Does San Jose Know the Way to the Cup?

If I was building a team, any team (either in sports or the business world), I would be sure to take many pages out of Doug Wilson's book. The man is a genius. In fact, I would almost guarantee that in the next few years you will see his works in print - not as a hockey biography, but as a strategy for building an organization.


I don't know how he does it. First off he now has 19 NHLers under contract, yet has in excess of $13 million of cap space. And we're not talking about a team like Phoenix, who are actively stay at the salary cap floor. Here we have a team bursting with talent, that is positioning itself to have its pick of the litter when its opponents are looking to jetison salary. Could we be looking at another Joe Thornton-type trade? I would almost guarantee it.


In the past week alone, Wilson has also done two things that have turned heads. First, he was able to get Patrick Marleau to sign a two-year extension at, what many believe, is a bargain basement price - ensuring that the captain will be in the Bay area through the 09/10 season. Second, he signed Jeremy Roenick to a 1 year, $500k contract. To many people this is an act of folly, but let's dig a little deeper and see what we see. Wilson and Roenick have a long relationship, dating back to their days in Chicago. Wilson was the veteran leader of the Hawks and Roenick grew a lot under his mentorship. If anyone knows JR, its Wilson. If he thinks Roenick can contribute, then he can. And more importantly, if there's anyone Roenick would not want to disappoint, it's Wilson.


Add these two moves to locking up Joe Thornton and Craig Rivet through 10/11 and Milan Michalek through 13/14, and you have a team with a nucleus all signed to reasonable contracts.


Sure they are still 1 or 2 d-men short and they've lost a good chunk of their goaltending depth, but let's revisit this in November, once teams have started paring salary and Doug Wilson comes acalling.


Joe Thornton - neutral (still 2nd leading scorer in NHL)
Patrick Marleau - positive
Milan Michalek - positive
Craig Rivet - positive