Find McLaren A Home

It isn't exactly common practice to intentionally and deliberately hold an ostensibly injury-free player out of all training camp scrimmages without having clear-cut plans to trade said player, especially when the team in question is just over the league-mandated salary cap. So one can only deduce that Kyle McLaren has either developed some sort of rare and ironic allergy to ice or the hip-checking Sharks defenseman is on the trading block. Disallowed from participating in any of the team's three scrimmages thus far at Sharks Ice in addition to tonight's Teal and White Game, it has become fairly evident that McLaren will not be donning teal or white come opening day. Er, at least not in conjunction. So as we bid adieu to one of the last links on the current roster to the Dean Lombardi regime, it's only fitting that we handicap Big Mac's likely destinations.

Los Angeles Kings

Speaking of Lombardi, we all know the Sharks GM loves his ex-players. First it was Alyn McCauley, then Scott Thornton, then Brad Stuart, then Tom Preissing and soon enough the Kings' clubhouse served as a virtual garbage bin for Sharks retreads. The Kings also remain under the salary cap floor (albeit with key RFA Patrick O'Sullivan still unsigned), but you wonder whether Deano would be keen to help a division rival escape their cap troubles. At the end of the day, however, Lombardi has to do what's best for the Kings and with a defense corps greener than a rabid environmentalist's utopia (I know, my metaphors are amazing) it stands to reason that the team would like to shore up their blueline with a veteran addition.


Atlanta Thrashers

Although the Thrash have been mentioned as potentially active participants in the Mathieu Schneider Sweepstakes (can a player so unwanted that he clears waivers in late September really engender a "sweepstakes"?), the team already has two palatable power-play quarterbacks in Tobias Enstrom and Ron Hainsey. And it's almost guaranteed Ilya Kovalchuk returns to his customary position on the left point of the team's man-advantage unit. So while Atlanta is in need of defensemen (rushing Zach Bogosian to the NHL at age 18 would have severely detrimental consequences down the road), desirable skill sets among those blueliners would include more hitting and sandpaper than passing and shooting. Kyle McLaren certainly fits the bill, but with knee injuries having slowed him the past few seasons, one wonders if K-Mac could hold up in the high-flying Southeast Division.

St. Louis Blues

Of all the ways to sustain a season-ending injury, "golf cart accident" might just rank up there with skate blade wrist-slitting as among the strangest. Obligatory and unoriginal jokes linking the Blues to frequent golfing aside, the loss of presumed No. 1 defenseman Erik Johnson is huge and likely spells the end of what minimal playoff hopes the franchise harbored for the upcoming season. While the aforementioned Schneider would probably be a better fit as a Johnson replacement due to his special teams skills, the unreliability of Jay McKee's groin suggests that St. Louis could use a minute-munching, physical, penalty-killing veteran d-man in their lineup. Unfortunately, such a player is not on the market, but the Blues can settle for the next best thing in McLaren. And, besides, what team is better acquainted with K-Mac's hip-checking skills?



My point exactly.

Regardless of his last rather forgettable, injury-riddled campaign, McLaren's newfound status as the franchise's first cap casualty is regrettable as K-Mac has represented the team well and been nothing short of a class act since arriving in San Jose from Boston (when he infamously went from being Ray Bourque's partner to...Mike Rathje's partner). Thanks and good luck, K-Mac, we'll miss you.

Mitchell Out 8 Weeks With Leg Injury

Some disheartening news from the training camp front earlier today as David Pollak reports that two-way center Torrey Mitchell will be out for the next eight weeks after injuring his leg in a collision with the goal post. This after Rudy Kelly named Mitchell his "Langdon Alger" (as a commenter of that post astutely noted, perhaps Rudy should assign that distinction to a J-S Giguere or Chris Pronger). While Mitchell's myriad talents will be sorely missed, particularly on the penalty kill, this can be seen as a glaring window of opportunity for the likes of Steve Zalewski, Riley Armstrong and even Logan Couture -- bubble prospects who had little chance of making the team prior to TM's injury. While it says here the most likely scenario is Jeff Friesen making the team and Marcel Goc subsequently being shifted to occupy Mitchell's third-line center role, training camp just got a lot more interesting with a roster spot now legitimately up for grabs. Still, for the good of the team, hopefully Mitchell's recovery is as quick as his skating.

