SJ SHARKS NAME JOE WILL ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER
21-Year Sharks Hockey Department Staffer Will Continue Working Alongside Doug Wilson and Wayne Thomas

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Wilson announced today that Joe Will has been promoted to the position of assistant general manager. He will continue to report to Wilson and work in tandem with Vice President and Assistant General Manager Wayne Thomas.

“For many years, Joe Will has been an integral part of everything we do in our hockey department,” said Wilson. “This change recognizes the tremendous amount of work he is responsible for in operating our hockey team. He is very deserving of this promotion and we are lucky to have him in our organization.”

For the past six seasons, Will has served as director of hockey operations since his promotion from assistant to the general manager in 2005. Will, who joined the Sharks franchise at the team’s inception in July 1990, previously served as the team’s scouting coordinator.

Will works closely with Wilson and Thomas on all daily departmental functions and his primary responsibilities include contract research and negotiations, scouting operations, fiscal planning, salary cap analysis and hockey administration. He’s the lead coordinator and planner for the Sharks training camp scouting meetings and scouting conference calls each season.

One of his most important duties involves the tracking, analyzing and projecting of the team’s player payroll relative to the current and future National Hockey League salary cap to give the team the financial flexibility to ice a championship-caliber team each season.

Will also works with the organization's professional scouts and management team in player research for expansion, waivers, free agency and trades. His expert analysis of economic trends in the NHL has led to the Sharks acquisition and retention of several key veteran players over his time with the club.

The Bloomington, Minn. native also works with Director of Scouting Tim Burke in the development and implementation of draft prospect testing, draft table operations and computer scouting analysis. Will is an integral part of the team’s draft-day strategy. Without his coordinating efforts, the team would not have drafted 2001 Calder Memorial Trophy winner Evgeni Nabokov in 1994. In addition, he developed the Sharks computer scouting program that pioneered the advent of scouting programs used throughout the NHL.

Before joining San Jose, Will spent six years in the Minnesota North Stars organization in various capacities.

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