San Jose Sharks coach David Quinn by no means performed within the NHL however can think about the kind of strain a marquee participant like Timo Meier is likely to be below whereas they’re in a contract yr.
“Why wouldn’t they? I do know I'd,” Quinn mentioned final week. “It’s human nature and I don’t begrudge (Meier) that in any respect. Particularly at 26. Individuals suppose simply because they put a uniform on that they’re proof against life’s challenges. That’s not the way it works.”
If Meier has felt the burden of enjoying properly whereas the greenback quantity and size of his profitable subsequent contract continues to be to be decided, it hasn’t proven. Going into Tuesday’s recreation with the Vancouver Canucks, the Sharks winger has 18 targets in 35 video games and is on tempo to raised his career-high of 35 targets set final season.
In truth, the 4 greatest goal-scoring years in Sharks franchise historical past have come from gamers who have been all about to enter – or have been already in – contract years.
Jonathan Cheechoo holds the franchise document for targets in a season with 56 in 2005-06, as he discovered instantaneous chemistry with Joe Thornton, who was acquired by the Sharks from the Boston Bruins on Nov. 30, 2005.
Halfway by that season, when he already had 32 targets and 21 assists in 53 video games, Cheechoo, per CapFriendly, signed a five-year, $15 million extension.
Owen Nolan and Patrick Marleau are tied for second on the franchise checklist with 44-goal seasons in 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, respectively. After what would stay Nolan’s most prolific NHL season, he would go on to signal a five-year, $30 million deal in October 2000 after a quick holdout.
Marleau had his career-best 44-goal season 10 years later.
Stripped of the Sharks’ captaincy earlier than the 2009-2010 season, Marleau was within the final yr of a two-year, $12.6 million deal. However as an alternative of spurning the Sharks the following offseason, Marleau signed a four-year, $27.6 million extension on June 24, 2010, every week earlier than he might have change into an unrestricted free agent.
Marleau, given his manufacturing, might have signed for extra as a UFA elsewhere.
“You need to be on a successful group, and also you need to enable the group to have the ability to usher in gamers or to maintain gamers round so as so that you can be a profitable group and win,” Marleau mentioned after the four-year deal was introduced. “I’ve been right here for some time now, and I want to see issues by and win a (Stanley) Cup right here in San Jose.”
That Cup by no means materialized however the Sharks would stay aggressive all through the size of Marleau’s deal, which expired simply as Joe Pavelski was starting a five-year, $30 million extension.
Pavelski had signed the contract in July 2013, a full season earlier than his four-year, $16 million deal was going to run out. All Pavelski went on to do in 2013-14 was rating 41 targets, setting a management tone in San Jose that will final for the following a number of seasons.
“Being dedicated for one more six years,” Pavelski mentioned in July 2013, “the dedication stage on my half has to repay them for placing their belief in me now.”
Meier, after all, is within the closing season of a four-year, $24 million contract he signed with the Sharks in July 2019, and is slated to change into a restricted free agent subsequent summer time.
Given his productiveness during the last four-plus seasons from 2018 to as we speak with 256 factors, which ranked forty third league-wide earlier than Tuesday, Meier is in line for a major elevate over the $6 million common annual worth of his present deal.
As of late final week, Meier mentioned there had not been any contract talks between his camp and the Sharks, who're in a a lot completely different spot as a company than they have been when Cheechoo, Nolan, Marleau, and Pavelski signed their extensions.
As a substitute of the win-now mode of these groups, the Sharks stay in one thing of a rebuild.
And the query Sharks normal supervisor Mike Grier faces is whether or not to re-sign Meier to what is going to absolutely be an costly deal, or commerce him for belongings — maybe even by the March 3 deadline — and use that cash elsewhere.
Re-signing Meier could be an indication from Grier that he believes the sturdy, expert winger nonetheless has a number of prime seasons forward of him. Generally that works out for the group because it did with Pavelski, and generally it doesn't, as Cheechoo by no means once more scored greater than 40 targets.
“Clearly the season continues to be younger. Like I mentioned earlier than, I don’t anticipate something,” by way of a contract provide through the season, Meier mentioned. “I anticipate myself to be one of the best participant and that’s the primary factor. That’s what my focus is true now and the opposite stuff is less than me. I’m simply right here making an attempt to contribute my greatest effort day-after-day to the group.”
As he was speaking about Meier, Quinn stopped himself mid-sentence when he started to invest how a lot that subsequent contract is likely to be price.
“I don’t need to put a quantity on the market,” Quinn mentioned, “as a result of (group proprietor) Hasso (Plattner) would possibly get mad at me.”