As first rumored on Hockeybuzz and then corroborated by the San Jose Mercury News Saturday, Ryan Clowe has agreed to a new contract with the San Jose Sharks. However, no other source could be found to verify the report, and it was not announced on the team site (sharks.nhl.com) or the newspaper's website.
As a wannabe professional journalist, I usually prefer to have more than two sources. However, since one is the definitive print media source for the Sharks, as their hometown paper, I believe the information is trustworthy.
One might speculate (if one were me) that there has been no announcement because it is an agreement in principal and is not yet official. The NHLPA has the deal is for one year, $1.6 million, which according to Hockey Buzz has the Sharks $225,000 over the cap.
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The contract also would mean that Clowe would be a restricted free agent in 2009. I would not expect him to be buying a home in the Bay Area because this appears to be a sub-market value contract, and he may prefer to be elsewhere next year. On the other hand, if Kevin Lowe doesn't have room for him, maybe no one will be willing to part with the picks necessary to sign him.
Christian Ehrhoff got $9.3 million over three years and, while playing a position of greater need for San Jose, is not near the player Clowe is. Ryan did suffer a major knee injury that kept him out of 67 games last season, but came back fairly strong in the playoffs despite a slow start in the second round.
He is only one of ten free agents the Sharks will have at the end of the season, six of which are unrestricted.
It is unlikely they will even try to re-sign Rob Blake, Jeremy Roenick, or Kyle McLaren, and they might be willing to lose Mike Grier and Brian Boucher, as well as restricted free agent Marcel Goc. But they likely want to re-sign unrestricted free agent Douglas Murray as well as Torrey Mitchell, Marc-Eduoard Vlassic, and Clowe. That might be more than they can handle.
Next year's probable departure notwithstanding, Clowe's signing is big. It solidifies the Sharks as the only team in the league to have all three units (forwards, defencemen, and goaltenders) indisputably in the top five in the league.
And winning Lord Stanley's Cup would help sugarcoat the loss of Clowe in the offseason.
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4 months ago
I agree, this is big. It will continue to help them on their way to the finals
4 months ago
Ryan Clowe was a force in the playoffs. Maybe a flash in the pan offensively. Yet, Clowe is a beauty when it comes to a role player up front. He's a character player that the Sharks need to keep in the mix to be successful.
Good read!
4 months ago
Um, a newspaper which itself sites no sources can't be considered a "source" as it most likely is simply printing the same "unconfirmed" source that you are using. Neither one of you appears to have spoken to a)the team, b) the player or c) his agent. So this still is in the "rumor" category.
from 4 months ago
Um, wise acre, do you go to blogs to find reasons to question writers' integrity? Besides:
1. Resposible newspapers follow the rules I have set for myself, and do not just quote some blogger before putting something in print for fear of getting egg on their face. This is not to say there are not irresponsible newspapers out there, which is why I mentioned the caveat even though I have not found any of their sports reporting unreliable in the years I have subscribed.
2. Newspapers don't always reveal their sources because most sources prefer anonymity.
3. Do you seriously think bloggers have access to teams, players, and agents? So when you read someone's breaking news on a blog, don't you think they just heard it in ESPN, and therefore they are citing someone without confirming that report independently? What makes that any different from me reading it in a paper?
4. I never said the newspaper didn't quote a source, so before you trash me, verify YOUR claims before printing them as comments, thou hypocrite! They did in fact cite the NHLPA.
I guess those who can't criticize, so I'll let this one go.
4 months ago
Ehrhoff is a much, much more complete and important player than Clowe. Clowe hasn't played a healthy year since 04-05 and never played an injury free season in juniors. He's a hard worker with important tools the Sharks need, but he's not reliable due to him being injury-prone. He's about 1/2 the player Ehrhoff is, thanks to his inability to stay on the ice.
from 4 months ago
Can't agree with you there. If the Sharks have to go with McLaren instead of Ehrhoff, there will be very littl impact on an individual game. Losing Clowe makes the second through fourth lines worse, and he brings a lot more to the table--one of the reasons he gets hurt. I might not argue the point that Ehrhoff is more important because he is on the ice more, but no way it's even close to twice as important. Give Clowe a half season and he probably not only has more goals (which he should as a forward), but more assists AND more hits (no way this should happen in half the games at the less-hitting position). Plus Clowe protects the guys he's on the ice with, and that's an intangible the Sharks have in short supply.
