The past week saw two pretty major trades go down across the NHL. One was the Edmonton Oilers sending Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders in a one-for-one deal for young center Ryan Strome. The other was a big one. The Colorado Avalanche sent 26-year-old center Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators in a three-team deal which sent center Kyle Turris to Nashville, and picks and prospects to Colorado.
In addition to making their Western Conference rival Nashville Predators better than they already were with their acquisition of Turris, this affects the Sharks in various ways.
The San Jose Sharks had been rumored to be heavily going after both Duchene (cross that one off the list), and Islanders captain John Tavares this offseason. Tavares, set to become a high priced free agent after this year, makes the most sense for the Sharks. He’d be the logical replacement for Joe Thornton, and would provide first line numbers and minutes that they’d need if and when Thornton eventually does leave or retire.
The Sharks have two options, well, three options if you count not going after Tavares at all, but they’ll likely be major players for him. One of those options is just to wait for free agency, and get into a bidding war with another team(s). The Sharks will have the cap space to make a run at a guy like Tavares, with Joe Thornton’s $8 million deal, and Joel Ward’s $4 million deal coming off the books.
Their other scenario is to make a big deal for Tavares at the trade deadline and sign him to an extension. This will likely cost them a mix of players, picks and prospects, as Tavares is one of the better players in this league, and these two deals make that even more complicated now. The Matt Duchene trade to Ottawa set the market at a very high price for centermen across the NHL. And if it took Ottawa a very good player in Kyle Turris, a first and third round pick, and a pretty darn good prospect for a guy who only scored 41 points last season and had a +/- of -34, imagine what it will take the Sharks to land a guy like Tavares, a perennial all star.
As well as the Sharks are playing right now, they’re still 27th in the league in goals scored, and 22nd in the league in goals per game with 2.6. Adding a guy like John Tavares would cement them at or near the top of the Western Conference for years to come.
If it wasn’t already, a trade for the Islanders’ captain is now even more complicated with the price that Nashville and Ottawa paid for a much lesser player in Duchene. The market is now set, and the Sharks have a decision to make at the trade deadline. They can go for it now, try to win a cup with both Thornton and Tavares, or wait until the offseason and watch his price go up and up.