The Sharks have themselves a new "man behind the curtain", but it remains to be seen how visible German-based software magnate Hasso Plattner will be after the team's majority owner bought out the shares held by top investors Kevin Compton and Stratton Sciavos. Plattner now will be in the room with the other teams' head honchos on the NHL's Board of Governors. I wouldn't expect Plattner to be the second coming of Al Davis and leave fingerprints all over HP Pavilion.
But what does Plattner's added role mean for the Sharks? I have no idea. Plattner is a billionaire times seven who co-founded the SAP AG empire. So if he wants to throw out insane free-agent contracts like a certain team from the Land of 10,000 Lakes just did (twice) this summer conveniently just before such long-term deals played a major role in what went wrong with this season, he has plenty of cash to go such a route. But I figure since he's been around through the Doug Wilson way of not chasing free agents with large contracts.
It will be interesting to see if the Sharks remain near the salary cap ceiling given the team's spot right now only a couple million under the $64.3 million limit. But in a couple of years, the Sharks will have the option of spending a lot less money in a hurry with three big contracts of Dan Boyle, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau totaling about $20 million of salary per year expiring.
Comcast SportsNet's Ray Ratto took a break from the Super Bowl overkill to weigh in on the front office changes in San Jose. Ratto points out Plattner's $7.2 billion nest egg is among the most well-to-do owners in hockey. So with the German now fully in charge of the Sharks, it will be a lot more simplistic that fans now know exactly who to blame in event of a Twitter meltdown.
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