4 months ago
Outside of Boyle, Ehrhoff is the best d-man on the team. He was vastly superior to Vlasic last year, and Murray still needs huge help due to his lack of speed. Other than Rivet, he was the best on the PK from the start of the year until he seriously injured his ankle late in the year. McLaren is done. He's not much better than Semenov at this point. Ehrhoff will be great this year. Write it down in pen. :)
You said in an earlier column that Clowe would "easily command" more than Ehrhoff's $3.3 million a year. Now that is getting half of that, isn't it easy to admit you overrate Clowe about 2X his actual worth?
from 4 months ago
Murray is more of an impact defenceman though because of his hitting, and he is less rattled handling the puck in his own end. However, I would not call him better or worse, since you are right about Douggie's liabilities; plus, he doesn't have a ton of upside other than gaining experience.
Lukowich is an outstanding defencive player who is also steady, and may prove to be our best D. Vlassic had a bit of a fall-off last year, but eats minutes because he takes care of the puck and plays like a vet. Despite his age, Blake is also a steady two-way player and that experience is gonna pay off. All of them should be better than Ehrhoff this year, and all have been better recently.
On the plus side, Ehrhoff is the best skater among them and younger than everyone but Vlassic, so he may be one of our two best before his contract expires (by which time he will have continued to improve, Blake will be retired, Boyle and Luke will be waning...), so I am not ripping on him.
4 months ago
The 1.6 is reported on NHLPA.com, the official site of the NHLPA. Length is not specified. The Merc blog only has Wilson saying that an understanding has been reached and to expect an anouncement shortly. Note: based on nhlcap.com this should put the Sharks over the Cap by 0.3.
from 4 months ago
Thanks for the over the cap info. Watch for them to cut or trade someone pedestrian, or try to re-work a contract.
from 3 months ago
Yeah, if a player were to restructure their contract to help free up space, that player would essentially agree to a pay cut. This might be possible with the NFL salary cap, but the NHL system doesn't allow that once the contract is signed. (We haven't heard of NHL players restructuring contracts to create cap space in the salary cap era.)
Additionally, our cap is funky in that teams cannot simply cut players to shed salary. (Again, you hear that all the time in football.) The closest they can get are through contract buy-outs, where the team still owes 2/3 of the salary over the twice the contract time (if the player is 26 or older) and 1/3 salary if younger. All of this due to the system's guaranteed contract clause.
Two options remain for the Sharks: cut someone and take a cap hit for a former player next year or trade. The latter seems more logical since you can trade for someone cheaper in their last contract year or for draft picks.
Another reason why a buyout is more unlikely: nobody wants to end up like the New York Islanders or Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2009-2010, Toronto owes $1.7M to former players while New York owes $3.6M mainly due to Alexei Yashin's old 10-year contract. This is a waste of money and could be used to sign valuable players like Ryane Clowe.
So...who's going go to go?
from 3 months ago
And I still stand by my earlier prediction of Kyle McLaren being the trade bait --IF-- a trade goes down. Haha.
from 3 months ago
Thanks for all the info Ryan! I think Mac is their first choice to trade, but we might only get a mid-round pick for him since he's overpaid. Than they'd have to pick up a guy or two who is barely NHL-caliber in case of injury--someone hopefully better than Semenov willing to sign for that little.
3 months ago
just saw the Clowe signing on Yahoo as well
3 months ago
Derek Joslin is ready to be the 7th defenseman. Given that Blake and Murray will probably miss 10-15 games each, Joslin should see 40-50 NHL games as a way to break him in. I think he's going to be a nice player.
from 3 months ago
That's why we better get someone else if we decide to buy out or are able to trade McLaren. You need eight guys, really--Joslin and someone else.
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