The San Jose Sharks are heading into free agency with a lot of work to do just to reach the cap floor. The team has $51.41 million committed to players and needs to commit an additional $19.19 million to reach the $70.6 million floor. Some of that will be dished out in free agency, where it’s expected the Sharks will try to land a big-name free agent. Whether the team succeeds is another matter entirely. That said, one major free agent or even two isn’t going to get the team to the floor, which means the Sharks will also need to take on a few bad contracts to get something done. With that in mind, what contracts might the Sharks swallow that might make sense, and could those moves happen today to help other teams land free agency big fish?
Matt Dumba
The Dallas Stars need some cap room, and the Sharks could use another right-shot defenseman. Dumba has one more year on a contract that pays him $3.75 million, money that Dallas would like to use to take a swing at Mitch Marner (though that ship appears to have sailed) or re-sign a player like Mikael Granlund, who had chemistry in abundance with Mikko Rantanen. With a year left on his contract, Dumba would be an easy contract to take on for the Sharks, and it might not take much to acquire.
Thatcher Demko
Given that Arturs Silovs just led the Abbottsford Canucks to a Calder Cup Championship, you have to figure Vancouver fans are dying to bring him up to the NHL. But that means someone at the top has to move, and that looks like Demko, who is in the final year of a deal that pays him $5 million. Demko has had a lot of injuries to contend with last season, and so his stock is low. Vancouver is going to find it tough to find any serious contenders who are willing to commit that kind of money to a player who is not a sure thing.
However, the Sharks might be willing to take the full cap hit to have an NHL-tested backup to Yaroslav Askarov. Plus, the ability to move Demko at the trade deadline for assets has to look like a nice reward.
William Karlsson
There are plenty of rumors about what Vegas does to make the money work for Marner, since it seems pretty clear that the former Toronto Maple Leaf is signing there. Nicolas Hague is already gone, traded to the Nashville Predators. That said, Vegas still needs to move money out. It’s rumored that Nicolas Roy will be moved to Toronto to make up for the Golden Knights (potentially?) talking to Marner before the official opening of the free agency window. That’s not a done deal yet. However, even with that, more money may still need to be moved.
Sportsnet has William Karlsson as another trade target. With two years left on a contract that pays $5.9 million per year, that fits right into the Sharks’ timeline and gives San Jose a high-scoring center to play behind Macklin Celebrini. General Manager Mike Grier has proven he is not adverse to doing deals with Vegas if the price is right. Vegas helped us out of the Tomas Hertl contract for a price. Maybe the Golden Knights will toss in a few third-round picks if we help them out of the Karlsson contract.
Viktor Arvidsson
Viktor Arvidsson plays the kind of game that Grier likes, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if the GM offers to take the $4 million forward off of Edmonton’s hands so the Oilers can make the money work in re-signing Evan Bouchard, who is due a massive pay raise. Then again, this may be a deal that’s worth waiting on, given that Grier might be better served trying to snake John Klingberg from the Oilers on the opening day of free agency.
On second thought, let’s put a pin in Arvidsson until a little later.
Patrik Laine
This one’s a little iffy because, yes, the Montreal Canadiens are over the cap by more than $3.3 million, but the team also has more than $10 million in long-term injured reserve from Carey Price’s salary, so the team actually has cap room to spare. That said, if the Canadiens wanted to have more room to make a move down the road, moving Laine would certainly make the space, especially considering that paying $8.7 million to a 33-point player isn’t the best asset management for a team looking to compete in the playoffs this season.
Laine has one year left on his deal and all of this would hinge on the Sharks not being on his ten team no trade list or at the very least, him being willing to waive his no trade clause to come to sunny California to play with a bunch of kids who have good vibes and media that lets him chill.
Conclusion
The cap going up didn’t do the Sharks many favors in the “weaponize” cap space department, but that’s okay. We can still utilize all this extra cap space to overpay for one or two players. Except, well, it doesn’t feel like there are very many good players available on the free agency market. Alas, that’s an issue for another article.
