Some interesting news out of the Sharks camp today -

• Both Evgeni Nabokov and Patrick Marleau say they have not been asked by Wilson to drop the no-trade clauses in their contracts. But Nabokov said he would if the GM requested it.

• "If the organization wants me to leave, I will leave,” Nabokov said. “I would never stay with an organization that didn’t want me."

• Marleau, who has been a lightning rod for criticism, said he and GM Doug Wilson have talked about whether he should remain the team’s captain.“We’ve discussed some things and I’m waiting to see how that unfolds,” he said. “But I’ve told Doug that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get this team to the next level.”

• DW on the lack of big moves so far - “We didn’t get Joe Thornton on July 1. We’ve done two of the biggest deals in the league in the last five years with Thornton and (Dan) Boyle. We got fair contracts on both of them. We kept our powder dry because we knew they were specific players we wanted. It took us a year-and-a-half to get Joe Thornton and well over a year to get Danny Boyle. You want to get the right people for the right contract.”"

Source - http://blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks/2009/07/18/nabokov-would-waive-ntc-if-asked-marleau-willing-to-give-up-captaincy-for-the-cause/

I'm liking Patrick Marleau more & more, i'd like him to be the captain but he's saying the right things

I like Dougie Wilson he is such and awesome guy. I use to play on his sons team and he would watch all the time. I also played on Eddie Belfours sons team (Kinda).

Speaking of Eddie I heard he was looking to make a come back. I know he's old but he would be a good back up for some teams.... I wonder what the Hawks are doing with that position. I didn't like the rookie they put in last year.

I'm suppose to go to Hawks Fan Convention tomorrow... but I don't know Kopecky and Byfuglien and Barker seemed like the only decent ones showing. I would have went today. Bob Probert was there.

Belfour making a comeback? At 44, and out of hockey for 1 year according to HockeyDB, it's going to be very hard for him to land a backup job. There's still some serviceable goalies that they can go after - Fernandez, Kolzig, Legace, Gerber, Johnson, Weekes, Sanford and so on. None of them are the flashiest, but I think they'd be a better option than Belfour. I do have to admit though, Belfour was always quite amusing.....I'll always remember him for his drunken activities. There's a whole buncha pictures on the web (at least there used to be) of him being absolutely plastered.

What happens at this convention thing? Is it just basically an autograph signing/meet the players kinda thing, or is there something else? And it would been cool to meet Probert. Maybe a bit scary too - damn good fighter.

He played for a European team last year I thought.

There is a bunch of Hawks memorabilia and meet the players type a thing. I kinda over slept cause it is opening right now.

He played in Sweden 2 years ago, but hockeydb doesn't have him playing last year. However, they might have not updated his page.

More Sharks rumors -

• It's believed the Sharks are one of the teams in the running for Patrick Sharp from Chicago (if this were to happen though Chicago wouldn't take salary back so a 3 team trade is possible)

Source - http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=307961&src=149

Something significant is on the horizon... what that is remains to be seen.

Wonder what Wilson is going to do - you guys are up against the cap as it is. 1 D-man is going, you would think, with the log jam back there (I would guess Erhoff). Even then though, cap issues. Well, the season doesn't start till October, so he's got some time. I want to see a blockbuster trade - 3 or 4 teams trading significant players.

On D i think either Erhoff ("Error-Hof") or Lukowich could be the odd man out but yes someone from the D has to be going, simply a numbers game. I would not mind seeing Cheechoo go either, he simply makes too much as a 3rd line player (3mill+). It's very hard waiting to see what changes are gonna take place. I mean we had a president cup winning team so there is a lot of talent on the team as is but we flamed out in the 1st round (3 seasons prior were all 2nd round flame-outs). When that 1st round flame-out happened DW promised/stated that there would be a number of personell changes, which haven't exactly happened yet so it's very hard to wait

The Islanders inked Biron to a 1 year, 1.4 Million deal. I guess Dipietro is going to miss a lot of next year, if not the whole season. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=285407

It's funny how things turned with Biron - he was expecting a 4-5 Million dollar long term contract, after turning down Philly's rumored 3 year, 3.5 Million per year contract, and now he ends up with 1.4. Either his agent severely overrated his client's ability, or Biron did. Either way, he really screwed himself over. This reminds me of Anson Carter, when he had a career year playing with the Sedins. He wanted 3 per year for 3 years, and Nonis offered him 1.8 per year for 3 years. He settled for a 1 year 2.5 with the Bluejackets, and his NHL career was pretty much over after that. Wonder if something similar will happen to Biron.