Joe Pavelski is making his rounds in free agency.
According to TSN, the Sharks' captain met with the Stars on Wednesday. And according to another report from The Athletic, he will meet with the Lightning next.
Hearing UFA Joe Pavelski was visiting in Dallas with the Stars today. As I wrote Monday, the Stars among the team with serious interest in the 38-goal star forward
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 26, 2019
Further to @PierreVLeBrun report that Joe Pavelski was visiting Dallas today, I’m told he’ll be meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning next
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) June 26, 2019
The 13-year veteran has played his entire career with the Sharks, however, because the team gave defenseman Erik Karlsson an eight-year, $92 million deal, San Jose may simply be unable to re-sign Pavelski who is coming off one of the best years of his career.
The 34-year-old center scored 38 goals last season, which is only three shy of his career high. He helped San Jose get back to the Western Conference finals where it lost to the eventual champion Blues in six games.
He is the captain of the team and, by all accounts, it appears he wants to play for the Sharks again, but the team might not have the cap space to re-sign him.
And also of note, as for the teams looking at Pavelski, they would be smart to make sure their power play is on point. Pavelski has scored 355 goals in his career, 121 have come on the power play.
For the Lightning, his addition would simply make a deadly power play even deadlier as Tampa Bay finished first in power-play percentage (28.2 percent) last season.
As for Dallas, it isn't quite as good, but the team's 21.0 percent on the power play was good for 11th in the league, so Pavelski's addition would certainly be welcome.