The San Jose Sharks dropped nine players from their roster since the end of the season – I’ve included their new salaries in cases where they have new contracts. We also have Tom Awad’s VUKOTA projections, the best (and only) projections in the business:
| OUT | GVT | Cap | IN | GVT | Cap | |
| Heatley, Dany | 10.1 | 7.339 | Havlat, Martin | 9.1 | 5 | |
| Setoguchi, Devin | 7.5 | 3 | Handzus, Michal | 3.7 | 2.5 | |
| Huskins, Kent | 3.0 | 1 | Vandermeer, Jim | 2.7 | 1 | |
| White, Ian | 6.4 | 2.875 | Burns, Brent | 9.8 | 3.55 | |
| Nichol, Scott | 0.0 | 0.76 | ||||
| Mayers, Jamal | 0.2 | 0.55 | ||||
| Eager, Ben | 1.2 | 1.13 | ||||
| Wellwood, Kyle | 3.4 | 0.65 | ||||
| Wallin, Niclas | 1.9 | 2.5 | ||||
| Total | 33.7 | 19.804 | Total | 25.3 | 12.05 | |
| Delta | -8.4 | -7.75 |
The Sharks have cleared out $8.4M $7.75M in cap space and are about eight goals worse than they were last season. If they only do an average job spending that extra cap, the team will have improved by 10 goals overall, or roughly three points in the standings. The big gap between San Jose and Vancouver has been closed somewhat, and Chicago is probably only slightly better than the Sharks, putting them roughly in the same position they've been in for the last two years: not the best team in the West, but still with a 15-20% chance of making the Stanley Cup Finals.
