Tim Chiasson

Halifax • Canada • 33 Years Old • Male

Shark Talk: Roster Cuts, Cap Compliance and Notes

The San Jose Sharks currently have 32 players remaining at camp, meaning they will have to send off 9 more players before the roster deadline.

I'm going to make my predictions on who is going to be re-assigned.

In Goal

Harri Sateri

On Defence

Taylor Doherty
Matt Tennyson

Up Front

John McCarthy
Matt Nieto
Bracken Kearns
Matt Pelech
Freddie Hamilton
Andrew Desjardins
Nick Petrecki


That leaves 12 forwards, 7 defense and 2 goaltenders for a 21-man roster. Why are they only carrying 21 players? I'll explain.

Cap Compliance

With the salary cap dropping, the Sharks are one of 8 NHL teams that are over the salary cap ceiling. With these cuts, most importantly Desjardins and McCarthy, the Sharks would find themselves compliant to the salary cap, but not by much.

This is where it happens. Martin Havlat to LTIR, or at least I hope. If you've paid any attention to the roster for the Sharks training camp you'll know that Anthony Stewart was given a professional tryout to re-launch his NHL career. I think he makes the Sharks if San Jose can maneuver some cap space around, mainly get under and place Havlat on LTIR. I think Stewart would be a good depth addition for the bottom six for San Jose.

If that all works out, Stewart is the 22nd man on the roster. That bumps up the forward total to 13. From there, the Sharks can either recall Petrecki, Hamilton or Desjardins depending on what void they want to be prepared for should it arise.

With the lack of trade market for anyone, anywhere, right now it seems as though carrying less players on the roster to start the season is how many teams will become compliant to start the year without forfeiting games.

One thing to remember about LTIR, if you're wondering why teams haven't designated players to such a list yet, is that you don't benefit from it if you are currently over the salary cap. If a team places a player on the LTIR, and they are over the cap, they are deemed to have fully replaced said player and gain no additional cap space. If the team gets under the cap, by any amount, and then places the player on LTIR, they get the LTIR players' salary minus their cap space as the total they have to work with. For example, $5M player goes on LTIR with a team who has $1M space, $5M-$1M = $4M cap space.

Shark Notes

- Dan Boyle has said that he wants to end his career as a Shark. I admire his loyalty, but if that's the case he may have to retire before the trade deadline. As seen with Daniel Alfredsson, loyalty is expensive. I don't think the Sharks should be willing to keep Boyle around to find out his extravagant demands when free agency opens up, unless they get a discount deal done before the trade deadline, somewhere in the $4 range for one season.

- Raffi Torres had successful surgery with regards to his ACL injury. He is expected to miss a significant amount of time but will be back at some point this season. This is another reason to move the space to sign Anthony Stewart.

- Brent Burns continued his trend of Sasquatch photos this year.



I'll leave on that note, thanks for reading. Stay icy, Sharks fans.

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