Typically at the trade deadline, teams like the San Jose Sharks start a fire sale. Anything that’s not a young prospect who factors into the team’s future is fair game. But this season may be the ideal time for the Sharks to make an exception that would flip the team from a seller to a buyer.
What do the Sharks need?
Scott Wheeler of The Athletic recently named the Sharks’ prospect pool the best in the NHL. The team has a star center in Macklin Celebrini and a potential all-star center in Will Smith. The Sharks look like they’re set down the middle, especially if Filip Bystedt develops into the third-line center he’s projected to be. In the net, it looks like Yaroslav Askarov is the Sharks’ goaltender of the future.
The weakest point for the Sharks is on defense. While Sam Dickinson is projecting to be a top pair defenseman or at the very least a top four and Luca Cagnoni could be an NHL defenseman with offensive upside, there’s not much below that. Leo Sahlin Wallenius has a good chance of eventually joining the Sharks at the NHL level, but he’s just 18 and has a ways to go. All three defensemen play on the left hand side, leaving the Sharks with a glaring hole on the right.
Ideally, San Jose needs a young right-shot defenseman, though, at this point, any young defenseman with NHL games and puck-moving skills would be a good addition to help the team take the next step next season. And that’s what General Manager Mike Grier should target at the trade deadline.
What do the Sharks have that could interest other teams?
Of course, you have to give up something to get something, and a young defenseman who hasn’t reached his peak yet will cost a pretty penny. A right-shot defenseman will cost you even more. That’s why the Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci trade well before the deadline may have been the best thing to happen to the Sharks. Not only does it help the tank this season, but that first-round pick from the Dallas Stars can be moved at the deadline.
It will likely take more than a first-round pick to pry away a top-talent defenseman, but the Sharks have other assets the team can share. There are young prospects that may be considered redundant as the team continues to stock the cupboards with draft picks.
Quentin Musty and Igor Chernyshov are projected to be NHL power forwards with offensive skills. Does the team need the slightly more one-dimensional Kasper Halttunen, then? Nothing against Halttunen, but if it fills the team’s biggest need, then it might be best to part ways with the forward.
The same could be said of Thomas Bordeleau. While we love his game, it’s taken a bit of a turn this season. Does he project to be a better third/fourth liner than Collin Graf, Danil Gushchin or Ethan Cardwell? If the answer is no, then now might be a good time to move Bordeleau. For that matter, moving Gushchin or Cardwell or Graf to improve the defense should not be off the table either.
While it might be painful to Sharks fans, packaging an A/B prospect, might be the team’s best way to get a defenseman that will line up with San Jose’s next step in the rebuild.
Potential deadline trade targets
So, who could the Sharks target at the trade deadline? For the most part, we’re looking at restricted free agents in this analysis because it’s the only players Grier should be targeting at the deadline. The Sharks don’t need age on the blueline, the team can get that in free agency. What the Sharks need right now is a player who still has a few years in restricted free agency and some room to develop.
Bowen Byram
Among those who fit the bill are a pair of Buffalo Sabres. We’ll start things out with Bowen Byram, who is one of the top trade deadline targets, according to Sportsnet. At just 23 years old, Byram already has more than 200 NHL games played. He won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022 and has offensive upside with 101 career points.
This season, he’s averaging more than 23 minutes a game and plays on both the power play and the penalty kill.
If there’s one knock against him, at least where the Sharks are concerned, it’s that he plays on the left-hand side. As stated, the left is already crowded for the Sharks. That said, Byram is also better, at this point, than all of the Sharks prospects that play on the left side, so he would be an upgrade.
Byram’s current contract is $3.85 million AAV, and it expires at the end of this season. The Sharks would likely have to give up Dallas’ first-round pick and a prospect to acquire Byram, but it might be worth it if you add him and then sign him to a long-term deal.
Mattias Samuelsson
While not my favorite option, the Sharks could consider a small hockey trade for Mattias Samuelsson. Sportsnet has Samuelsson listed on the trade block mainly because the Sabres organization needs to find a way to re-sign Byram.
Samuelsson is 24 and has already played 185 NHL games. He has 38 career points.
His best attribute is his size. He’s 6-foot-4 and 227 pounds. He logs a lot of minutes on the penalty kill and doesn’t play much on the power play. Though he plays on the left side, it would be interesting to see if he could play alongside a player like Cagnoni to add some heft to the defensive pairing.
Samuelsson is signed to a $4.285 million contract through 2029-30. Given that the Sabres might be in a bit of a pinch to re-sign Byram, Samuelsson could be had for a B-level prospect, which might be a good hockey trade for Grier to make, though maybe he waits until the summer or just before the draft to make that deal.
Noah Dobson
The latest update from Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast is that Noah Dobson isn’t available … unless he is. If that sounds a little confusing, you’re right. It turns out Lou Lamoriello will discuss Dobson if that’s what it takes for the Islanders to get a player that they’ve targeted.
