Sharks Trade Timo Meier to Devils in Blockbuster Deal

 After weeks of increasing speculation, it has finally happened: Timo Time in San Jose is officially over. 

The New Jersey Devils have acquired forward Timo Meier and defenseman Scott Harrington from the Sharks. The package in return heading back to San Jose consists of defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin, forward Fabian Zetterlund, forward Andreas Johnsson, defenseman Nikita Okhotiuk, a 2023 first-round pick, a conditional 2024 first-round pick, and a 2024 seventh-round pick. In addition, defenseman Santeri Hatakka, goalie Zach Emond, forward Timur Ibragimov, and the Avalanche’s 2024 fifth-round pick will be headed to New Jersey, and the Sharks will retain 50 percent of Meier's salary in the deal. 

I plan to go into further details about the biggest fishes in this deal and who the Sharks receive in return. Timo Meier has been one of the Sharks’ best forwards this season, the past few seasons, and in recent memory. He was the ninth-overall selection by the Sharks in the 2015 draft and has amassed 316 points (154 goals, 162 assists) in 451 NHL games since his debut during the 2016-17 season. As for this season, Meier has 52 points (31 goals, 21 assists) in 57 games for the Sharks so far, which currently leads the team in goals, is second in points, and fifth in assists. Timo Meier is also the only Swiss-born player in the NHL with multiple seasons of scoring at least 30 goals. One of his best moments in teal was his five-goal performance against the LA Kings on January 17, 2022.

 

Scott Harrington appeared in 28 games with the Sharks this season, recording seven points (one goal, seven assists). He initially signed with the Sharks prior to the start of this season on a professional tryout before signing a one-year deal and also has one assist in five AHL games with the Barracuda. 

Onto the return package to the Sharks, which is a total of seven combined players, prospects, and picks. Shakir Mukhamadullin was a first-round selection by the Devils at 20th overall in the 2020 draft and is slated to be a top-4 defenseman on the Sharks in the near future with some potential upside. He has spent this season with Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL in Russia, recording 25 points (six goals, 19 assists) in 66 games. In total, Mukhamadullin has 43 points (12 goals, 31 assists) in 166 KHL games. 

Andreas Johnsson has played in two games with the Devils this season and has a total of 113 points (48 goals, 65 assists) in 248 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils. In addition, Johnsson has 130 points (55 goals, 75 assists) in 165 AHL games with the Toronto Marlies and Utica Comets. 

Fabian Zetterlund has 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in 45 games for the Devils this season and a total of 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists). He also has a total of 90 points in 138 AHL games with the Utica Comets and Binghamton Devils. Both Zetterlund and Johnsson will be joining the Sharks before their next game on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens, while Mukhamadullin will be in San Jose once his KHL season is over.

Nikita Okhotiuk has one goal in ten games with the Devils along with two goals and four assists in 20 AHL games with the Comets this season. 

There are conditions attached to the draft picks that the Sharks received in this trade, and they're complicated. the 2023 first-rounder will be the Devils' own 2024 first-rounder if the pick is a top-two selection. As for the conditional 2024 first-rounder, it will stay a first-rounder in 2024 if the Devils reach the Eastern Conference Finals this year or next year and Timo Meier plays in at least half of the Devils' playoff games this year. If none of these conditions are met, then the Sharks will receive the Devils' 2024 second-round pick. 

The Sharks and Devils agreed to this trade because GM Mike Grier didn't see Timo Meier in the Sharks' long-term plans in which they can fit him under the salary cap, and the Devils saw a perfect opportunity to fit Meier into their top forward lines ahead of Friday's trade deadline. It didn't help that this deal took longer than it should've to to fully sort out and determine the Sharks' return package after the trade was first reported. Overall, this is a great trade for the Devils and a terrible one for the Sharks. I saw Timo Meier as a centerpiece for the Sharks to build around for the future, and now that he is no longer with the Sharks, this sets their rebuild back at least a few more years with the way things stand now with the Sharks franchise. On top of that, the return for one of the Sharks' best forwards was certainly underwhelming and emphasized quantity over quality. Team Teal didn't receive any top prospects from the Devils organization in exchange for Timo Meier and should've received at least one player like Alexander Holtz, Dawson Mercer, Luke Hughes, or Simon Nemec. Every player and prospect in this deal heading to the Sharks is expected to be bottom-six or bottom-pairing at best, and it's not a guarantee that the draft picks will turn into anything special or significant. On a more positive note, the Sharks have another first- round selection in their arsenal in a deep and loaded draft class, and the newest players and prospects in the Sharks organization could become amazing with more ice time and a change of scenery. 

Still, I'm upset that the Sharks had to part ways with one of my favorite players in recent years like this and didn't receive an equal or greater value for Timo Meier in return. It will take some time for me to recover from this. With the way that this season has gone for the Sharks, if it doesn't result in a top-three pick, Connor Bedard, or Adam Fantilli, the latter two being the consensus top-two prospects in this year's draft, this season will be a failure for this team. There's no other way to put it. It's tough being a Sharks fan right now, so disappointing, but at the same time, I believe brighter days are ahead for this franchise regardless of how long it may take to get there. 

Sources: Sharks + SAP Center App, NHL Discussion via Instagram 

You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store  

Sharks 2022-23 Game 60 Recap: Blackhawks 4, Sharks 3 (SO) (2/25/23)

 The big event prior to this game was Patrick Marleau’s no. 12 being retired to the rafters at SAP Center, while the game was secondary. As for this game, things were pretty even between these two struggling teams for most of this game, but  the Blackhawks had other plans in the shootout, taking this one 4-3. 

Everything went right and was put together incredibly well except for the outcome of the game. The ceremony began two hours before puck drop, featuring the man himself and his family, along with several Sharks alumni, a few other Bay Area sports legends, and a sellout crowd of 17,000+. This night is a significant milestone in Sharks history and will be talked about for years to come. Lots of emotions were involved, and it is truly a memorable and unbelievable experience for everyone involved and in attendance to witness history. The banner looked amazing and will hang in the rafters at the Shark Tank forever. There is no player in Sharks history that has earned and deserved this honor than Mr. San Jose Shark himself. My three best memories of Patty Marleau are his playoff overtime winner against the Red Wings in 2011, his four-goal third period against the Avalanche during a regular-season game in 2017, and breaking the all-time games played record against the Golden Knights in Vegas in 2021. He is an absolute legend of the game, an all-around great guy, and a guaranteed hall-of-famer once he becomes eligible. 

Now onto the secondary event of this historic night, a.k.a. the Sharks hosting the Chicago Blackhawks. Every Sharks player wore Patrick Marleau’s no. 12 during warmups, marking the last time anyone on the Sharks will wear the number 12. Early in the first period, the Blackhawks struck first via David Gust. The Sharks evened things up two minutes later on Nick Bonino's tenth goal of the season from Jacob MacDonald and Nico Sturm. Chicago went back on top about a minute after the first equalizer via Brett Seney. The Sharks followed that up with Evgeny Svechnikov's eighth goal of the year from Nico Sturm and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic to tie it at two. The first period also featured a scrap between Noah Gregor and Connor Murphy. 

Things picked back up early in the third period, as Max Domi scored to put Chicago back up by one. Soon after, Noah Gregor would score to tie the game at three, but this goal was disallowed after further review determined that Gregor went offside in the process of scoring this goal. The Sharks would make up for this late in the third period by officially knotting it at three via Erik Karlsson's 19th goal of the year from Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and Logan Couture to force bonus hockey. This game would ultimately be decided in the shootout, where all it took was Philipp Kurashev scoring in the Blackhawks' first attempt to win it for Chicago. The Sharks sent out Kevin Labanc, Logan Couture, and Nick Bonino during the shootout, but none of them were able to get anything past Petr Mrazek. 

Kaapo Kahkonen was given the start in net for Team Teal, recording 32 saves in the skills competition defeat. Another significant headline in this game was that the Blackhawks scratched Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty due to trade-related reasons, while also drawing speculation that Timo Meier may have played his last game in Teal leading up to Friday's trade deadline. 

What truly mattered on this special night was Patrick Marleau becoming the first player in Sharks franchise history to have his jersey retired by the team. It would have been ideal for the Sharks to win for Patty, but we still got a great, interesting, and eventful game nonetheless. It should be a no-brainer that Joe Thornton will be the next player to have his jersey retired by the Sharks, except it will be some time before this happens since Jumbo Joe isn't done playing competitively yet. The Sharks' current homestand continues with their next game on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens at 7:30 pm PT. 

Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App

You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store  

Sharks 2022-23 Game 59 Recap: Predators 6, Sharks 2 (2/23/23)

 The Sharks didn’t have much going for them in this one, as they fall to a desperate Nashville Predators team 6-2. 

This was a significant drop-off from Team Teal’s previous game that I was in attendance for on Monday. The Predators scored the first goal of the game via Nino Niederreiter, whose goal took an unlucky bounce off of Mario Ferraro’s stick and went past James Reimer. 

Nashville extended its lead to two in the second period via Mikael Granlund. Following this up was an unusual sequence of events: Nico Sturm ran into Jusso Parsinen into a pileup at the end boards, in which Parsinen’s neck went awkwardly into the back of Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and resulted in Parsinen getting injured. Nico Sturm was initially called for a five-minute major on that incident, but after further review, the penalty was erased, which was the right call. On the next shift, Nico Sturm scored a shorthanded goal for his 12th of the season to put the Sharks on the board and lessen their deficit to one. Steven Lorentz was credited with the assist on the Sharks’ first goal of this game. Later on in the second period, Mikael Granlund scored his second goal of the game and Yakov Trenin scored a shorthanded goal to put the Predators up 4-1 through two periods of play. 

 Early in the third, the Sharks would score their only other goal in this game on Martin Kaut's first goal as a Shark, with fellow countryman Tomas Hertl and Mikey Eyssimont getting assists on the Sharks' second goal of this one. However, the Preds weren't done yet, as later in the final frame saw Nino Niederreiter score his second goal of the game and Tommy Novak score one on the power play to finish this one off. 

