You can take one talented center off the potential free agent list, as the San Jose Sharks announced this morning that the team has re-signed Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski. The Sharks, announcing that the team was moving on with goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, made plenty of room for themselves to sign the two talented forwards and they needed every single bit of cap space they could get.
The team hasn’t released the exact financial terms, but it’s being reported from several sources that Marleau’s contract is worth $6.9 million per season for four years, while Pavelski’s is worth $4 million per season.
That’s a heft price to pay to keep your top two forwards, yet obviously this is what the Sharks felt they needed to do to stay competitive. We’ll have a full breakdown of what these contracts mean for the Sharks both short and long-term, but right now things aren’t looking very good: the Sharks now have 14 players under contract and just $11 million or so left in cap space. That’s nine spots left to fill, and not a lot of salary space to fill it with.
Between Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle and now Patrick Marleau the Sharks have over $28 million in salary locked up in salary between four players for next season.
Wow.
Here’s some of the press release.
SAN JOSE - San Jose Sharks Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Wilson announced today that the club has re-signed Group III un-restricted free agent forward Patrick Marleau and Group II restricted free agent forward Joe Pavelski to four-year contracts. In keeping with club policy, financial terms of the deals was not disclosed.
“We are very pleased that Patty and Joe have committed to this organization now and in the future,” said Wilson. “They expressed a strong belief in the direction this franchise is heading but also understand the challenges to keeping a talented group like ours together.
“Both players had a tremendous regular season, excelled on the ice for their respective countries at the Winter Olympics and elevated their game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They have solidified their place in the game among the League’s top forwards and we are excited as an organization to have Joe and Patty back in San Jose to build on what we accomplished last season.”