****

Perhaps this is a rather petty complaint, but is there a logical reason why no Sharks preseason game is televised by CSN-BA and only two (!) games are even broadcast on local radio? This isn't exactly a startling development as, to the best of my memory, no Sharks presesason game in franchise history has ever been televised by the local Fox Sports affiliate, but with most other teams, including several south of the 49th, broadcasting at least a handful of their preseason contests on television, it would only follow that the Sharks step into the 21st century sooner or later and do the same. Regardless, jockeying for roster position takes the next step Wednesday when the Sharks open their 6-game preseason schedule against the Anaheim Ducks. We should have a full-fledged season preview/predictions up here at Bleed Teal within the next week or so.

Sharks Camp Opens

Photo courtesy Sharkspage

After four long months of debating personnel movement, mulling over potential lineups and prognosticating endlessly, a palpable feeling of optimism, joy and delight is emanating throughout. As the leaves change color, the sky begins to gray and ominous clouds materialize, the uninitiated begin to dread the upcoming seasonal shift. Fall, they call it. Autumn, others say. But puckheads across the globe know what is really imminent: hockey season. With Sharks training camp opening earlier today at Sharks Ice in San Jose, we're a mere 19 days away from San Jose's season opener against the Ducks (who, coincidentally, signed Teemu Selanne this morning to a pro tryout. Mirtle wonders if he'll make the team). Which, of course, means 19 more days of debating personnel movement, mulling over potential lineups and prognosticating endlessly. At least now we have tangible, physical evidence to base such postulation upon. Exhibit A: The venerable David Pollak presents Todd McLellan's decidedly rudimentary assemblage of the team's top four lines. For those too lazy to click on the link, here they are:

Marleau--Thornton--Clowe
Michalek--Pavelski--Cheechoo
Goc--Mitchell--Grier
Plihal--Roenick--Setoguchi

Um, yeah. Not exactly what I expected, either. As Pollak notes, RW often resorted to the "eggs in a basket" plan -- placing Marleau and Thornton on the same line -- to no avail. But who knows? Perhaps it'll work seamlessly under McLellan's purportedly offense-geared system (optimism, remember?). Anyway, it's good to have hockey back and it'll probably feel even better when the preseason begins this Wednesday. I'm likely attending tomorrow's scrimmage at Sharks Ice so I'll try and report on what I observe there.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

The beast hath returned.

Sharks extend Vlasic

The Sharks announced earlier today that burgeoning young defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, still under his rookie contract through the 2008-09 season, has been signed to a four-year extension that will keep him in teal through the 2012-13 campaign. Financial terms of the deal are as of yet undisclosed.

Already a key cog on the Sharks' blueline, Vlasic is undoubtedly a critical component of the team's future and, with the contracts being doled out to young defensemen the past two summers, should receive somewhere in the ballpark of $3.1 million a year. Assuming those figures, the Sharks now have a respectable top three of Dan Boyle, Christian Ehrhoff and Vlasic on the back end locked up long-term at the reasonable annual rate of $13.1 million. The extension of Vlasic now, as opposed to next summer when the 21-year-old officially hits the restricted free agent market, is also a wise move, reducing the number of contracts Doug Wilson will have to deal with in the 2009 offseason when the likes of Torrey Mitchell, Ryane Clowe, Rob Blake, Mike Grier and Douglas Murray attain various levels of free agency.

EDIT It's quite possible that I am prescient. Or I peruse abysmally inaccurate hockey rumor blogs often enough to gauge information from one of them that miraculously sticks to the wall. Regardless, my estimate of $3.1 million was accurate as TSN reports that the 4-year deal is worth a grand sum of $12.4 million.

