They say tearing down a team is "the easy part" of the rebuild, and a lot of Sharks general manager Mike Grier's work in the past several months replies, "Not so fast."

When a team is going into a rebuild and it fires the old coach, you know that new coach isn't going to have the job for very long. That is less so the case with the GMs who get brought in to shepherd the team into its new era and, hopefully, beyond. But might soon test that theory.

After the Tomáš Hertl trade, the Sharks are now retaining salary on three different players, which is the league-mandated max, for next season. Not that they have a lot of big-money players other teams would want at even, like, 75 percent retained (Logan Couture and who?), but denying yourself that flexibility for even one season — because it means