First of all, listen to the podcast if you haven’t already.

Kevin Kurz has a post about a Q&A session Kevin Compton and Stratton Sclavos (two of the Sharks owners) had over the weekend about the state of the franchise. They revealed some (alleged) information about the Sharks’ financial situation, stating that they lost around $15M last year. In fact, here are the main points of the article as I read them:

1. The Sharks owners lost money last year, even through every home game sold out.
2. The Sharks consider themselves at about the midpoint of teams in terms of market size and revenues.
3. The cap has gone up a lot since the cap was first put in.
4. The Sharks owners don’t care about making money, they just want to win.

Reviewed in this easy, albeit jaded format, this could be a blueprint for the PR strategy of any ownership group in the NHL this summer. We lost a lot of money, even though we are doing everything right.  We sell out the building, we work hard to ice a competitive team, but our P&L looks like a horror show. But hey, that’s ok, we just want to win. It looks like this is the owners doing what owners have always done when labor negotiations happen, cry poor, but save personal face with their customers by saying it’s all just part of the deal, and they’re fine with it. In this context, the headline (“Should Sharks owners be allowed to profit?”) and the first three points are brilliant in serving those purposes. This makes me want to launch into a whole argument about the nature (and type) of profit the owners are in fact making, but that will have to wait for another day.

Frankly, I have no concrete reason to doubt Mr. Compton’s and Mr. Sclavos’ sincerity on any of this. However, it’s worth mentioning that only statement #3 above is proven. All the others either burnish the owner’s own reputations, or further the NHL’s bargaining position. It think it goes without saying that these points should be taken with a grain of salt.  Plenty of the commenters on the article noticed correctly that this loss number is not audited, and not present in any public disclosure statement, because SS&E (Sharks Sports & Entertainment, the entity that owns the Sharks) is not a publicly traded company, and therefore not required to release any such numbers. In fact, during the lockout in 2005, there was quite a row made over the players’ claims that they wanted to see the real financial statements of the teams, and they were not being provided the information requested.

The fact that this conversation took place less than a week after the owners submitted their initial bargaining position is not a coincidence.

Still plenty of offseason things to talk about, including the possible trade of Dan Boyle, more Rick Nash, more Shane Doan, and more.

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It’s the middle of the summer, but the Sharks news is abundant- two more assistant (or associate) coaches have been signed- Larry Robinson and Jim Johnson.  The Dudes break that down, talk about free agents still available, and the various signings that happened in the past week.

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The Dudes break down one of the most eventful days of the hockey year- the first day of free agency.  The Sharks signed Adam Burish to a 4-year deal, but seemingly parted ways with Daniel Winnik.  Mike and Doug talk about that, and many of the other signings that happened on July 1, many of them head-scratchers.

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Mike and Doug break down all the trades and goings-on of the NHL draft, and take a look at the top UFAs.

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The Dudes talk about the upcoming draft, Brad Stuart vs. Barret Jackman, and some possible trade partners for a certain Sharks veteran.

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It’s a milestone episode, and the Dudes have to face the fact that the Kings are the Stanley Cup Champions, and the long term de facto Pacific division favorite.  But in Sharks news, Brad Stuart is back, and the Dudes figure out what that means for the rest of the defensive corps.  Finally, Mike and Doug cover the entire Sharks lineup, particularly the RFAs and UFAs, predicting which will be retained, and which will be free to test the market.

Correction: Brad Stuart was a #3 overall pick, not #6 as we said in the podcast. (Matt D’Agostini)

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In the last podcast of this hecto-podcast, Doug and Mike talk about the news of the day, the Stanley Cup finals, and take some listener emails.

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Mike and Doug are back again, talking about the Kings being the favorite to win the Cup, the Devils-Rangers series, and the continuing non-info about the Sharks’ coaching situation.

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I'm just like the Coyotes. I feel a blowout!

My daughter is now 16 days old and I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe. My days revolve around keeping track of how many times this small version of me poos and pees, singing silly songs about poos and pees and washing poos and pees off my Dudes on Hockey t-shirt, which appears to be her favorite target….not sure what she’s saying about our podcast….

I’m also pretty sure that I feel fairly poopy and pee-pee about the LA Kings making the Stanley Cup Finals, which is a virtual certainty at this point. Is this really happening? Are the Sharks really keeping T-Mac as head coach and thinking that adding Bryan Marchment will fix the disturbing penalty kill? Why am I still covered in doo-doo?

As I stumble into next weeks podcast, we are creating two Dudes on Hockey award categories and we would like your help in forming the nominations. Let us know your nominees in the comment thread below and we’ll run with it.

KING DOUCHEBAG

What NHL player is the lamest, either on or off the ice? An obvious nominee would be Patrick Kane, for his drunken escapade after Round One in the playoffs coupled with his classic Vancouver limo incident and punching a cab driver in the face in his native Buffalo. Plus he’s just a tool in general. That’s my nominee.

Who is your King Douchebag? State your case and provide your evidence.

THE DIRTY DIAPER AWARD

Which current San Jose Shark player would you like to see NOT return next season. No rules apply here, no logic, or trade clauses. Just you being able to toss this player into the Diaper Champ like a nutty surprise on the NHL landfill. With the new CBA, there could be an amnesty clause that would allow you to dispose of this dirty diaper. You could also choose to not resign this players soiled baby shorts as a UFA or RFA.

Who is your Dirty Diaper and why do they stand out from the other Pamper nightmares?

We will be back next week. Until then, my hockey friends…I reek of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste.