Everything that’s happened for the Sharks in the past seven days

The minute I write this, something will happen, but let’s take a look back at what’s happened for the San Jose Sharks in the past seven days. That includes the NHL Awards Show, the draft, free agency and the looming Erik Karlsson trade…we think.

Here we go.

Monday, July 26

We’ll kick things off in Nashville, where Karlsson took home his third Norris Trophy. 101 points was just enough to wow the voters to pick Karlsson over Adam Fox and Cale Makar.

When all was said and done, Karlsson beat Fox by 460 points and beat Makar by more than 1,000 points.

In his thank you speech, Karlsson thanked San Jose for “rejuvenating” him and his teammates for making it enjoyable to come to the rink every day.

Less than 24 hours later, rumors of Karlsson heading out of San Jose to a Cup contender started circulating.

Tuesday, July 27

With everyone already in Nashville and the draft a day away, it was time for people to mingle and make deals.

The Sharks jumped into the fray with a quick trade. San Jose sent a sixth-round pick in 2023 to the New Jersey Devils for the rights to Mackenzie Blackwood. It was a good move by Grier since Blackwood later signed a two-year, $2.35 million AAV contract extension with San Jose.

In a news conference after he signed his contract, Blackwood said he was excited to get a “fresh start.” Injuries created some issues for the young goaltender’s development, but Blackwood says he’s healthy now using yoga and pilates to help him stay that way. Blackwood is ready to compete with Kaapo Kahkonen for that starting job.

“I feel good. I feel great,” said Blackwood. “Competition brings the best out of you.”

Blackwood also says his familiarity with General Manager Mike Grier – who was an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils as Blackwood was coming into the league – helps.

“I know Mike pretty well; he’s great,” said Blackwood. “It’s just really good for me to get a good opportunity and have somebody who believes in you and believes that you can get back on track. It’s a good feeling.

“He was awesome. Super positive. Always had player’s backs. He would go to bat for you. Good to talk to. Very friendly, very fair,” continued Blackwood. “He expects guys to work, but he’s very fair about it. There’s not too many guys I’ve met like Mike that are solid and really good people and you can just tell when you talk to him he’s a great man.”

Blackwood will also see some familiar faces on the ice with him. He played with Fabian Zetterlund in New Jersey and played juniors with Kevin Labanc and Givani Smith – who signed in free agency.

In a lower-level deal, the Barracuda traded Andrew Agozzino to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Andrej Sustr. Agozzino asked for a trade for personal reasons and the team obliged. He played four games for the Sharks last season and had 3 points (1 G, 2 A).

Sustr, on the other hand, is a 32-year-old defenseman who played 51 games in the AHL last season. He had 14 points (3 G, 11 A) and 41 penalty minutes.

Wednesday, June 28 (Draft Day)

Draft day started out on a sad note for Sharks fans. Timo Meier signed an eight-year, $8.8 million AAV contract with the New Jersey Devils despite the Sharks offering him north of $9 million a year.

It makes sense. Meier wants to win and the Sharks aren’t able to do that just yet. Still, it has to sting that the talented power forward chose a different team.

There were no trades at the draft and, honestly, no need. Grier had said he would not trade the fourth pick unless something blew him away. Nothing did and San Jose used pick number four to take Will Smith.

Smith is a high-end scoring talent with great hands. He’ll head to Boston College this fall and is coming off a 127 point season with the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP) last season.

For those of you looking for comparisons, consider this, he’s at Jack Hughes level in terms of scoring. Smith scored 20 points at the U18s. Only Hughes has scored that many points in a single tournament. What’s more, in two seasons with the USNTDP, Smith has 191 points. That’s second only to Hughes’ 228.

Grier is in no rush to bring Smith to San Jose for anything more than prospect camps. During his post-draft interview, Grier said Smith will dictate when he’s ready to move up, and there’s no reason to rush the young talented center.

After pick number four, it was a waiting game for the Sharks. San Jose had pick 26 and chose not to trade up. Some off-the-board selections by other teams made the decision easy for San Jose. With pick 26, the team selected Quentin Musty, a player that some analysts had ranked in the top 15.

Musty is another American-born player who is unafraid to use his size to knock someone off the puck.

Thursday, June 29 (Draft Day, Day 2)

After an extremely boring day one of the draft (i.e., no trades), day two was not much better. San Jose used pick 36 to take Kasper Halttunen, a forward from Finland who played for HIFK (Liiga) last season and had scored on a goal-per-game pace in 18 games for the U20 team (24 points, 18 G, 6 A).

There was a large gap between that pick and the Sharks’ next pick, so the team swapped with Carolina, sending the 94th and 100th selections to the Hurricanes for pick 71.

With pick 71, San Jose selected Brandon Svoboda from the Youngstown Phantoms in the USHL. Svoboda had 26 points (16 G, 10 A) in 59 games with the Phantoms and helped the team win the Clark Cup in 2023. Best of all, he was very excited to join the Sharks.

Everyone say hi to Brandon Svoboda! 👋🦈 pic.twitter.com/qjb5KvEvPv

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 29, 2023

Svoboda may see a lot of fellow prospect Will Smith this season. Svoboda is headed to Boston University to play hockey, the crosstown rival of Boston College.

