SAN JOSE, Calif. — Just a few hours after the Sharks had announced the signing of Evgeni Nabokov to a two-year contract Tuesday worth $7.15 million, the franchise goaltender was doing drills on the ice with mentor Warren Strelow.
How soon will Nabokov be ready to play? After a 1-4 stumble in which they have yielded 22 goals, the Sharks hope it’s sooner rather than later as they begin a six-game trip Thursday in Nashville.
“It’s really hard to say right now,” Nabokov said. “We have games every other day, so it all depends on how much ice time I can get. I think I’m in pretty good physical condition, so hopefully it will be pretty quick, but it’s hard to say.”
Coach Darryl Sutter had planned to start goalie Miikka Kiprusoff against Nashville even before learning of Nabokov’s signing. The club sent goalie Vesa Toskala to the minors after Nabokov rejoined the fold.
Nabokov set team records last season with 37 victories and seven shutouts. He also finished fourth in voting for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie for the second season in a row.
The new deal, which pays $3.525 million this season and $3.625 million next season, was a compromise. Nabokov, 27, got the shorter-term deal that he had sought. And the Sharks got him at a price consistent with what Nabokov could have gotten via arbitration, had he chosen to file.
Citing their concern for a possible drop in the age for unrestricted free agency in a new collective bargaining agreement after the 2003-04 season, the Sharks had pushed for a long-term deal because they wanted to secure one of the organization’s cornerstones.
The ineffectiveness of Kiprusoff and Toskala was only part of the problem for the Sharks, but it was a glaring one as Nabokov was preparing a return to Russia.
“Hey, who are we kidding here?” Lombardi said. “To say that the performance of the team does not factor into the urgency of your analysis is just not being truthful. … It heightened the urgency of it the way we’re struggling right now. But to be truthful, to pin this start all
on the goaltending is not fair. And not accurate.
“There are other issues that are reflective of this 1-4 start. To pin it on goaltending is way too simplistic. But of course you’re going to miss an athlete of that caliber.”
Nabokov had not skated in more than two weeks before Tuesday, and he probably won’t get any ice time today because the team has an early flight.
“But I worked out all the time, two to three hours a day,” he said.
© 2002, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.