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Sharks New Direction

By: Michael A. Chase Jr.

09-02-2022

The San Jose Sharks made several personnel moves this offseason both on and off the ice. From breaking barriers with their new general manager hire to a number of player transactions. The Unheralded Sports View is here to highlight the plethora of offseason moves the Sharks franchise made across their organization. Detailing the significance of these moves at each level of the organization.

The Sharks made moves at two of the most important non player positions within the organization. These being hiring former NHL player Mike Grier as their new general manager and David Quin as their new head coach.

Mike Grier – who is the brother of Dolphin’s GM Chris Grier – is taking over for longtime GM Doug Wilson and brings experience as player, scout, and coach to his latest opportunity. With his hiring he also became the first black GM in NHL history, meaning San Jose is breaking major barriers with this hiring as well. Grier played in the NHL as a forward for 14 seasons being a 9th round pick in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. He also brings scouting experience, spending 4 years as a pro scout with the Chicago Blackhawks. Plus, he spent two years as an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils, before working as a hockey operations adviser for the New York Rangers last season. With all this experience in many areas of the NHL landscape Grier, 47-years-old, brings a new young face to a Sharks organization looking to retool and get back into postseason play. With his experiences from across these other organizations he is set to hopefully be the key figurehead in the front office to make the requisite moves to get San Jose back to prominence.

David Quinn at 55-years-old comes to the Sharks franchise looking to take advantage of his second opportunity to be an NHL head coach. Quinn spent three seasons as a head coach for the New York Rangers compiling a 97-87-25 record. His most recent coaching work was with the Team USA in the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2022 World Championships finishing 4th in the World’s and reaching the quarterfinal round in the Olympics. Quinn having ties to New York means Grier has some inside info and feels Quinn meets the requirements Grier and the Sharks were looking for. Quinn will bring an offensive style to the Sharks as he had the Rangers as the league’s 8th best power play during his tenure there. He will need to update his defensive systems some, but this may be easier with the talent on defense the Sharks sport. But San Jose is hoping Quinn can take hold of this 2nd chance as an NHL head coach and will be the voice they need behind the bench.

Finally, we must look at the key player transactions that the Sharks have made and how they will impact the team on the ice en route to returning to the playoffs.

The major moves to focus on that the Sharks made included the free agency signings of goalie Kaapo Kahkonen (2 years, $2.75 million AAV), forwards Luke Kunin (2 years, $2.75 million AAV) and Nico Sturm (3 years, $2 million AAV), and defensemen Mario Ferraro (4 years $3.25 million AAV) and Matt Benning (4 years $1.25 million AAV). Ferraro was a big piece to bring back as the 23-year-old blue liner showed key development over 63 games played last season. Meanwhile, with the signing of Kahkonen specifically this provides stability in net for San Jose. As the young netminder is coming off season .913 save percentage in 36 games between the Minnesota Wild and Sharks. While none of these signings are big name players, they are all solid depth pieces San Jose is adding to a roster in need of an upgrade to the back half of their lineup. But the biggest move they’ve made thus far was moving on from one of the key pieces to their core, as the franchise traded Brent Burns to Carolina. This move helped free up cap space for the Sharks to make the moves they did. But it was also a signal signs of change are coming for the Sharks.

With the Sharks still having a solid winning core in place with players like Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, Timo Meier, and Erik Karlsson to name a few the path back to postseason play is not too far off. With a new regime in place improved depth and stability in net with the return of youngster Kaapo Kahkonen the Sharks have a chance to be a bounce back team candidate this coming season. It certainly will be an intriguing follow to see if the Sharks can rediscover their championship level form from just a few seasons ago. So, we await the coming NHL season to see if Grier, Quinn, and the Sharks made the adjustments necessary to get back to prominence.