Every move the San Jose Sharks have made this offseason can be clearly slotted into two categories: not surprising and surprising. In past offseasons, they've mostly stuck to the former, making good signings here and there, but nothing necessarily earth-shattering. This offseason though ... everything is out the window. Everything being players like Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley, as it happens.
Surprising isn't necessarily bad, however, and the Sharks have ended up with some pretty good players thus far. Their two most recent signings should be positive, and only one of them happens to be surprising! The other, of course, is the signing of Benn Ferriero, according to CapGeek.com, Ferriero is on a one-year, two-way deal worth $605,500.
Ferriero has contributed every time he's come in, scoring goals here and there, including a game-winner in the playoffs, but he's had plenty of lapses in coverage out there. He's got a lot of potential, and maybe his lack of consistency is due to his lack of consistent play time at the NHL level, having to jump back and forth so much. If he gets a chance this year at that contract figure, he should be able to produce and be worth the money. The best part about it is the fact that he'll remain a restricted free agent after the season.
The surprising signing was bringing in Thomas Greiss. Surprising from the view of Greiss, that is. Greiss was slotted to be the team's true backup when they signed Antero Niittymaki, but then the team brought in Antti Niemi, and Greiss was an afterthought. He left to play in Sweden, and had a rather down year while there. Most figured the relationship between the two teams was irreparable.
There's a couple things that can happen now ... either the Sharks feel like Greiss is still the backup of the future and they groom him in the AHL for another season, while keeping him around as Alex Stalock is still injured or they dump Niittymaki's contract if somebody wants to trade for him and they make Greiss the primary backup.
Whatever the case, there's many more things to come. Who knows if they'll be surprising or unsurprising?