James Reimer recorded 25 saves but didn't receive much support from his offense or his defense in this one. Radim Simek was activated off of the IR prior to this game but didn't play against the Preds.

The Predators have now completed the season series sweep of the Sharks three games to none, which dates back to their season-opening series in Prague back in October. All eyes will now be on the Sharks next game on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks, in which Patrick Marleau will be the first player in Sharks franchise history to have his number retired. This pregame ceremony will start at 5:30 pm PT, while the game itself will start at 7 pm PT. In addition, the Sharks will host their alumni game leading up to Marleau's jersey retirement at TechCU Arena later tonight. 

Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App 

You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store  

My 4th NHL Game: Sharks 4, Kraken 0 (2/20/23)

 This Sharks postgame review will be different from most of the other ones I have written, as I was in attendance at Monday's Sharks game against the Seattle Kraken at SAP Center. This will be a complete breakdown of my personal experience at the game with my buddy in addition to summarizing the game. My experience was amazing, and the game itself went much better than I initially thought it would. Let's dive in: 

My buddy and I arrived at the Tank around when the gates first opened. We walked one full lap around the concourse, and during that first lap, we happened to run into S.J. Sharkie, the Sharks mascot. He first went to greet some small children before reaching out to give me a big hug and take photos with me. Sharkie is the greatest mascot in sports, and I couldn't be more blessed to have met him. 

Following the meet and greet with Sharkie, my buddy and I headed down to the team store to look for souvenirs. To no surprise, I couldn't leave the gift shop without making a purchase, so I ended up buying three souvenir pucks (pictured below): 

Right as I finished looking inside the team store, warmups were underway, so I had to head to the lower level to catch them. I ended up a few rows behind the glass, and the warmups brought me back when I caught the Sharks' warmups for the first time at my first Sharks road game in Anaheim nearly a year ago. An unreal experience, except the Sharks now have different uniforms and many different players compared to a year ago. 

Our seats were located in the second deck next to the stairway a handful of rows up in section 213. This also happened to be a few sections away from the NBC Sports California broadcast booth where Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda called the game from. With the exception of a few rails, the view from my seat was pretty good. 

Right before every game starts and the national anthem is performed, the Sharks players enter the ice through the Shark head while "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica plays in the best and coolest entrance in sports. 

The game gets underway, and while the Sharks generated a decent amount of scoring chances early on, the first period remained scoreless but could've been much worse. Former Sharks Martin Jones and Jaycob Megna received a brief applause when they were introduced to the SAP Center crowd as members of the Kraken. 

The second period upped the ante, with the Sharks opening the scoring at the 10:45 mark of the middle frame on what was credited as Logan Couture's 20th goal of the season but was actually an own-goal by Yanni Gourde right off of the faceoff circle. It took a strange bounce into the net that Martin Jones didn't see coming at all. I couldn't believe what just happened on that first goal until I saw a few additional replays afterwards, but we will take that any day of the week. This marks Couture's tenth season scoring 20 or more goals, becoming the third player in Sharks history to accomplish this feat. About five minutes later, the Sharks extended their lead to two after Evgeny Svechnikov poked one in for his seventh goal of the season. During the final seconds of the third period, the Sharks added another one to cap off a three-goal second period via Noah Gregor's fourth goal of the year from Evgeny Svechnikov and Erik Karlsson. 

After the Sharks put up a three-spot in the middle frame, early in the third period saw chants of "We want tacos!" from the crowd around the arena. For those of you who are unaware, whenever the Sharks score four goals in a game at the Tank, everyone in attendance receives a special limited-time offer for four free tacos at Taco Bell. In fact, this is exactly what happened late in the third period, as the Sharks put the icing on the cake late in the third after Mikey Eyssimont redirected one into the net at the doorstep for his fourth goal of the year from Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson. EK65 now has 76 points on the campaign, tying Brent Burns for the second-most points in a season by a defenseman in Sharks franchise history.

James Reimer recorded 26 saves to complete the shutout in impressive fashion in his return from injury. This may be only their sixth home win of the season, but it is a significant win for this Sharks team, especially since their two best forwards in Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl couldn't play and the odds were already stacked against Team Teal to begin with. As for Timo and Tomas, Timo was out with an upper-body injury, while Tomas was out due to a personal matter. In their place for this game was Martin Kaut, who was called up from the Barracuda and made his Sharks debut. Sucks that I didn't get to see Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl play in this game, but I am more than happy that the Sharks certainly made up for it. 

Overall, I had an unforgettable experience at my fourth NHL game and second game at SAP Center in nine years. This was my first game where a shutout was recorded, and it was nothing short of amazing. The Sharks are now 2-0-1 when I'm at their games, and in my quest to see every NHL team play in person, I can cross the newest NHL team in the Seattle Kraken off the list. That list is now six teams down and 26 more to go. I gotta make it a mission to see more games at the Tank in the coming years regardless of how well the Sharks are performing on the ice, and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same because you won't regret it. 

The normal Sharks postgame reviews on this site will resume Thursday, when the Sharks host the Nashville Predators in their next game, with puck drop at 7:30 pm PT. 

Sources: NHL App, San Jose Sharks PR via Twitter 

You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store