from Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea,
Doug Wilson now gets to do something he hasn’t had to do in more than a decade -- redefine the franchise. His stance on the benefits of incremental change has to change, as the evidence that this team has dead-ended itself is now too overwhelming to ignore or wallpaper.
He has always had owner Hasso Plattner’s ear; now he has to sing a new song. And it isn’t just Joe Thornton that’s the issue. It’s a roster-wide examination that is needed, and an organizational one as well. The old Sharks are dead or close enough to it to require a new Sharks. The question that never had to be asked -- “Do you want to be here?” -- now has to be asked of everyone in the organization, and the answers aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be.
Wilson needs to be good not only at asking the question, but in understanding the answer. If San Jose was once a destination franchise, it is not one currently. In fact, for the next several months, the operation will be defined not by who stays, but by who goes.
And Todd McLellan was the first shot. As in “fired.”
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