Report: Jeff Friesen still alive, invited to camp

The dog days of summer roll on with humidity peaking and hockey news scant. So, naturally, any semblance of puck-related happenings deserve to be mercilessly extrapolated and have their admittedly slim significance shamelessly overblown. Thus, it's with great pleasure that I direct you to an entry by Sharks prospect observer extraordinaire Max Giese on his blog Unfiltered Sports in which he claims a source close to the organization has confirmed that ex-Shark Jeff Friesen has received a training camp invite from San Jose. The source is unnamed, which is generally a red flag, but, hey, it's August, journalistic integrity has never been a hallmark here at Bleed Teal and as Against Me! once said, unsubstantiated rumors are good enough for me to base my life upon. After a prolific junior career with the Regina Pats of the WHL in which Friesen utilized his breakaway speed to rack up obcsene point totals, the left wing was selected 11th overall by the Sharks in the '94 draft and was widely viewed as a beacon of hope for the future. Things never really panned out and Friesen was finally shipped to the Ducks in the infamous Teemu Selanne deal in 2001.

But enough about the past. As far as present ramifications go, there really isn't a whole lot. First of all, even if the Sharks like what they see from the perennial Game 7 hero, the team is still in the neighborhood of $200,000 over the salary cap, which begs the question WHAT IS KYLE MCLAREN STILL DOING ON THE ROSTER, DW?!?! Ahem. Excuse me. Anyway, assuming K-Mac is shed, the Sharks would have the cap room to sign Friesen to serve as this season's career-resuscitation challenge. These experiments are largely hit or miss -- or, more appropriately, Roenick or Ozolinsh -- but at 32, it's certainly not outrageous to believe the former 30-goal scorer still has something left in the tank. Operating under the McLaren-out, Friesen-in assumption, the Sharks' depth chart looks something like this:

LW: Marleau, Michalek, Clowe, Friesen, Shelley
C: Thornton, Pavelski, Mitchell, Roenick, Goc
RW: Cheechoo, Setoguchi, Grier, fire hydrant (?)
D: Boyle, Blake, Ehrhoff, Vlasic, Murray, Lukowich, Joslin
G: Nabokov, Boucher, Greiss

Apart from the gaping hole at fourth-line right wing, which will likely be filled by moving Roenick over to the right side (although apparently pugnacious prospect Riley Armstrong, brother of Thrashers forward/Marian Hossa trade bait Colby, has the potential to make some waves at camp), the Sharks' roster looks rather set, indicating that a Friesen signing could very well be in the cards, at the very least as a replacement (read: upgrade) for Tomas Plihal. In other Sharks news, we are old.

McLellan's day with the Cup

Reason #7158 why the Stanley Cup is vastly superior to any other trophy in the wide world of professional sports: Each of its victors is awarded an entire day in full possession of the silver chalice. While this tidbit may not rank as high on the list of evidence stressing the Cup's irrefutable superiority to all other constituents of the sports trophy landscape as the fact that the team captain, not some moribund owner fresh off their fourth botox who couldn't give a rat's ass about their team's performance as long as it generates revenue, is the first to touch the Cup, it's still yet another unique tradition firmly entrenched in puck lore. Today was Todd McLellan's day with the Cup and the Red Wings assistant turned newly anointed Sharks bench boss elected to spend it in his hometown of Saskatoon, where it appears he received a parking ticket from an officer who had the veracity to subsequently request a photo with Lord Stanley (those crazy Canadian cops!) and had lunch at the Sheraton Cavalier with the mayor of Saskatoon.

Yes, if you haven't noticed, news indeed is that slow around the hockey world. But fear not, fellow puckheads: the preseason is a mere 34 days away! In news of a tad more consequence (albeit not much more), The Hockey News remind me why I canceled my subscription to their fine publication by posting their standings predictions. I'll have my own predictions a little closer to the season when questions regarding Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic and Martin Havlat's groin are (presumably) answered, but THN's projection of the Wild as Northwest Division champions is just one of many absurdities perpetuated by the magazine. Also, our good friends at The Battle of California inform us that the Golden State might as well be the Rickertale State as far as Versus (God's gift to upper-tier cable sports programming) is concerned. Finally, I realize I'm a little late to the boat on this one (that's an expression, right?), but as evident in this gameplay clip, it appears that our very own Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda are lending their broadcasting talent to 2K Sports' NHL 2K9 video game (the redheaded stepsister of hockey videogaming).