Nolan gone? First I've heard of it. The hockey reporting here may be almost non-existent, but surely it isn't that bad! Actually, we just signed Nolan to a new contract at the beginning of last season.
Friesen we traded, along with Steve Shields, to Anaheim for Teemu Selanne. Freeze was one of the two most popular Sharks players ever (Arturs Irbe being the other), but he was quickly becoming little more than a fast checker. Very predictable on offense, steady on defense. Somehow he lost the ability to finish plays. He has SO much more potential than that and apparently Paul Kariya has already done a lot to motivate him to step up his game. Hated to see him go, but we did get a good, even better, player in return. For Jeff's sake my hope is the change in scenery turns things around for him.
One of the really fun things in San Jose the last few years has been the steady flow of quality first year players. First there was defenseman Brad Stuart who finished second in the Calder voting. Last year it was Evgeni Nabokov, Rookie of the Year candidate for 2001, and Miikka Kiprusoff, his back up. Both are goalies. Next up will be Jeff Jillson, another D-man who played last year at the U of Michigan. Fourth leading scorer on the team as a Junior. Supposed to be stellar. Hmmm, back to back Calders...
What's even scarier is there's a third goalie on our minor league team who's supposed to be even better than Nabbie and Kipper. His name is Vesa Toskala. Double Hmmmm...a Calder hat trick? Don't expect much, do I?
