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GM Wilson suggests Sharks might need to ‘take one step backwards’

Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton

Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton

AP

The San Jose Sharks have advanced to the postseason for 10 consecutive seasons and if they stay the course, they will probably continue to make the playoffs for many years to come. That’s not what San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson is ultimately after though.

“This is a team that’s accomplished quite a bit over the last decade, but regular season success has not gotten us to that ultimate playoff success that we all talk about,” Wilson told CSN Bay Area. “We haven’t gotten to that level. We’ve had [seven] 100-point seasons (since 2003-04), we’ve had three final four appearances, we’ve had 20 playoff rounds.

“That all sounds nice, and the players and coaches deserve credit for that, but we have not gotten to where we need to get to.

“And, I think to do that, you have to take one step backwards to be in a position to go two steps forward.”

Wilson has already made it clear that defenseman Dan Boyle or forward Martin Havlat won’t be back and he wants Brent Burns to shift back to defense, but that might just be the beginning of the Sharks’ makeover.

He wants the team to get younger and while he didn’t go into detail about the possibility of making trades, he did counter the argument that players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau would be difficult to move because of their reported no-movement clauses.

“We don’t have that many restrictive contracts, and a lot of the details in those contracts have flexibility and windows to them,” Wilson said.

He also made it clear that nothing was off the table and promised “more drastic (moves) than putting a Band-Aid on it,” per the San Jose Mercury News.

The presence of Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture insure that the Sharks will remain dangerous offensively if one or both of Thornton and Marleau are traded. The team also had some promising rookies this season in forwards Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto.

With Marleau and Thornton both set to turn 35 before the start of the 2014-15 campaign, the window of opportunity to win with them is closing. Perhaps it would be better for the Sharks long-term future if they focused on trying to get something significant in return for them while that’s a possibility.

Still, Wilson has stuck with them through previous summers following disappointing playoff runs. This one might prove to be no different in that regard.

Related:

Sharks owner ‘very disappointed,’ but McLellan’s job is safe

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