E.6 Dec 19

Welcome to the last article of what's hot/what's not...    before christmas.   Today we'll be visiting the San jose Sharks, 
the world of trades in the dchl and the goalie situation across the league.

What's Hot:  San jose Sharks

Last year, this juggernaut of a team's only negative was their regular season.  96 pts is a solid season but that only ranked them 8 in the west in total points and 13th in the entire league.  Some would call that a bad season based on the team Gm Wile dressed but he did manage to reach the cup final so it was a positive season nonetheless.  This year is a different story. The shark sit 1st in the league with 48 pts , and only have 5 losses in regulation after 30 games. They currently are riding a 7 game winning streak which should reach 8 with the canucks up next.

Aside the team success, the sharks have players leading almost all major stats categories, Bergeron is leading the league in points,  kaprizov leads the league in rookie points, and vasilevski leads the league in win and is top 5 in both GAA and Save %.   Gm Wile will recieve quite the purse prizes for all the personal awards hes on his way to win this year but im sure he'd trade them all for the stanley cup.

What's Not: Trading in the dchl

I cant pin point the exact reason why trading is down lately, there hasnt been a trade since December 7th when Nyi acquired Ryan Hartman from Toronto, im sure Gm Laplante is excited to see what his rating will be next year.  What could be the reason for this drought?   

Have teams figured out that buying/selling in the offseason is better than waiting?  it makes a lot of sense with teams with clear indication of their team's path for the season and beyond.  Are gms trying too much to hit a grand slam instead of looking for more even trade?  Is there too much disparity between the top teams and the bottom teams?  We could just be in a transition state where the top teams are just too rich and eventually the rebuilders will catch up. 
Are gms not confident enough in making offers, i know im guilty of this.

Whatever the reason(s) may be, im sure everyone would love seeing new trades on the board, i know youve been doing your part GM Bon-Bernard lol.

What's Not:   Dchl's goalies 

Now this is not an issue right now, but it will be very soon, hopefully this article wakes up a few gm.   Goalies are allowed to play in 65 games, which is roughly 79% of your team's game.  If we average the numbers of games played by every team to 31, theres 10 goalies currently over that 79%.  Leading the way is Nashville's own Sergei Bobrovsky with 33 appearances in the team's 33 games.  That's a very Aaron thing to do, oh wait, we have a new gm there.  Interesting, could be a nashville thing.  Jokes aside, it could be an issue for teams fighting for the playoffs or just trying to finish as high as they can to avoid facing a top team in the 1st rnd.   A late season injury could be devastating for a team with no starts left for their starter and a bad 3rd string goaltender.  The good news is the dchl has a large amount of goalies rated well enough for quality starts.  

Thanks for tuning in
You stay classy, Dchl