from David Pollak of the Mercury News,

What strikes me about the present situation is the fact Wilson himself is calling for a rebuilding period. When has he used that term before to describe what he’s doing? Never.

The Sharks are sensitive to the market they operate in. The philosophy has been a simple one that guides both the hockey side and the business side: Put a credible team on the ice every season, one that gets you into the playoffs where anything can happen. One of these years, everything will fall into place.

No, the second part of that hasn’t worked out as planned yet. So maybe it is time to come up with a new approach.

The concern has always been whether the San Jose fan base will stick with a team going through a rebuild. The prevailing wisdom is that, without a favorable local TV contract, the Sharks rely more on attendance than a lot of NHL teams. Maybe Chicago can survive a few years of half-empty buildings (see the 1990s and early 2000s), but not San Jose.

A knowledgeable source says the Sharks’ season-ticket base dipped 3,000 the last time the team didn’t make the playoffs in 2003, enough to get everybody’s attention.

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