More on Free Agency from Randy Hahn

Here is my follow-up question on the Sharks and free agency…

MJ Kasprzak: Who would you consider to be the big free agents (on the Sharks this off-season)?

Randy Hahn: Oh, there’s restricted and unrestricted–are you talking unrestricted?

MJK: I’m talking about either, actually. When you use the term big free agents–”we’re probably gonna lose big free agents”–which people are you conceptualising as the big ones?

RH: Well, the free agents of note are (Patrick) Marleau, (Evgeni) Nabokov, (Joe) Pavelski, (Devin) Setoguchi, (Manny) Malhotra, (Scott) Nichol, (Rob) Blake, so there’s your big veteran free agent group. And it’s probably unlikely that that whole group will be back.

Just if you do the math and you know Patrick Marleau is coming off the best year of his career–what do you do?

Patrick Marleau was the most-accomplished free agent the Sharks had for this off-season

MJK: I run sales and fundraising for non-profit organisations.

RH: Okay, let’s say you just came off your best year ever at what you do and you raised more money and did the best fundraising job you ever did–would you want a raise?

MMJK: Absolutely! (No sense telling him that I work on commission, so a raise would already have happened.)

RH: (Laughter) So Patrick Marleau just came off the best year he ever had, and it just happens to be the year he’s in free agency.

MJK: And he was arguably the team’s best player–I mean, of a few people in that category, and he was only the fourth-highest paid player…

RH: Yeah, so my guess is his agent is gonna say, “I think you deserve a raise this year.” I don’t think there’s anybody in the NHL that would disagree. And (same with) everyone else in that group that you talk about, with the exception of maybe somebody like Blake, who at his age would–sometimes you see players willing to take less, as he did for this past year. I mean, Manny Malhotra was a free agent and signed a one-year deal, and–

MJK: And $700,000 was not–he way out-played that contract.

RH: I think he scored more goals than he ever has in a season, and was an effective checker, and he led the NHL in faceoffs, an important role on a puck-possession team like the Sharks. I don’t think he wants to take a paycut next season.