Dobson checks a lot of boxes for the Sharks. He’s a right-shot defenseman. He’s offensively gifted with 215 points in 363 games. He’s in the final year of a contract that pays him $4 million per season, and he’s a restricted free agent after that. The Sharks have plenty of cap space to play with if this is a player the team wants to target.
That said, the Sharks may not have the piece that Lamoriello is looking for. With Mikael Granlund gone, there are no top-end players to trade. To get Dobson, Dallas’ first-round pick and a prospect likely won’t be enough. It would probably take San Jose’s first-round pick and a prospect to start, and that might not be a price the team is willing to pay.
Still, it’s a call GMMG should make, even if he’s told that the Sharks don’t have anything Lamoriello is looking for.
Simon Nemec
It’s likely that the Sharks asked about Simon Nemec when working on the Timo Meier trade a few years ago and were told no, but there’s no harm in asking again. The 20-year-old defenseman was frustrated with being sent down to the AHL again in January and was vocal about it. While the team told New Jersey Hockey Now that there’s nothing to see here, it’s pretty clear that Nemec isn’t pleased with where things stand at the moment.
He was called back up to the Devils just before the Four Nations break but didn’t fare well, according to our friends at All About the Jersey.
With Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, Brenden Dillon and Jonas Siegenthaler locked in for the next three seasons at least and Luke Hughes looking like he has the inside track, you have to wonder if Nemec would be satisfied with playing a bottom pairing role on the Devils long term.
Nemec shoots from the right and is signed through next season for a very affordable $918,000. After that, he’ll be a restricted free agent. To get him, it will likely have to start with Dallas’ first-round pick and go from there.
Zac Jones
The Sharks seem to like getting young prospects who are projects, and Zac Jones might be a good one to target. The defenseman has been a healthy scratch on the Rangers since December, and the team has given him permission to talk to other teams. We imagine the turmoil in NYC hasn’t helped his game.
According to Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, “Jones can move well and has offensive instincts, but his undersized frame has created some limitation in the market.”
At just 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Jones isn’t the typical size for a defenseman that Grier likes to target, but he could be the kind of player that could be included in a package, say for Mario Ferraro. Since Jones and the Rangers seem to be on the outs, Grier could get him and a draft pick for Ferraro.
Jones is a pending restricted free agent on a $812,500 contract. He is a 24-year-old defenseman that shoots from the left side.
K’Andre Miller
Another Rangers defenseman who could be on the move, according to Seravalli, is K’Andre Miller.
“With the entire defense corps in-flux outside of Adam Fox and Braden Schneider, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Miller is moved before March 7,” wrote Seravalli on a recent trade board. “Given his rare combination of size and athleticism, lots of teams would love to get their hands on the insanely gifted Miller. The flashes of brilliance are there but he just hasn’t been able to put it all together on a consistent enough basis. So much of what GM Chris Drury is willing to consider will hinge on how the Rangers perform over the next few weeks.”
Miller is an ideal size at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds. He moves the puck well enough and averages nearly 22 minutes per game without playing much on the power play.
While Miller only has 13 points in 49 games this season, he’s averaging a point every three games in his career. Miller was considered to have top-four potential in his recent past, though he has yet to live up to that consistently.
Dallas’ first-round pick may be what pushes the Sharks to the front of the line in this deal. A pick and a grade B prospect might be the best deal the Rangers will get since the team is on a bit of a timetable. The Rangers have to make a decision soon. Miller is a restricted free agent in the final year of a contract that pays him $3.87 million per season. He’s due a raise. While the Rangers might not be able to swing a big number for Miller, the Sharks could.
Brandon Carlo
Okay, this is the one player we might deviate from on the list because he checks a lot of boxes, even though he’s a bit older. Carlo is 28 years old and is in the fourth season of a six-year deal that pays him $4.1 million per season. He’s the ideal bridge right-side defenseman for Grier as he continues the rebuild.
What’s more, it might be time for the Bruins to move on from Carlo. The team is in a bit of a cap crunch with money and term committed to Charlie McAvoy ($9.5 million), Hampus Lindholm ($6.5 million) and Nikita Zadorov ($5 million) on the backend.
The Bruins are close to the cap ceiling and may want to use the money spent on Carlo for something else as the playoffs approach, maybe forward depth.
As Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos writes, “Depending on where the Bruins are at the trade deadline, in the playoffs or chasing from distance, I don’t think there’s a real future for the team to hold on to Carlo. Of all the blue liners they have, he’s the one vulnerable guy.”
While top contenders like Edmonton will be chasing Carlo, the Sharks do have things to offer if management feels that Carlo fills a role the team is currently missing or will be missing in the future.
Conclusion
The Sharks don’t have to wait until the offseason to make moves that will make the roster better for next season. In fact, a move now may benefit the team far better in the future than waiting until the summer. The Sharks have a late first-round draft pick in an allegedly weak draft. It still has the cache of a first-round pick, though it might lack some of the clout of previous seasons.
This could be the ideal time for San Jose to make a move that would help the team better compete over the next few seasons and possibly beyond.
While GMMG will be selling at the trade deadline, we hope he’ll consider buying as well.
