Curtis Pashelka: San Jose Sharks interim Joe Will said that they are open to contract extension talks with the Timo Meier this offseason.
Sheng Peng of NBC Sports Bayarea: Will said that he has a good relationship with Meier and his agent, but negotiations won’t be easy.
“It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be quick, but I expect that we’ll have conversations on and off throughout the year. Whether they’re formal or informal, that’s just kind of how we do things. We’ll start dipping our toe into the water here and looking at options and things like that, too.”
Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now: Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic has four years left at $7 million per. He played well on the third pairing but the Sharks could use the salary cap space.
Will the Sharks consider buying him out?
In an interview with the Mercury News Vlasic said that he’s not concerned about the Sharks buying him out.
Sheng Peng of NBC Sports Bayarea: Sharks GM Will on their GM search.
“We’re narrowing down from a wide list.
“It’s pretty wide, and then you get down to the first list of candidates that you want to basically formally interview, and we’re somewhere kind of between that.
“We’ve already talked about some people on the first list and that’s where we’re at.”
Will on Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
“I think we could bring any idea to the forefront with this is the intended consequence of what we’re doing. If it means that there’s going to be a player move, and we’re gonna get x and y from moving this player, we also could trade. We have a history of always looking at trades.
“In the Jones case, there was a buyout, maybe for some room. There’s all kinds of different ways of doing it, and we do look at that constantly.”
Will added that he’s bullish on Vlasic and is a big believer in him.
Will on buyouts.
“If you’re just talking about the use of buyouts, we always do look at it, but you’ll look at our history, we haven’t done that all that much. We did that with Martin Jones and that’s kind of a last option for us. We hope to get the best out of people and go from there.”
Will said he’s had some contract talks with Alexander Barabanov and Jaycob Megna.
Forward is one position they will be looking at upgrading this offseason.
“Forward I think is where the focus goes on externally looking and getting a few players that can produce and address some depth issues. That’s where a lot of our young players are as well. A lot of the young players we’re talking about that we haven’t seen yet, most of them are forwards. That’s the area I think you’ll see the biggest change with.”