The first will probably be between 11 and 15. So it isn’t too bad

I bet anything that San Jose ownership told Grier they wanted out of the contract for as little financial pain as possible. Which is something I've been telling people on this site for months now. Ultimately NHL front offices answer to the organization ownership. People paying the bills and people watching the games don't always have the same objectives.

Gotta think long term. Sharks only retain 6 mil on EK65 next 4 years. That's a win Grier can sell to the owner.

Sure we get hosed with the cap dumps. But Hoffman has 1 year left. Granny has 2. I don't know if he can be flipped at half retained or maybe he gets bought out next June? Rutta can likely be flipped at the trade deadline.

We're going to be bad. We know this. But we'll be getting another high draft pick plus the Pens pick next June.

If you want to believe we lost the trade for now then I'm ok with that. But this was a trade made for the future. I believe ownership was heavily involved in the retention.

My final verdict...

Pens win now
Habs win both now and the future
Sharks win in the future

Sharks are similar to Detroit. They'll have place holders until their young studs replace them. Red Wings just have better place holders than we do so they can compete right now while we dwell at the bottom of the standings.

Stack those lottery picks baby!

If San Jose would have been willing to take half of the salary retain would have been lot better. But it make sense that front office wouldn’t want to have over 20 millions burried money.

Think about being Hertl

I appreciate your optimism.
We have 1 positive asset from this trade as of right now and it's likely to be a late 1st.
So that player has to hit in order for this to be a win.

EK signing that deal and then lightweight demanding a trade screwed us. Absolutely classless.

It's tough, I know. Frustrating even. But I really am thinking long term here. We'll be everyone's punching bag for awhile. It's a hard day for Sharks fans. I'll admit that.

Yeah... Sorry to say, but I saw this coming. I figured SJS would have to eat as much cap as they were sending out to get it done and they wouldn't get as much as SJS fans hoped. But, on the bright side, SJS fans can move on now. The bandaids have been ripped off and the real work can begin. Honestly, I think ya'll lucked out with EK having as good of a season as he did, otherwise moving that contract could've been a whole lot uglier. Take it from a CHI fan, the process is ugly and feels awful (especially with the Kyle Beach news breaking at the same time), but once you have some time to relax and gain some perspective, the clean slate is actually pretty nice and it's exciting to watch the rebuilding process. There is a big positive for you guys though, SJS already has a lot of really great pieces in place to help transition to their next era.

Celebrini Sweepstakes are on Chicago! This is war! Hehe

This team will suck and those assets we could potentially trade at the TDL will be diminished.

I was a huge Grier fan when he played, but he's been a poor GM imo.
Burns and Karlsson on the books for several more years. Just embarrassing.

You could be right. I'm willing to give Grier a chance.

To be clear, I wasn't kidding when I said I appreciated optimism.

This seems like the biggest loss so far by Grier.
If we pay Karlsson to win a cup with another team, what a joke. And if it's PIT, even more of a joke.

Don't worry. Pens aren't winning the Cup. I'd wager big money on that. If anyone is interested in making a bet, hit me up.

SJS will shock the Nhl world and make the playoffs, while the Pens still miss the playoffs.

That's my hot take on this trade.

I don't think the race to the bottom will be as blatant this year. I honestly don't even think Bedard was specifically the goal last year for CHI, the tear down and rebuild was long overdue and necessary regardless of whether Bedard being draft elgible or not. He was certainly an amazing consolation prize, but they were just doing what was necessary. It was more so about ripping it down to the studs and rebuilding through the draft.

Celebrini is great, but I think there are a lot of high end players in the 1st round next year that would address needs for CHI. So, I'm not too worried about it.

But, as they say, may the worst team win. haha.

We traded a valuable 1st for a player who will be part of our graveyard in 12 months time all to lose in the first round again. This is simple truth.

Honestly, even considering that possibility, PIT still won the trade. PIT moved out the Granlund and Petry contracts and got EK back for the price they paid. If you take EK65 out of the equation entirely, this still wouldn't have been an awful price to pay to dump those contracts. The fact that you got EK back could be considered a positive in that respect. Especially if he can continue playing like he did last season, and there should be a whole lot more interest in him next summer and beyond with all the cap relief on the way. That or he could turn out to be a great fit and play out his contract with PIT helping them continue to be competitive in these final years of the Crosby/Malkin/Letang era, however long they may be.

SJ was alwys looking at botton 3 with or without EK 65. now without it makes it easier that the fatal 4 game heater we went on in mid march wont happen again.

Hoffman has one year and will get PP1 time. he maybe can be moved for mid round pick at the deadline
Rutta .. another guy who may have value at one of the next 2 deadlines
Granlund. dump 100% not way to sugar coat it.
1st -- probable 15-20th pick giving us 2 1st in 2024 maybe 3 if NJ makes the conference finals.
only retaining 1.5M is huge. 40M in space next year, 56M in 2 yrs.
Vlasic we are stuck with, maybe this get Couture to think about expanding his trade list.

I find it as positive, young guys like Thrun and others could get a chance, they have a lot of youth and they need to play.

Yep this is a 60 pts team next year. lots of long night going to the tank

I just posted my lineup, I think they can be competitive. Maybe not Playoffs, but like Arz last year.

then that's a fail as an organization.

the next 2 yrs SJ should be trying to build a team around the drafted younger players then use the cap space in 3 yrs to make a run.
Blackwood and KK is a goaltending nightmare.

Lebanc, Barabonov, kunin, hoffman and Rutta all need to be moved at the deadline

Younger isn’t always better.

I could agree on 4 of those 5, not Barabanov.

In mine To Start, at least it should be interesting early, if you’re planning on flipping Granlund and Hoffman, you would want them to do good, to increase their value.