SAN JOSE – For Joe Pavelski, negotiations with the Sharks in 2019 are as focused on a potential new contract term as anything else. Pavelski, who finished the 2018-2019 season with 38 goals, felt that his game, regardless of age, would guarantee a three-year contract stability.
That summer he was offered the Dallas Stars, not the Sharks.
Now 37, Pavelski is proving that in the third year of that deal, the stars made a wise decision.
Pavelsky signed a three-year, $ 21 million contract with the Stars on July 1, 2019, ending his stunning 13th season in a green shirt. He enters the game against the Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday with nine goals and 21 points in 24 games, a year after scoring 25 goals and 51 points in 56 games.
“It was a bit of a surprise to me that Pavs wasn’t coming back,” Sharks captain Logan Kuture said Friday. “I thought they would do it and keep a guy like him as close as possible, but I wasn’t there during those negotiations.”
That time can be described as one of the most important periods in the history of the Sharks, of course, during the reign of CEO Doug Wilson.
The Sharks had no place under the salary limit to pay a fair market value after signing long-term contracts with captain Pavelsky, Kuture, Evander Kane, Eric Carlsson, Mark-Edward Vlasich and Martin Jones from 2015 to 2019. . extend the contract for the previous two years.
In June 2019, the Sharks had less than $ 15 million in assets, and several players still had to sign contracts, including then-limited free agents Timo Meyer and Kevin Labank.
“You have a heart and a head and you understand that these decisions need to be made and they will be made,” Wilson said after Pavelski signed a contract with Dallas in 2019. “But you like what Joe Pavelsky has brought to this organization over the years.”
Of course, Kane is now in the AHL, raising $ 5.85 million, and Jones bought a $ 34.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers in July after his last six years. Part of Jones ‘contract will remain in the Sharks’ book until the end of the 2026-27 season.
The Sharks will start coming out of that transition period as they enter Saturday with a 14-12-1 record. But it has come a long way to return to respect after we missed the playoffs in the last two seasons.
“It hurts to lose a guy like that, but it’s a business, unfortunately,” Kuture said of Pavelski. “So we had to go in and reassemble, and we haven’t done well enough in the last few years.”
Pavelski, meanwhile, played a key role in Dallas ’2020 Stanley Cup final in a balloon in Edmonton, scoring 19 points in 27 post-season games. The Stars lost to Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the final, but Pavelski scored four goals in a row.
Pavelski also made 1,000 and 1,100 appearances in the NHL with the Stars, scoring his 400th goal of his career against the Colorado Avalanche on November 26 – making him the 10th American-born player to reach the finish line.
Nine hundred and sixty-three of those games and 355 goals were scored by the Sharks from 2006 to 2019.
“I don’t think the contract has anything to do with it,” he said. I think he is motivated because he is an NHL player. He is an elite player in the NHL, ”Kuture said. “He’s going through incredible milestones and he wants to win.”
“He was great for coaching and watching, and he was great for youngsters,” said Sharks coach Bob Boughner. “He set an example for everyone, how to work and how to improve every day, and he still does, no matter where he is in his career.
“But in the room he had a very good calming effect. He was a guy that other players could rely on and he always found time for everyone.
According to Bouner, Pavelsky’s current legacy in Sharks is that he has shown how to lead other players like Kuture and Thomas Hertl, just as Pavelsky had the opportunity to learn from veterans like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.
“It’s not easy if guys like that go out in a year or two and the next group has to take responsibility,” Boughner said. “But I am very happy with their path. I think our leadership team is very strong right now and the room responds to that.
REIMER BACK: Goalkeeper James Reimer skated in the Sharks’ voluntary training session on Saturday morning and Bogner said he would start his plan against the Stars. Reimer last played on Nov. 30 because he missed the last five games due to a fatigue problem. On Thursday, he backed Adin Hill when the Sharks lost 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild.
SIMEK BACK: Boughner said Radim Simek will return to the Sharks on Saturday after being scratched in the last two games. Nicolas Meloche played against Calgary and Minnesota this week and recorded an average of 14:28 in the ice time between the two games, which seems to have required more ice time ahead.
The Sharks game will continue next week with games against Seattle on Tuesday and Vancouver on Thursday.
“We just want to make sure we keep everyone clean and put on new feet when needed,” Boughner said, “but I think (Meloche) got the right to be here full-time. He does it every day. “But I think he can play in this league.”
