Aug. 1, 2011
RATTO ARCHIVEGIANTS PAGEGIANTS VIDEO
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The Sharks always enjoy trumpeting deals that are team-building, which means no frontloading, backloading or poison pills. Theyll trade for deals like that (Dany Heatley), but they dont like to do them themselves.Thus, when they got Brent Burns to agree to a straight five-year 28.8 million contract extension that takes effect next year, they considered it a victory for their way of doing business.But thats for the accountants in the audience. The real trick is in figuring if the reward for Burns contract is a stiffening and effervescing of the often problematic San Jose defense corps.The Sharks have gone big ticket on the blue line before -- Dan Boyle, Brian Campbell, Rob Blake, Al Iafrate, Craig Rivet, Gary Suter -- with decent though not breathtaking results. Boyle, Blake and Rivet were helpful, Suter and Iafrate were at the end of their runs, and Campbell was the quintessential rental.
Burns, though, enters his prime in San Jose as the fourth-highest paid player after Joe Thornton (7M), Patrick Marleau (6.9M) and Boyle (6,666,667), and he is signed for longer than any other Shark (the deals for Martin Havlat, 5M and Antti Niemi, 3.8M, expire in 2015).And the fact that he didnt want the up-front bonus with a potential work stoppagelockout scheduled for 2012-13, means that the Sharks only had to pay bonuses for two players -- Logan Couture (425K) and Justin Braun (162,500)totaling 587,500, and still have a shade over 5M in cap space in this, the last year of the current CBA.Asleep yet?Point is, the Sharks have more financial flexibility than they did a year ago, which means they have a chance to repair any mistakes that might crop upholes that need patching.Which brings us back to the larger point, namely whether Burns will deliver what the Sharks require -- to be more than the perpetual Miss Congeniality they have come to be.Burns is obviously more important than any of the other acquisitions (Havlat, Michal Handzus), and will probably join with and eventually supplant Boyle as the defensive nucleus. It explains the size of the deal, but explaining Burns importance will require October, and November, and on and on.Ultimately, you see, this is a deal for a player, not a deal for a signature, and in truth, Burns need to be the best defenseman the Sharks have ever had. Not because the money says so, but because the roster and the expectations and the resume say so.Frankly, with that kind of load to carry, he probably should have asked for something up front.Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com.