GM Doug Wilson (Photo Courtesy of TSN)

Since our latest playoff debacle, we've heard a more aggressive-than-usual tone from both GM Doug Wilson and owner Greg Jamison. Both have sternly stood by a notion that we will see a lot of roster changes over the course of the offseason, but when one looks at the salaries of the current roster in relation to the salary cap, one must wonder how we're going to bring anyone new in. According to HockeyBuzz, we only have $1.3 mil to play with right now, fifth lowest in the league (and the bottom three teams are in the red). Don't get excited about that either. Sure, maybe we can sign some old guy who's nothing more than a run of the mill second line forward, but we currently have a hole at the goaltending position now that Brian Boucher has signed with Philadelphia.

So this brings up the question of what we're going to do with the #2 goalie spot. Common sense and Sharks' "build-from-within" mantra says we'll have a not NHL-ready yet Thomas Greiss (who still needs to be re-signed, which would likely kill a good chunk of that $1.3 mil) backing up Nabby this season. Throw the kid to the wolves and hope it goes better than last time I suppose. I know some of you are thinking "Wow, you're awfully hard on Thomas Greiss, what would you rather see instead?" Call me stuck in the past if you want, but our old buddy Nolan Schaefer is currently an unrestricted free agent. Last season he made only $600K with Minnesota. That would leave ~$650K or so which may or may not be enough to sign Greiss as well. Other goalies above $50k and below $1 mil who are available are: Jean-Sebastian Aubin, Craig Anderson, Curtis Sanford, Kevin Weekes, Curtis Joseph (Sega Genesis anyone?), Stephen Valliquette, Mikael Tellqvist and Marek Schwarz.

So that kills our remaining cap money and all we got is a backup goalie. A necessity for sure but not something that people are likely to get excited about. This is where trades come in. Personally, I feel that our most expendable players are Jon Cheechoo, Milan Michalek and fan favorite Christian Ehrorr-I mean Ehrhoff. Cheech has been less than stellar but has the 56 goal season of 2005-06 on his resume. Michalek, I don't know what else to say about this guy. Sometimes he's great, but a lot of the time, he's soft and inconsitent (though I do have to admit that he has toughened up a bit, I think he's run his course here). Lastly, the Ehrhoff experiment. Can anyone tell me when, outside of seasons with Olympic breaks, this experiment has been successful in any fashion whatsoever? What exactly is Ehrhoff's job? He doesn't check and his shot, though very hard, is very inaccurate. Still, I'm sure someone would take him. If there's a place for Matt Carle, there's definitely a place for Christian Ehrhoff.

I want to see a huge roster shakeup as much as anyone, but I just don't see how it's possible, unfortunately.