Sharks GM Wilson looking to build a culture of teammates, not co-workers

San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson is committed to a rebuild of some sort over the summer, and a big part of that seems to involve a change in of the team's "culture".

Appearing on the NHL Network’s NHL Live!, Wilson was asked by host Steve Mears what needs to change after his team's infamous loss to the Los Angeles Kings in the postseason. 

Here's his response, via Kevin Kurz of CSN.

There’s a comment that was made by a group of my players, that we were co-workers and not teammates.

Really, what that means is they really hadn’t dug down to be there for each other and commit to what teammates have to do to be successful. Look at L.A. The things that they did, the game sevens where they just stuck with it, coming back against us, taking care of each other. Ours was somehow lost a little bit. Our players acknowledged it, I’ve listened to them, our coaches have acknowledged it.

That’s what I’m talking about when it comes to culture, is being a great teammate and playing the way that we need them to play, not the way that they want to play.

Wilson acknowledged the problem is "partly the people, partly the environment, partly how they’re managed and coached", but ultimately seems to point back to a lack of leadership and cohesiveness as the root of the issue: "But, it comes back to teammate-to-teammate, saying, ‘you know what? I’ll be there for you.’ And, we didn't have it.”

This lends credence to the fact that Wilson would prefer to send Joe Thornton packing, something he admits is ultimately up to the captain: 

We’ve decided we’re going to go into our form of rebuild, and it may take a year or two, whatever it may be. My conversations with Joe and (Patrick Marleau) were kept in confidence, and it’s very simple – if it doesn’t fit for you guys, let’s sit and discuss it. Certainly, there’s a lot of teams that would love players like that.

But, as I said, that decision will be based on what’s best for this organization and what those individuals want to do. That will be kept in confidence. Teams call all the time, but I tell them it will be up to the players’ decisions based on conversations with me.