Équipe: 2019-20 Sharks de San Jose

Date de création initiale: 22 juill. 2019

Publié: 22 juill. 2019

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Sooooo I love Pavelski, I've been a Sharks fan ever since I could say the word Sharks around 2004. I've seen this franchise go through a lot, and I've been behind it the entire time. One of my favorite players that I loved to watch was Joe Pavelski, it was fun watching his hockey career grow as I grew up as a little kid. I cheered with him through his highs and lows, his streaks and slumps, I watched him evolve from Little Joe to Captain America. And then the 2018-19 playoffs happened, and I watched my favorite hockey team rally back against its mortal enemies in by far the most exciting and nerve racking hockey game that I have ever watched in my thousands that I have seen throughout my 15 years of watching hockey. I attended the game 5 against Colorado in the second round and saw Pavelski walk out of the locker room and stand outside waving his rally towel, and everyone in the building gave him a standing ovation. Just for waving a towel. Every. Single. Person. I was one of the loudest people screaming. Everyone got a rush of excitement to see their team's captain doing okay, after a possible career ending (as it looked) injury. Him alone waving a rally towel for 60 seconds fueled his team to victory, eventually to winning the series and heading to the Conference Finals, where Pavelski rejoined the lineup and it was amazing to see.

Then, free agency hit. I was sure that we were going to resign our captain. The cap would be a crunch with Karlsson and his record setting contract, but I knew deep down that we would resign Pavelski. And then the rumors floated in. Pavelski to Chicago? Tampa? Dallas? Nothing about the Sharks resigning him. He released a statement on locker cleanout day that he believed in the system here that he was going to get resigned. And I refuse to believe, after he signed with Dallas, that we did not make him an offer. Now why would he not resign with us ? The team that drafted him in the 7th round, watched him grow and was behind him the entire journey, and made him our captain. He grew his family in San Jose. Was part of a much bigger family of the Sharks organization. The entire fan base loved him to death. He was our Captain America. And he left.

I heard a comparison of him to Tavares a couple days ago that really got me thinking. Tavares left the team that saw him grow and raised him because he wanted a place that could be a contender for years to come, and he found that in Toronto. New York could afford him, but he just wanted to be a contender, and he was born in Toronto so it was a childhood dream. I get that. Pavelski on the other hand, went to Dallas. He got a 3 x 7mil contract. That is what he deserves, but in his joining statement on the NHL network, he said he wanted to go to a "real contender" and a "team that was close to winning." What about the team that was in the Western Conference Finals this year? The team that's been a contender and is going to be a contender for years to come? The team that you said you loved so very much and that you're sad about leaving? All it really seems like, is that he wanted more money. He could have taken a slight discount to 6mil maybe 6.5mil and the deal would have gotten done. But instead he went to somewhere who he thinks is going to be a contender and leaving behind his entire NHL past and a team that seems very close to winning it all.

I love Pavelski and I respect him in every single way, but I will never understand this decision by him.

Sincerely,
Lime