The Other Shoe Drops

So, Brian Campbell's short career as a Shark is over. He is Chicago bound.

Although all parties involved insisted that San Jose was in the running right up until the end, I was pretty sure he was leaving, and I'm quite certain that most other Sharks fans have been of a similar mind.

My disappointment about this development is muted. Yes, Campbell is an excellent offensive defenseman, and it would've been nice to keep him around. But although I was initially head-over-heels in love with him in teal, I was very disappointed in his playoff performance. He was barely visible against Calgary, and the two attributes he will be expected to provide for the Blackhawks--the ability to generate offense by moving the puck accurately and aggressively out of the defensive zone, and the ability to quarterback the power play--were grimly squashed by the Dallas Stars. Indeed, Campbell sometimes looked borderline inept in the face of the Stars' withering forecheck. He certainly wasn't alone in this, and I'm not blaming Campbell for the Sharks early playoff exit--the point is just that my love affair with this guy (Me on March 4th, after the Montreal Game: "Memo to Brian Campbell: We like you! We really like you!") cooled considerably after the playoff exit.

(In retrospect, I wonder how much the admiration of Campbell-and the commensurate distress at seeing him go--amongst San Jose fans was amplified by a single moment: his brilliant goal against the Canadiens that night. The Sharks were on a winning streak, it was their first game back after a looooooong road trip, they were engaged in a crowd-pleasing goalfest with Montreal, and, with San Jose leading 5-4 and just under two minutes to play, Campbell scored an absolutely beautiful goal using his "Spin-O-Rama" move, salting the game away. After the game Campbell was interviewed on the ice and you could practically see the joy flowing through the Tank. It was an electrifying moment, and of course we all fell in love with Campbell if we weren't already, and the team certainly owed a lot of its success down the stretch to his presence...but one wonders if maybe we didn't get a bit carried away.)

Furthermore, there are the terms of the deal to consider: eight years, $57.1 million, according to the report I linked to above. The salary on a per-year basis doesn't bother me, but the duration of the contract does. How often do we see long, expensive "sure thing" free-agent deals become terrible burdens for mediocre teams? (You don't even have to look outside the Bay Area to find the poster child for this sort of thing).

Honestly, my happiness about the fact that the Sharks re-signed Jody Shelley exceeds my sadness that they lost Campbell.

In short: would've been nice to keep Campbell, but I didn't think it was going to happen and sure enough it didn't. If the Sharks had signed him for eight years at $50 million plus, I would've been uneasy. I wish Soupy well in Chicago...with the league's most outstanding young core, and the addition of Cristobal Huet in goal, the Hawks ought to be a legitimate contender very soon. And as I mentioned in this post, it's nice to see that NHL hockey is looking strong in the Windy City.

The news about Campbell could be the domino that sets a string of actions into motion for Sharks' GM Doug Wilson. San Jose does have a very real need for offensive production from the blue line, and with Campbell out of the picture presumably this will have to be addressed through free agency. (Just as long as they don't pay millions for Wade Redden, who is not remotely what he used to be and likely to be overpriced... Watch, the next time I check the internet I'm gonna read, "Redden signs with Sharks").

Update: Looks like I don't have to worry about that, after all...