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...

Three Down, Three Up

After a 4-2 victory at Columbus tonight, the Sharks have now won three in a row after dropping the first three games of their eight-game road trip. I missed the first period of tonight's game, but tuned in just in time to see the Sharks falter (giving up a goal to David Vyborny and falling behind 2-1) then slowly take control of the game. By the middle of the third, San Jose was dominating the play, completely stifling the Columbus attack while generating fourteen shots of their own.

I certainly liked what I saw from new Shark Brian Campbell tonight. He chalked up an assist, was on the ice for one of the two San Jose power-play goals, moved the puck crisply out of the defensive zone in transition, and--best of all--came up with a huge open-ice hit in the third period. Campbell has played his entire NHL career prior to today in Buffalo, a terrific hockey town, and from press reports it is clear that although he suspected it was coming, the trade hit him hard. One always wonders how a reluctantly traded player will respond (Peter Forsberg, for instance, clearly never felt at home in a Nashville Predators uniform last year). The big hit suggests to me that Campbell, even though he was understandably sad to leave Buffalo, has brought all of his intensity to San Jose. That's good news.


Bernier the Sabre

In related news, Steve Bernier scored two goals tonight in the first period of his first game as a Buffalo Sabre. I mention this not only because I wish Bernier the best and hope the change of scenery will continue to do him good, but also because he helped do his old team a favor--Buffalo's 8-4 victory tonight came at the expense of Nashville, a team that is in competition with San Jose for Western Conference playoff position.

Wings on Leap Day.

Welcome, Brian Campbell. Happy Trails, Steve Bernier

Today was the NHL trading deadline, and I feel that the Sharks came out as one of the day's winners with their acquisition of All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell and a seventh-round draft pick from the Buffalo Sabres, in exchange for Steve Bernier and a first-round pick. Talented defensemen, particularly those who can contribute offensively, are the most in-demand players come trade time, and Campbell was certainly one of the top two blueliners whom one might have reasonably expected to be available. (Toronto's Tomas Kaberle was up there at the top, too, but he has a no-trade clause and it sounds like he invoked it).

I'm quite certain that San Jose's generally mediocre power play motivated Doug Wilson to be a very aggressive bidder in the Campbell Sweepstakes. Campbell's ability to create offense from the blue line will be very very welcome on a team that has struggled to get scoring from D-men all year. (The Sharks' leading scorer on the blue line, Craig Rivet, is twenty-sixth in points amongst all NHL defensemen at the time of writing, with 29 points. Campbell has 43 points so far this year). I had hoped that Matt Carle would develop into that offensive D-man/power-play quarterback, but he is one of a number of young Sharks who has simply not progressed this year--indeed, Carle has regressed, with only eleven points in fifty-five games, far off his pace from last year. With any luck, Campbell can step into that role and give the San Jose offense a shot in the arm.

Speaking of young guys who haven't developed, meet Steve Bernier, the world's newest Buffalo Sabre. Bernier has shown flashes of strong hockey so far in his NHL career, and his production hasn't taken the nosedive that Carle's has, but he still has seemed to be standing still, frustrating Sharks fans and no doubt the organization as a whole. Bernier is the type of guy who is classic trade bait--young, skilled, but falling short of expectations. The hope is always that a new coach/new teammates/change of scenery/whatever will provide a spark. Hopefully things will work out for Bernier with his new team.

I hope Doug Wilson intends to sign Campbell to a long-term deal. Guys like him are rare, and now that he's in teal, I'd like to see him stay in it for a while.


Davison to Long Island

Speaking of well wishes, hopefully new Islander Rob Davison will see more playing time than he did with the Sharks. Davison was sort of swept aside when young guys like Carle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic emerged...he's barely played at all in the last couple of seasons. Let's hope the Islanders have a good role for him to play.


Okay, so it's not quite a trade...

Also on the transaction front today, the Sharks signed Philadelphia Phantoms goalie Brian Boucher to a one-year deal, thus apparently confirming the suspicion that the organization doesn't really have confidence in either Thomas Greiss or Dimitri Patzold to serve as an adequate backup to Evgeni Nabokov this year. Is Boucher really any better? Well, at least he's a been-there-done-that veteran...not a bad trait in a backup netminder.