Inside the Cage: Free Agents

First the regular season. Then the postseason. And now the free-agent season.
The Sharks have plenty of options to contemplate before the July 1 feeding frenzy begins and free agents hit the open market. In the meantime, taking care of their own comes first and foremost.
Joe Thornton and Evander Kane headline the in-house list of pending unrestricted free agents. Veteran forwards Joel Ward, Jannik Hansen and Eric Fehr also have expiring contracts.

Forwards Tomas Hertl and Chris Tierney are joined by defenseman Dylan DeMelo as restricted free agent. And there's forwards Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi who - without extensions - will enter the 2018-19 regular season with UFA status awaiting next summer.
Yes, there's a lot on general manager Doug Wilson's plate this offseason.
San Jose is well positioned in terms of cap space for next season. Despite that, Wilson wants to stretch every dollar to maximize improving the Sharks today while paving a road to sustain competitive success in the future.
Here's what Wilson and the Sharks have to consider before they look to supplement outside of the organization.

THORNTON & KANE:

A cornerstone of the franchise, Thornton has played 961 career games over 13 seasons in San Jose while Kane made a significant impact in his short time since arriving at the trade deadline. The Sharks want both back at the right price.
"Joe Thornton is so easy to deal with because he's a team-first guy," Wilson said during the team's locker clean-out on Tuesday. "He loves this organization and what he's done since the day he came here is what makes him special."
Thornton will be 39 years old when camp opens and he'll be coming off the same surgery in January to repair his right MCL and ACL that he had 11 months earlier on his left knee. He was close to returning, but needed more strength in his right knee. Thornton expects to be 100 percent again by summer's end. And he has support on that opinion.
"We love Joe Thornton," Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. "The last 10 games he played for us he might have been our best player. I have no doubt - and I told him - that he'll be able to come back because I saw him do it last year with the same injury."
Thornton signed a one-year contract last summer, and said Tuesday he's prepared to do it again.
"Obviously I want to come back, there's no secret I'm a Shark," Thornton said. "I know I'm going to be healthy. I'm sure we can figure something out. I want this team to ultimately win the Stanley Cup. This city and its fans deserve it."

"I don't think there's a player I've met in this business in 40 years who I respect more than Joe Thornton," Wilson added. "He's incredible. I look forward to sitting down with Joe and his agent very quickly."
In the prime of his career while turning 27 on Aug. 2, Kane's chance to strike it rich is with this deal. He knows it, the Sharks know it and competing teams know it. San Jose hopes the positive experience Kane enjoyed with the Sharks convinces the Vancouver native that the South Bay could be his long-term home.
"Getting traded here was great to be a part of a winning environment again," said Kane, acquired from Buffalo on Feb. 26. "Getting to know this group of guys, the coaching staff and the organization as a whole definitely helps, and gives me an idea about San Jose, the city and the fans.
"It's been really positive and I've enjoyed my time," he added. "Nothing is set in stone, nothing has been talked about and we'll just take it from there."
Kane provided an instant spark when the team was missing Thornton by scoring nine goals and 14 points in 17 regular-season games before adding four goals and five points during his first career venture into the playoffs. The Sharks went 12-6-1 after inserting Kane on the top line to secure a 13th playoff appearance in 14 seasons.
"He's a difference maker," Wilson said. "He came in here - I talk about our leadership and our culture - and really appreciated that and we appreciated him. I think it was a good fit for him, it was a good fit for us. I'll be sitting down with his agent in the next little while."

DeBoer is hoping to welcome Kane back as well.
"With open arms, I would," he said. "When you're around a guy for 2-3 months and kind of in the trenches with him both in good times and tough times, you get to learn more about people. He is exactly what I thought he is, which is great."

THREE MORE VETERAN FORWARDS:

Late-season pick-up Eric Fehr filled a void by solidifying the fourth line while fellow pending UFA's Joel Ward and Jannik Hansen left their mark on the organization even if they didn't play as much toward the end as they would have liked.
Fehr is interesting to ponder. At 6-foot-4 and 208 pounds, the journeyman with 580 games of NHL experience brings size, experience and leadership to a bottom-six role where he even displayed the ability to contribute offensively. He'll be 33 when the season starts, and not a big-ticket expense who boasts a Stanley Cup on his resume.
"Eric did a fantastic job for us," DeBoer said. "He was as important an addition as Evander was in a different way. He was critical for us down the stretch."
Hansen, 32, was limited to 46 games in the regular season and a scratch throughout the playoffs. And Ward, 37, whose 52 games were all in the regular season, battled through a shoulder ailment from Day 1. He can see the handwriting on the wall.
"I think maybe my time might be up here, which I understand," Ward said. "Not being able to get in was an indication I might be done here. That's hockey, it's part of the game, it's business. I understand it. I love it here, love the people. The teammates are unbelievable. I can't say enough about them."

Wilson was complimentary of the vets rumored to depart.
"The quality of veterans we had - Paul Martin, Joel Ward, Jannik Hansen - while they may not have been able to play as much, what they did for the mentorship of the young guys tells you how our culture was built," he said. "These are very selfless guys who gave their time and energy to help the younger players make us a better team. Trust me, it was really appreciated."

LOOKING AT EXTENSIONS:

Wilson locked up top shutdown defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (maximum eight years) and No. 1 goalie Martin Jones (six years) last summer months before both would have entered the final year of their contracts. Wilson hopes to do the same for at least two-way center Logan Couture.
"His play spoke volumes," Wilson said. "People respect what Logan Couture has done. You look at what he did a couple years ago, what he did this year, what he did in the playoffs. He's a really important part of this organization now and into the future. Absolutely."
Couture, 29, scored a career-high 34 goals in his ninth season with the Sharks. He led the NHL in playoff scoring with 10 goals and 30 points during San Jose's run to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. And he's proven to be tough as nails while missing only a handful of games late last year after taking a puck to the mouth that required multiple procedures to give him a new set of teeth.
"I've always made it pretty clear this is the place I want to play," Couture said. "I'm biased obviously but it's the best place to play hockey in the world."

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:

Three young key vets - forwards Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney and defenseman Dylan DeMelo - all made strides this season and are due for new deals.
Hertl, 24, enjoyed an injury-free season to score a career-high 22 goals and match his 2015-16 production in points with 46 points. Versatile by playing both wing and center, Hertl was particularly strong protecting the puck and winning faceoffs. Hertl took a team-high 182 draws in the playoffs and won 57.7 percent after finishing above 50 percent in the regular season.
Tierney, who turns 24 on July 1, was challenged last offseason and responded with the best of his four NHL seasons - 17 goals and 40 points after earning an early-season promotion to center the third line. Tierney was also rewarded with some power-play time in addition to his work on the penalty kill, and was moved into a top-six role during the playoffs on occasion when DeBoer was searching for a spark.
DeMelo, 25, took advantage of his opportunity when it presented itself in late November. He became a regular once finally breaking into the lineup, complimented hard-hitting defense partner Brenden Dillon with steady play in the D zone and quietly contributed 20 assists on the offensive end.