DOUG WILSON HAS done a lot of playing from ahead since landing in the Bay Area nearly 17 years ago. In the beginning, he was the most recognizable player on the woeful expansion Sharks. The best-paid, too — according to reports, Wilson earned $1 million that first season; his teammates made a combined $5 million.
Ah, but Dougie was worth every penny. He never turned down an interview request. He was thoughtful and well-mannered. He even had some game left. Not a lot, but a little.
He retired after two seasons with the Sharks, and thus never played at the team's new arena in San Jose. But he was remembered fondly there and welcomed warmly when he was hired as general manager in the spring of 2003.
In his four full seasons as GM, the Sharks have been almost as good as they believed themselves to be. Only Detroit has earned more regular-season points and appeared in more playoff games since the start of the 2003-04 season.
Even when he fired coach Ron Wilson last month, Doug Wilson got a pass. For one thing, Ron Wilson wasn't his hire. He was a leftover from the Dean Lombardi regime. For another, a guy's got to do something when his team fails to live up to the best-case scenario, right?
If Wilson hasn't been bulletproof, he's at least been wearing Kevlar unmentionables. But all that changed Thursday when he introduced Todd McLellan as the Sharks' new head coach.
"This may be the most thorough coaching search that's taken place in many years," Wilson said.
It certainly produced a credible candidate. McLellan has been a successful head coach in the minors and a highly regarded assistant who helped the Red Wings hoist the Stanley Cup nine days ago. He isn't a name, but he's a resume. And for now, with training camp almost three months away, that's about as good as it gets.
But this thorough-to-the-10th-power coaching search also produced for Wilson an accountability factor he has never known in San Jose. He's on the hook for all of it now — the extended tease, the internal expectations, the Joe Thornton window of opportunity and the new guy behind the bench.
"He fits for us now and in the future," Wilson said of McLellan. "He understands the expectations. He welcomes the expectations."
That right, coach?
"It will be no greater pressure than what we had in Detroit," McLellan said.
The difference being, in Detroit the Red Wings occasionally validate their expectations — four times in the past 11 seasons, to be exact. Whereas until the Sharks prove otherwise, it appears Wilson has been overselling his product. For example, the blue-collar heartbeat he claimed at season's end to have observed in the team.
Given that the Sharks melted down as recently as Game 3 against Calgary two months ago, that qualifies as either a false positive or a leap of faith. True, the Sharks beat Calgary with an inspired effort in Game 7, and the four-overtime game against Dallas speaks for itself. But it takes more than a couple magic nights to forge character you can count on game in and game out.
Another example: personnel. McLellan said he saw parallels between Detroit's top forwards, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, and the Sharks' tandem of Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Thornton might be in that discussion, though he needs more consistent help from his linemates. How many times in the postseason did he stand there with the puck, waiting for someone to crash the net while his forwards were in the corners filing their fingernails?
Marleau is a different story. He was mediocre at best during the first two-thirds of last season. While he perked up down the stretch and in the playoffs, he was not to be confused for a top-tier second-line forward.
McLellan will see this for himself in time. His clock is ticking, too. But he took the job understanding that would be the case.
Wilson is the guy for whom the game has changed. Once it was enough to be the affable guy without the helmet. Now he must earn his goodwill, just like you, me and the makers of Kevlar boxers.
Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com.