Gustavsson would be a net gain for Sharks

David Pollack of the San Jose Mercury News reports Swedish Elite League goaltender Jonas Gustavsson paid a visit to San Jose earlier this week as he kicked off what is believed to be a tour of four franchises in the running for his services.

The 6-foot-3 Gustavsson’s resume includes stellar regular-season numbers (1.96 goals-against and .932 save percentage), but what also likely caught the Sharks’ attention was that he led his team, Farjestads BK Karlstad, to a championship in what is arguably the second-best league in the world after the NHL. Never mind that Gustavsson’s playoff numbers were an other-worldly 1.03 GAA and .961 save percentage.

Should Gustavsson sign with the Sharks, what does this mean for incumbent starting goaltender Evgeni Nabokov? Probably not much in the short term. Nabokov will make $6 million this season in his unrestricted free-agent walk year.

Gustavsson and his agent have said the goalie, considered by some scouts as the best in the world not currently in the NHL, is fine with a season as a backup in the NHL to get acclimated.

If the Sharks are able to sign Gustavsson to an entry-level contract, this could serve the dual purpose of putting Nabokov on notice for the coming season and at the very least buying another year of development for the glut of goalies further down the Sharks prospect pipeline (AHLers Thomas Greiss and Taylor Dakers, and major-junior stud Tyson Sexsmith). And perhaps Gustavsson would show enough to warrant a longer commitment.

Trade rumblings

Several Internet columnists are speculating the Sharks will move a forward during next weekend’s draft. I think there is a good chance of that, and here is why. San Jose has seven top-six forwards, and each of them really needs to be a first- or second-line player to be effective. In this salary-cap era, and with General Manager Doug Wilson’s public assertions that changes are coming in some form or fashion, it’s not unreasonable to that we will see one or more players from this group someplace else next season.

The Seven:

Center Joe Thornton, who is signed for two more seasons at $7.2 million per
Center Patrick Marleau, who is heading into his walk year at $6.3 million
Right wing Milan Michalek, who has five seasons and $23 million left on his contract
Right wing Jonathan Cheechoo, who has two years at $3.5 million per remaining
Center Joe Pavelski, who will make $1.725 million this season, his last before restricted free agency
Wing Devin Setoguchi, who will make 765,000 this season, his last before restricted free agency
Wing Ryane Clowe, who is a restricted free agent

It would be shocking to see Thornton, Pavelski or Setoguchi dealt. The duration of Michalek’s contract probably makes him difficult to trade unless a trading partner views him as a potential breakout star. That leaves Marleau, Cheechoo and Clowe.

Marleau would make a lot of sense for a playoff team with salary cap space that believes it’s one player away from a deep playoff run (St. Louis, New Jersey), a team that will experience massive roster turnover due to free agency and is in a market that insists upon competitiveness (Montreal, Vancouver), or one that has an elite winger in need of a similarly talented center (Rick Nash in Columbus or Ilya Kovalchuk in Atlanta come to mind). From the Sharks standpoint, he would yield an elite player back or a combination of picks, players and prospects. The dicey part of this is Marleau is the Sharks’ captain and he has a no-trade clause in his contract.

Cheechoo, who will be four seasons away from scoring 56 goals, makes sense for a team that’s strong up the middle and needs scoring on the wing. The Sharks could point to his production when healthy and on a scoring line and get some combination of a player and either prospect or draft pick.

Clowe could get signed to a huge offer sheet that the Sharks elect not to match and render this premise trading a skill forward silly.