San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier told reporters he will not close any doors for his veteran pending UFAs for the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline.
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier told reporters he will not close any doors for his veteran pending UFAs for the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline.
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier told reporters he will not close any doors for his veteran pending UFAs for the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline.
San Jose has seven pending unrestricted free agents: Mikael Granlund, Jan Rutta, Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, Vitek Vanecek, Cody Ceci, and Alexandar Georgiev. The GM told reporters that he likely won't re-sign any players before the March 7th deadline.
Mikael Granlund is the Sharks' most valuable player in terms of possible returns at the deadline. The assistant captain has 44 points (15 goals, 29 assists) in 51 games. He's been an incredible asset to young players like Fabian Zetterlund and William Eklund.
"I have to do what's best for the organization, short-term and long-term," Grier said during his mid-season media availability on Tuesday. "Granny's been great for us. He's been good on the ice. He's been good in the room."
The GM said there haven't been any conversations with any of the UFAs about contract extensions.
"I haven't had any conversations about extensions with any of our guys, any of our UFAs, or any of our [restricted free agents]," Grier said. "That's not to say it won't happen prior to the deadline, after the deadline, in the summer, or whatever it may be. I think it's important for me to have an open mind about where we're going and what another team might be willing to offer for one of our players and weigh it against the value of keeping those players around and having them with our group."
There is also the argument that Granlund's high trade value prevents him from playing for Finland during the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off Tournament. Grier quickly dismissed that argument.
"No. Being a player, when you get a chance to play for your country, and especially an event like this, and an event like the Olympics, it's just too special of an opportunity. As an athlete, it's something I'm sure he's dreamt about his whole life. I think he's played in the Olympics before and things like that. But when you can play against, go best on, best, represent your country, I think it's, I think it's awesome," Grier said. "I wish him the best. Knowing what it would have meant to me to be able to do something like that, I wouldn't ask someone, even though maybe it's in the best interest of us, ask them otherwise."
While Grier likely won't re-sign the pending UFA vets to contract extensions before the deadline, he said it wouldn't hurt to talk with them about what an extension might involve and how much he values them to the San Jose Sharks.
"I have an idea of what all the UFAs are looking for or what they think their value is. I don't think there's any harm [in conversations]. I don't know if there's any real advantage or point of really locking into negotiations or anything if we're going to keep an open mind of not really knowing what's going to happen and exploring," Grier explained. "All [of] those players and their agents know how I feel about the players, and the players know I feel about them. It's just that time of year where I've got to take the short and the long-term view of things."
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