Ladies and gentlemen, they did it: the San Jose Sharks won a game.
The hockey center of the Santa Clara Valley defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Tuesday night, with forward Anthony Duclair recording a goal and an assist, helping end the Sharks’ 11-game losing streak that matched the longest to start a season in NHL history.
It’s still likely that the Sharks will have a difficult season, currently sitting at the bottom of the league standings. But what are the long-term plans for the club? And once team captain Logan Couture returns from his lower-body injury, how will he fit into the team’s future?
On Wednesday’s episode of "Daily Faceoff LIVE," Frank Seravalli discussed exactly that, and what some of the options are for the Sharks to juggle their high-priced contracts.
Frank Seravalli: Couture needs to come back and play, and then we’ll see. This is what really makes the Sharks’ situation that much tougher: they’ve got Tomas Hertl and Couture, and both of these guys make $8M or more on the cap. There’s only going to be room for one of them to move on. The Sharks are going to have to retain or pay a big price for one of them to move on, and they only have one retained salary transaction slot left after using the first two on Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson — and that’s not just for this season, but until the end of their contracts — so they’re in a tough spot.
At some point, one or both of these guys will raise their hand and say “I can’t go through this anymore, I want out,” and they only have room to move one of them. I think there’s probably going to be more interest in Hertl, and that puts the captain in a tough spot.
You can watch the full episode here…
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