SAN JOSE – Monday’s NHL trade deadline came and went for the San Jose Sharks, without the earth shattering move that some have been expecting since the offseason, when general manager Doug Wilson began preaching about a rebuild.
That, of course, means that Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau remain. Both franchise icons are in the first year of three-year contract extensions signed on January 24, 2014, including full no-trade clauses.
Wilson did not ask either of those two players to waive their no-trade clauses before Monday’s deadline, he told Jim Kozimor on Comcast SportsNet’s Yahoo Sports Talk Live.
“Never have, and have not done that,” Wilson said.
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Wilson has indicated more than once that his next major transaction will come over the summer, as the team continues with its plan this season of integrating younger players. Only bottom six forward Ben Smith was added on Monday, while four players on the active roster departed.
Thornton and Marleau would not be approached by management to relocate this summer no matter how the rest of the 2014-15 season plays out, though. The Sharks are two points out of a playoff spot with 19 to go, headed into Monday’s home game with Montreal.
“Players would have to come to me,” Wilson said. “The integrity of building that type of contract with those types of players, they would have to come to me. I’ve been very transparent on where this team is at, and where it’s going. They have a clause that’s in their contract, and I at no point have ever asked either one of them.”
There are no indications that either Thornton or Marleau want to leave San Jose, and Marleau said on Sunday that he had not been asked him to waive his no-trade clause. Still, he added: “If I’m not wanted, then that’s a different matter.”