San Jose Sharks: Salary Juggling Necessary to Keep From Tanking

(Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images)

You can bet Doug Wilson is on the phone a lot these days.

Why? According to HockeyBuzz, his San Jose Sharks currently have just under $1.35 million of cap space, and that counts only 17 skaters and one goalie.

The current cap space gives the Sharks the ability to complete their roster requirement by adding a skater and a goalie at or near the league minimum. However, there will not be enough room to have a single scratched player active in case of illness or an injury in pre-game skates.

Not a good position to be in. Remember, the team cannot simply call up minor leaguers to fill these spots, or those players' contracts count against the cap, too.

Worse yet, San Jose has tendered offers to Torrey Mitchell, Brad Staubitz, and Tomas Greiss, and they need to have enough room for those contracts should no one sign the players away.

Thus, players will likely need to be traded away in order to have a complete roster. While the Sharks could do what they did with Kyle McLaren last season—assign him to the minors to lift his salary from the cap. Had they simply cut him, they would have had two-thirds of his count against the cap.

McLaren had to be waived in order to be sent down because he did not have a two-way contract. Because he was so grossly overpaid, no one claimed him, as they would have been responsible to pay him that salary which would have counted against their cap.

Players this year might be worth what they are paid, making it difficult to count on keeping them in the system. The good news is that makes a trade more likely.

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