wanted to keep) but probably Dillon as well.
So, here we are today. Goodrow is playing his heart out but realistically he is not a Top 6 forward in today's NHL. Hertl and Logan are two very good C's but not elite as Tavares. Marleau at $700k is playing better than his salary and can still contribute. Jumbo is slowing down. Ferraro is showing that he will be a Top 4 D in the future ( a plus this year). Burns has earned his plus/minus status (4th worst in the League) and hasn't looked like a Burns of yesteryear. That might be because Pavs is not here to tip as many pucks in as before. A possible short term idea to try would be to move Burns back to forward , his natural position, and insert Heed (who has a very good shot) in as the D replacement. You won't suffer in the D zone anymore than you are now, and you add a Top 9 Forward who has scored 20 goals in that position who wont have the defensive responsibilities as he does now so perhaps you'd be better off. The off season will be the time to revamp the roster going forward...
- hockeygm

EK is a FAR worse contract than Tavares,

Shoulda been DW, for the 18th time.

FFS, fire Doug Wilson.
Should have been done years ago.
EK tries to hard to do everything himself, and it shows more than anywhere on the PP...trying to stickhandle across the blue line every frickin' time, and the Sharts never control the puck in the zone, wasting at least 1 minute of every PP...
This "I can do it like EK" when it comes to flashy skating and stickhandling has been an epidemic, and guys are trying to make beautiful plays instead of SHOOTING THE PUCK. How many times have you seen guys in the slot or on the rush, pass the puck instead of going to the net or putting the puck on net? Yeah, Sharts get a lot of shots on net statistically, but they're from the point or bad angles, not great scoring chances. DeBoer just repeated what he did in NJ, basically, but with the lousy goaltending (that Wilson should've taken care of 2 years ago), DeBoer's hand was forced. Oh by the way, when will Evander Kane learn to play for the Team and not himself? No discipline, taking stupid penalties all of the time, at the worst possible times.

I do think a lot of people talk without knowledge of the situation. First Saying that Deboer lost his job because the team signed EK is....well i'm going to let you read that sentence and come up with your own ending....

From the start of the playoffs last year this team looked like the worst coached team in the league. I think they gave a goal in the first minute of 10/21 periods against Vegas. They haven't played with a lead since forever and can look like the best team in the league one day, and then the worst team in the league the following week. This team is lost and players make PEEWEE mistakes. Shift in shift out. It is straight up horrible to watch.

Love everything that Deboer brought to the sharks. That 2016 cup final doesn't happen without him. But that change had to be made to the eyes of A LOT of sharks fans.

EK is a great player, but he can't do everything. They need guys who can skate... Hopefully they sell off some useful pieces while they can and rebuild it.
- kaptaan

Erik Karlsson can barely skate. He is a shell of himself and gets beat constantly. Sharks have plenty of players who can skate. EK is not one of them. He looks so uncomfortable trying to play defense. Just watch. He is fighting it right now. Maybe he is still trying to get over his injuries but if anyone would bite on EK. I would ship him out ASAP.

That contract is only going to get worse.

Great write up Todd; way to phone it in Tanner, you could have at least inserted a "who cares" gif or something.

Pete Deboer is one of the 5 best coaches between 2010-2020 in the NHL. Trotz, Boudreau, Q and (insert your homer pick here) are the others.

Todd nailed it when he put this on the goaltending. It's not Karlsson, it's not Thornton, it's all on Jones and Dell, and to a lesser extent Doug Wilson for failing to shore that up in the offseason.

Haters gonna hate but EK65 is still a top pairing dman. In theory they could have given that money to Pavelski and Donskoi, but Pavs is slowing down and Jonas is putting up huge numbers because of injuries in colorado and opportunity to play waaaaay more.

The cringe factor is Ottawa gets their pick so it's not like they can do what the lightning did when they had ONE down year and got Drouin 3OA in 2013.

Wilson can save his job if he can move pickles.

Gotta wonder if the coach might have mentioned the goaltending stunk and asked the GM to address it.

Erik Karlsson can barely skate. He is a shell of himself and gets beat constantly. Sharks have plenty of players who can skate. EK is not one of them. He looks so uncomfortable trying to play defense. Just watch. He is fighting it right now. Maybe he is still trying to get over his injuries but if anyone would bite on EK. I would ship him out ASAP.

That contract is only going to get worse.
- Mahewman

Hes always been bad at defense. Now he cant score either.

Its not the coaches fault. No one can play d on that roster and the goalie sucks. Bad combo.