Rumor: Sharks captain Joe Pavelski has agreed to a new deal, with a new team.

It sounds like the San Jose Sharks will officially lose their captain tomorrow.

According to multiple reports, the first of which appeared to come from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, it now appears that Sharks captain Joe Pavelski has made his decision. Pagnotta reports that the Dallas Stars have offered Pavelski a 3 year deal that will pay him an average annual value of $7 million per season, a big time deal for a player in the advanced stages of his career like Pavelski. 

Now to be clear Pavelski may be old by the standards of the National Hockey League, but the man remained the Sharks leading scorer during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season, recording a whopping 38 goals at the tender age of 34. I would suspect that the 3 year term played a big role in Pavelski accepting this deal, although we do not know what type of offers he received from other teams on the market. There were rumors that had previously linked him to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but given the numbers on this new deal it is hard to imagine that they were truly ever in the running for Pavelski.

A tough blow to the Sharks to be sure, and a huge win in free agency for the Stars. Only time will tell however if this deal looks good in all 3 years Pavelski will be signed for.