Marleau On His Way Out?

The Sharks have been a well-worn name for trade rumours this summer and there seems to be more rumblings from Eklund at HockeyBuzz that something could be coming together involving their now-former captain, Patrick Marleau.

With San Jose deep in the discussion for Dany Heatley, there is the understanding that they will have to shed some cap space in somewhat of a 3-way deal, which is likely to include Marleau heading out of town. The Sharks are already in deep cap trouble, having only 17 players (including Marleau) signed on for next season at a cap rate of $56.2 million, leaving themselves very little room to maneuver.

Marleau's cap hit for 2010 will be $6.3 million, which is a nice, tidy sum, but Heatley will drop a huge $7.5 million on any team he lands on, so the Sharks are going to have to be awfully shrewd, if they are to swing any sort of deal here. This would mean that the package heading out of San Jose will have to include some more players than just Marleau, but with the captaincy removed from him, he does seem like the more likely target.

Now, if we were to take anything from the Eklund rumour post, there is a Northeast team in the mix, which isn't Canadian, which may, in fact, eliminate Ottawa and Heatley from this mix. This could easily suggest that the Bruins are in this mix with their troubled dealings with Phil Kessel. This does seem less likely, however, since the Bruins are in no cap shape to pick up a guy like Marleau, especially since they can't seem to find the cap room to find a younger, cheaper RFA in Kessel. That only leaves Buffalo on that list of teams and they aren't sitting in a position to make too many moves either, unless, they are going to drop a prospect or two with a roster player, but that seems rather unlikely.

Something isn't quite right here.