By: Adam Gretz
The San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild made two huge trades over the summer. Most recently, the clubs swapped big-money forwards Dany Heatley and Martin Havlat. Before that blockbuster was completed, the Sharks acquired offensive-defenseman Brent Burns in a deal that sent Devin Setoguchi to Minnesota at the NHL draft, giving San Jose another scoring threat from the blue line to go along with veteran Dan Boyle.
On Monday, the Sharks announced that they signed Burns, who is still only 26 years old, to a five-year contract extension. According to David Pollack of the San Jose Mercury News, the deal is worth a total of $28.5 million, which comes out to a cap hit of $5.75 million per season.
Said general manager Doug Wilson in a statement released by the team, "We are thrilled that Brent has stepped forward and made long-term commitment to the San Jose Sharks, his new teammates and our fans. When we acquired Brent, it was our intention to make sure that he remained an important piece of our organization moving forward and we are very pleased that we have been able to do that. As an elite-level defenseman who is just entering his prime, we are looking forward to meshing Brent’s skills with our existing core group.”
Burns is coming off the best season of his career offensively having scored 17 goals to go with 29 assists in 82 games. A former first-round pick by the Wild back in 2003, Burns spent the first seven years of his career in Minnesota and has flashed the elite-level ability Wilson talked about many times throughout his career. The biggest concern the Sharks and their fans should have with Burns is the fact he's had a history of injuries in recent years, including a concussion during the 2009 season.
He's played fewer than 60 games twice in the past four years.
When he's on the ice, however, he's a true goal-scoring threat having scored at least 15 goals during the 2010-11 and 2007-08 seasons. He maintained a similar pace during his injury-shortened 2008-09 season.
The only defensemen to score more goals last season were Atlanta's Dustin Byfuglien (20) and Anaheim's Lubomir Visnovsky (18).
Photo: Getty Images
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