I absolutely HATE this trade...

NHL reporter Chris Johnston believes that the Sharks are the best fit for Simon Evenson. And the name attached to that rumor to be traded from San Jose is Michael Misa. I absolutely hate this trade. Misa, a 19-year-old center, the Sharks took second overall in 2025. Edvinson is a defenseman who has not played a single game this season. Before I tell you why this is the wrong side of the deal to give up, here is what is actually reported, because it is less than what the headlines make it out to be. And if you want breakdowns just like this on the San Jose Sharks every day, go down below, hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. Johnston said on November the 5th that the Sharks have been big game hunting and are very much in on Edvinson. He also said the talks have not reached a point where Detroit has anything they feel they can pull the trigger on. Johnson is not the one who put Misa in it. That is David Pagnotta on the fourth period. On November 6th, Misa has emerged in the negotiations. Reports do not even agree on who raised him first, Detroit asking for Misa or San Jose offering him. Detroit reportedly wants more than Misa alone. Chernyshov, Bodkov, and Verhaeghe have all came up. None of this is confirmed, but the version of the Evenson trade that I've seen on this website was Misa and a 2028 second round pick for Simon Evenson. That was the website's own idea, not an actual reported trade that was thrown out there. Freedman said on October 30th that the talks are still going on and Detroit wants a young center in return. A young center is what Detroit is after, so look at the young center the Sharks have. Misa has three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 18 games this season. On November 6th, he moved up to the top line next to Celebrini and Will Smith. Celebrini was asked what Misa adds. He said his speed is probably one of the best in the league. That is a 19-year-old with a second pick ceiling, and he's already playing next to the superstar on this team. He counts for $986,250 against the cap through 27-28, and then he is a restricted free agent. Is he a finished player? No, he is a minus 7 on a 7-10-1 team, but he is 19 with a lot of ceiling and a lot of upside to grow. Evenson is 23. Detroit picked him 6th overall in 2021. He is an unsigned restricted free agent on injured reserve with no contract on Detroit's books. Last season, He's scored 9 goals and 16 assists, 25 points in 72 games. Those nine goals came from shots worth about 4.8 expected goals, so some of that was luck. Detroit reportedly offered about $8.5 million a year for six years. He reportedly wanted about $11 million. He has until December 1st to sign if he wants to play this season. So the player the Sharks are chasing has not signed, and he has not played yet this year and reportedly turned down a contract at $8.5 million a year. Start with Detroit, because the Red Wings don't have to do anything. Evenson is unsigned, so he cannot play for them until he signs, and the deadline for that is December 1st. Friedman said that Detroit is willing to wait until then, and that at least one serious offer from San Jose was not accepted. Detroit's interim general manager, Horkoff, put it as bluntly as it is, quote, I have zero interest in trading Simon Evenson. So the Sharks are bidding against a team that basically said no outright to any trades on Simon Evenson, and that holds the players' rights to sign him as well. Johnson said it on November 5th, too. Those conversations have not progressed to a point where Detroit has anything they feel they can pull the trigger on. When the seller is not in a hurry, the price goes up, and the buyer is the one who wants it done. This is not a one-team race. LeBron said on October 21st that up to 10 teams are interested, and he named the Sharks and the Bruins. The price he compared it to was the hauls for Dobson, Sergachev, Byram, and Nemec, which were prospects and first-round picks. The Hockey News wrote on October 4th that Dickinson would almost certainly be in any San Jose price, and that Dickinson alone would not be enough. Look at that list. Every earlier version of this trade is prospects and picks. The new one is the second overall pick from 2025, isn't it? Then the price keeps growing. Detroit reportedly wants more than Misa, with Chernyshov, Biaset, and Verhaeghe all mentioned. So we are not just talking about Misa for Evenson straight up. We're talking about Misa Plus for this guy. I don't like it. Now let's look at what's left in that position that the Sharks will be trading from. Celebrini is the captain at 20, the youngest in team history. Logan Couture's career is over because of injury, so that center spot is gone. The rest of the group is Marchment, Graff, Stenberg, Delandria, and Beistad, which are in a shop out in Wenberg Date today is November the 6th. Beistad is one of the names Detroit reportedly wants, so the thinning does not stop at Mesa. Trading Misa right now would take a center off that list on a team that is already hurting in that position due to injuries, so I don't really think this is the right move. And Mesa has already shown that he can play both center and wing next to Celebrini this week, which is the kind of flexibility a 19-year-old gives you at $986,250 a season. Misa only costs just shy of a million dollars a year. A new Evenson deal at what Detroit offered will cost about $8.5 million to $10 million. San Jose has $2.52 million of cap space, so even with Visa gone, it has a clear more room to fit that deal. The Sharks are 7-10-1, sixth of eight in the Pacific. They lost 7-2 at Los Angeles on November the 4th, 4-1 at Minnesota on November the 6th, and scored four goals in their last three losses. Johnson says the season has not been the step forward they expected. I get the urgency to do something here, but a team that scored four goals in three games is not going to get goal scoring by trading away one of your best scorers at the center position for a defenseman who is going to do less production point-wise than him. So I don't get this at this point. We need goal scorers. Keep Mesa. So what should San Jose do? Nothing for now. If Evenson is not signed by December 1st, he does not play this season, and the Red Wings are the ones with the problem. Mesa is signed through the 27-28 season, so the Sharks have no clock on him at all. Their chance to get Evenson does not die on December 1st, but the price Detroit can ask drops once he is sitting out. Waiting does not cost the Sharks anything. Paying now costs them the second overall pick from 2025. And if the Sharks truly want a defenseman, there are 10 teams chasing this one, and every one of them is bidding against the Sharks. Johnston said the Sharks have been combing the market for other upgrades, so the door to other options is open. That is the better road. Look for other options. Keep the center. Keep the franchise second-line center for this team going forward, and let Detroit's price come down so you don't have to give up Misa for him. My call is I say no to this deal for Evanson. I like Evanson. I think he's a great player, and he would definitely fit this core going forward, but we don't have to give up Michael Misa for him. The asset here is the 19-year-old Michael Misa, and for two more seasons, he's locked up for under a million dollars. He's too valuable. This is a guy who scored 60 goals in his junior career in one season, so I think this is a guy we got to hold on to because the ceiling is way too high for Michael Misa. And the other side is that Evanson hasn't played this season, so there is going to be rust on him because he hasn't been playing this year, and he's reportedly wanting more than $8.5 million a year. You've got to think about what that does for our cap. We've got a lot of contracts coming up in Stenberg, Smith, Askarov. We've got to pay a lot of these guys that we picked in the draft, and locking up Evanson long-term would really shorten the cap for us. Plus, they really need more goal scoring right now. They have four goals in their last three games, so getting rid of Misa is only going to hinder that going forward. And the longer Evanson sits, the weaker Detroit's price goes. So as long as we wait this out and we get to the end of the month and the price is lower than Misa, I would be willing to give up a plus plus for this player. And I get where Detroit is coming from. This is a guy who's minus seven on the year, so maybe they don't see him as high value as we do. And I think they're trying to fleece Mike Greer and the Sharks right now, and we're not going to let that happen. So what you need to watch going forward is that December 1st deadline. If we do get to December 1st and he does sign, then we probably won't be able to get this player. But if he doesn't sign, that price is going to plummet and we should be able to pick this guy up for free. He won't be able to play for us this season after December 1st, but he'd be a good piece going forward.