When Sharks' general manager Doug Wilson said he wasn't going to sit still and, in his words, "see you in September," many people thought it meant new faces on the roster.

Nobody figured on one of the new faces being Jeremy c

Roenick, the 19-year Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Phoenix veteran, spoke openly of retirement over the summer after a dismal 2006-7 season with the Coyotes. Wilson, though, sought out Roenick to take his temperature for one more season, Roenick agreed, and signed a one-year, $500,000 deal with San Jose as what is likely the last act the team will perform before the start of training camp.

Roenick's reputation as a gifted and aggressive player runs in tandem with a gift for occasional off-ice disruption, but because the Sharks have been considered a talented but emotionally placid group, Roenick's particular combination of spices may help.

"We know him very well," Wilson said, "and we know he's a player who has always been at his best when he's had a chance to win. With him, he's coming in as a hockey player, and this is not to sell tickets. His role is to help us win hockey games."

Wilson also said that the Sharks were confident that Roenick still has the legs to keep up on a faster-paced team.

"I talked to him, and I talked to his wife, and I think the pilot light is still on," Wilson said. "I asked him, 'I know you still love the game, but do you have the passion to play and perform really well?' and he said yes."

"That (retirement) was a very true feeling in my body and soul," Roenick said. "I'd lost a little luster for the game the past couple of years (in Los Angeles and Phoenix, a subject on which he would not expound), but then I got a phone call from Doug Wilson, and my electricity and energy undoubtedly were back. I haven't felt like this since I went to Philly (in 2001)."

Roenick, 37, figures as a possible third- or fourth-line center. "I've played eight or nine minutes before," he said, "and I'll take whatever role they give me, but I'm going to play my ass off to try to make them give much as much as ice time as I can get."

But the sidebar is the five goals he needs to become the third American-born player to reach 500 (the others are Mike Modano of Dallas and the retired Joe Mullen). The cost suggests that if the move doesn't work out, the Sharks can make a break without weighing the financial consequences.

San Jose has already committed just short of $70 million this summer on extensions for Joe Thornton, Milan Michalek, Craig Rivet, and most recently Patrick Marleau. The only other new face Doug Wilson brought in is veteran Edmonton and Florida defenseman Alexei Semenov, while the club has moved Bill Guerin, Vesa Toskala, Mark Bell (who was just suspended by the league in connection with his conviction for drunk driving in San Jose) and Scott Hannan.

Roenick represents a low-risk, decent-reward gamble, but he wouldn't figure to dramatically change San Jose's Stanley Cup hopes on the ice, unless he can revert to the form he last showed in 2003 with the Flyers.

"I think he can still skate," Wilson said. "He's had injuries, but they haven't been knee injuries, and he's always been considered a good skater. And in this game, if you can't skate, you can't play."

Of Roenick can still skate, and therefore can still play, it will represent a change in his career arc.

"I've been through every gamut in my career," Roenick said. "People will say I can't do it, I'll just have to come in and let my actions speak for themselves. They'll say I can't do it, or that I can't keep my mouth shut, but I think a lot of Jeremy Roenick can help a team. I'm gonna try to be the best player I can be for San Jose and the Sharks, and they can say what they want."

Which, of course, they will. The question to be answered is the quality of his rebuttal.