SAN JOSE — Timo Meier was the first player in his group to take the ice on the opening day of Sharks training camp. Kevin Labanc, in the same cadre of players, joined him shortly after.

Both Meier and Labanc then took spots alongside center Logan Couture in what has the makings to be the Sharks’ top line for the start of the regular season.

That, in and of itself, was noteworthy. While so many players who were in their position earlier this summer as restricted free agents remain unsigned, Meier and Labanc — who will undoubtedly be key contributors for the Sharks this season — inked deals early in the process. For complete Sharks coverage

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Meier was signed to a four-year, $24 million deal on July 1 and a week later, Labanc came to terms on a one-year, $1 million pact.

The contracts left many observers to wonder how Doug Wilson was able to pull this off with little or no drama while other NHL general managers are still haggling with player agents about dollars and term.

“The mode there is win, and guys are buying in,” said NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp, who played 609 games in the league over an 11-year career, “and you’re seeing that on the contracts.”

The list of impactful RFAs still without deals remains long. Just in the Western Conference, Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk, Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine and Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen all remain unsigned. All four, and a few other RFAs, could wind up with contracts that make them the highest-paid players on their respective teams.

Meier is now — in terms of average annual value of his contract — the third-highest paid Sharks forward. Meier’s deal has an AAV of $6 million, while Couture is at $8 million and Evander Kane is at $7 million.

“I’m not too worried about those other players. My focus is on the team now,” Meier said about the unsigned RFAs. “I’m not the guy that looks around and sees what other guys are doing. My focus is on this training camp, come in here, have fun and work hard every day and chase our team goal.”

The key to Meier’s deal is the fourth and final season, which carries a salary of $10 million. Meier will still be a RFA when the deal ends, but to qualify Meier at that time and retain his negotiating rights, the Sharks will have to offer at least a one-year deal at another $10 million.

So, it wasn’t cheap, but the deal may turn out to be a relative bargain once all of these RFAs are under contract. After all, Meier had 30 goals and 66 points last season.

“It’s nice, from my vantage point, when you have guys put aside the individual goals of a contract or statistics,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said, “in order to get back and be here on time and try and win a Stanley Cup.” Like our Sharks Facebook page for more San Jose Sharks news, commentary and conversation.

Because of the Meier and Labanc deals, the Sharks, per CapFriendly, have about $2.6 million in space remaining under the NHL’s salary cap. Perhaps a player from another team — that the Sharks could use — becomes available for cap reasons once these other RFAs sign. .

“You always explore that,” Wilson said last week, “but I think the big thing was taking care of our own people.”

Labanc’s deal is team friendly, but maybe only in the short term. If he has another season like he did in 2018-19 when he had 17 goals and was tied for sixth on the team with 56 points, he’ll undoubtedly receive a longer, more lucrative deal.

“We want to be a winning team. We want to make it to the Stanley Cup every year, and you can only negotiate so far,” Labanc said. “We’re RFA’s. We don’t really have much leverage.

“I think we’ve been given a pretty good chance here coming into the season and having a top-six role on the team. We just wanted to take care of business and kind get it done and over with, start focusing on the offseason. Now, we’re focusing on the preseason.”

The Sharks have a history of getting contracts done — particularly in the cap era — in a timely manner. In the early part of this decade, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau usually agreed to deals without a lot of fuss.

More than one person around the Sharks said that Thornton, in particular, has set that tone.

This summer, for instance, Thornton told Wilson to figure out the deals for Meier and Labanc first, and maybe even look into other options to add to the roster, before finalizing his contract.

“For me, when I was in (Meier and Labanc’s) spot, I watched Jumbo and Patty and those guys take many, many discounts to stay here,” Couture said. “They could have gotten a lot more if they wanted to fight for it, but they wanted to play on a good team and that message trickled down to me.

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Home sweet home? Giants, visitors at Oracle Park, tie franchise record in win “If you were to ask (Meier and Labanc), they’ll give you the same answer. They watched other guys do it and the main goal on this team is to win a championship and win a Stanley Cup. If that happens, then individually, then everyone is going to do well as well.”

Note: DeBoer says defenseman Radim Simek has been skating of late, but that team is “taking it slow. There is no rush right now. But he skating and he looks good.” Simek tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in March, and Wilson said last week the belief is that he’ll be healthy for the start of the regular season.