The Sharks bring in LW Dawes on the first rental deal they made.  This one was completed over a week before the deadline.  Dawes and his $3.63M rental contract comes to SJ from Seattle in exchange for Conner Murphy, Marek Hrivik and Kyle Beach.

The Sharks had acquired this pick in the Babchuk deal.  At the start of the season, they held 3 picks in this upcoming draft.  SJ, BUF and PIT, two of which are turning out to be potential top 5 picks.  That had value.  So does a fan favourite with 78 sc and is making under $4m.  Everyone loves Mikhail.  His passion for hockey and the San Jose area is outstanding.  The organization is glad to be able to welcome him back.  Coming with Grabovski is Jake Gardiner.  This was the first piece in upgrading a decent defense.  Jake puts a rough year with Vancouver behind him and looks to prove that he still has some gas in the tank.  Leaving with the pick is high energy Joshua Ho-Sang who seemed to have replaced Grabovski as the fan favourite, Andreas Englund, Erik Cernak and Jeff Skinner.  Skinner was a result of needing to help balance the salary cap (thanks Nagle...stupid $7m contracts..)

The potential of this trade was discussed during the PIT pick trade discussions.  It was revisited several days later after Doughty talks seemed to have stalled.  The Sharks leveraged part of the protection placed on the PIT pick to acquire the cup winning defenceman.  Along with that protection being removed, the Sharks sent Isac Lundestrom and their 27 1st.  A hefty price to pay, but Ellerby is a winner and as a rental, his contract allowed for another stud defenceman to be added.

Drew talks started with Detroit, they went on for a while, mostly sitting at a standstill after the PIT pick went elsewhere.  Then Nagle swoops in at the last moment and makes a better offer (from the viewpoint of the Detroit GM).  Luckily I had inquired about Boris' other half.  So he knew I was looking for a d man - it may have also came out that we were both going for Drew.  Once Calgary had made the deal, he asked if I wanted Drew.  I gave him the same offer I had given to Detroit.  He took it and Drew was the Sharks 3rd rental player and 3rd stud defencemen added.  Leaving SJ was long time blueliner Simon Despres and the 27 and 28 1st round picks of SJ.

This trade came together fairly quickly in comparison to the others.  The Sharks acquired a 2nd rd pick in 29 along with Voloshenko in exchange for their 1st in 29, 3rd in 29 and some cash consideratins.  Voloshenko looks to use his speed on the 3rd line and have some pk time.

Several other deals were made (Dalpe for some winger depth, moving Hjalmarsson's placeholder contract out and adding in Colborne for some options down the middle).  There may still be some more moves down the pipeline as the Sharks still have 2 1sts left that are buring a hole in the GMs pocket.

With all these moves, legendary Shark, Alvaro Montoya, was asked how he is enjoying this seasons Sharks and the moves the GM has made so far.  

"They are great moves, they are in a position where they seemed to go into a mini rebuild with Montembeault just starting out, then BAM.  Matthews starts doing this.  I'm just glad I will be able to watch them from one of the best seats in the house...as the Zamboni driver."