- Editor's Note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
Sharks general manager Mike Grier talked about the state of the team for an hour Friday.
While Grier didn’t always tip his hand, he was consistently direct, and there was no topic that was off-limits in this mid-season check-in.
Does Grier really want three first-round picks for Erik Karlsson? How are extension talks going, if at all, with Timo Meier? What might cause him to trade both Karlsson and Meier? What do the Sharks need most as an organization to get back to their winning ways? Are recent free-agent signings Nico Sturm and Matt Benning available this trade deadline?
Grier answered these questions and a lot more.
He also talked extensively about San Jose's prospects – why Ryan Merkley wasn’t promoted, where he wants William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau to improve, if Ozzy Wiesblatt will return to juniors, what he thinks about “tanking” – that portion of his Q&A will be released soon for NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
Let’s focus on the Sharks' current team. Grier had plenty to say about his 13-23-8 squad.
San Jose Sharks
Grier’s opening statement:
"Certainly, we’re not where we had hoped to be right now as a team. We’ve found different ways to lose games and things like that where I thought the effort and the compete has been pretty good. We’ve probably done enough to win some games, and unfortunately, we didn’t."