Luck was on San Jose’s side later in the draft when the Sharks snagged puck-moving defenseman Luca Cagnoni at 123. Cagnoni had 64 points (17 G, 47 A) in 67 games for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL last season. DobberProspects ranked the defenseman at 25 on its list, while Elite Prospects ranked him at 34. He was in the top 100 of almost every ranking list leading into the draft.

You’re gonna love this guy, @SanJoseSharks! pic.twitter.com/aSdZVoUF2I

— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) June 29, 2023

In round five, the Sharks took another defenseman, Axel Landen from Sweden at 130. Landen played for HV71’s U20 team. He posted 16 points (10 G, 6 A) and 47 penalty minutes. He served as an alternate captain on Sweden’s U18 Men’s World Championship team in April, helping the team earn a silver medal.

Just a few picks later, San Jose picked Eric Pohlkamp, another defenseman. Pohlkamp was the U.S. Hockey League’s defenseman of the year and played 59 games for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. He registered 51 points (16 G, 35 A).

In the seventh round, San Jose selected center David Klee at 196. Klee played for the Waterloo Black Hawks last season, posting 13 points (3G, 10 A).

At 203, the Sharks chose forward Yegor Rimashevskiy from the MHK Dynamo Moskva in the MHL. Rimashevskiy scored 26 points (13 G, 13 A) in 29 games last season.

San Jose traded the 206th pick to the Washington Capitals for a 2025 seventh-round pick.

What else we learned on June 29:

• The Colorado Avalanche did not qualify defenseman Ryan Merkley. San Jose traded the 2018 first-round draft pick and Matt Nieto to the Avs for Martin Kaut and Jacob MacDonald. On the flip side, San Jose did make a qualifying offer to Kaut, though there’s no contract yet.
• San Jose did not draft a goaltender. After the draft, Chris Morehouse, the team’s Director of Amateur Scouting said, “The goalies we had interest in went off early.”

Friday, June 30 (Day before free agency)

As if the week weren’t busy enough, San Jose went straight from the draft to dealing with free agents. June 30 was the final day to submit qualifying offers to restricted free agents (RFAs) and sign unrestricted free agents (UFAs).

The day started out with the official retirement of Markus Nutivaara. The defenseman signed a one-year deal with the Sharks last season but only played one preseason game before he was injured. Nutivaara never recovered.

San Jose then locked up goaltender Eetu Makiniemi on a one-year, two-way contract.

“He is a player who showed great promise before his injury last season. We look forward to his continued development in the upcoming year,” said Grier.

Makiniemi is just 24 years old. He played 22 games with the San Jose Barracuda last season, where he had two shutouts, a 2.96 goals against average and a .900 save percentage.

After Makiniemi, the Sharks locked in a key forward in Jacob Peterson. Peterson had some chemistry with the Sharks’ top players last season and could find himself in a larger role this coming season. The deal is $775,000 for one year. After that Peterson will remain an RFA.

“Jacob is a smart, versatile young forward that fit in well with our group last season,” said Grier. “We’re looking forward to having him back and building upon that start.”

The 23-year-old played in 11 games for the Sharks this season, where he had 8 points (2 G, 6 A).

The team did not issue qualifying offers to the following players:

• Jonah Gadjovich (later signed with Charlotte Checkers of the AHL)
• Noah Gregor (remains unsigned)
• Strauss Mann (later signed with Montreal’s AHL affiliate the Laval Rocket)
• Evgeny Svechnikov (remains unsigned)

Saturday, July 1 (Free agency begins)

As expected for a rebuilding team, the Sharks were mostly quiet on the first day of free agency. Grier said going into things that he was looking for value.

San Jose started free agency by signing defenseman Kyle Burroughs to a three-year contract with a $1.1 million AAV. The 27-year-old Burroughs played 48 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season, registering 5 points (2 G, 3 A). One of those goals came against the Sharks on Nov. 27, 2022.

It feels like Grier hopes that Burroughs follows the same track as last season’s free agency signing, Matt Benning. Benning showed his worth last season, becoming a reliable defensive defenseman.

After choosing not to make a qualifying offer to Gadjovich, Grier turned around and added some of the grit that left with Gadjovich. 25-year-old Givani Smith had 4 points (1 G, 3 A) and 72 penalty minutes in 36 games last season. The games were split between the Florida Panthers and the Detroit Red Wings.

“Givani is a big, physical winger with high energy and we are excited to add him to our group for next season,” said Grier.

Smith and Gadjovich went toe-to-toe last season.

Grier locked in young forward Fabbian Zetterlund with a two-year contract at a $1.45 million AAV. As Fear the Fin explained in its end of the season review, Zetterlund did not perform well for the Sharks in his few games with San Jose. However, the young forward was dealing with his first trade and getting used to San Jose so that could explain at least a portion of it. Zetterlund is expected to perform better this season.

And then the big deal of the day. San Jose traded forward Steven Lorentz and the team’s 2025 fifth-round pick to the Florida Panthers for forward Anthony Duclair. As Fear the Fin discussed in Lorentz’s end of the season review, the forward was a solid fourth liner.

Consider this a trade up for San Jose. Duclair is better than a fourth liner and will add some scoring depth to the Sharks. The 27-year-old had 9 points (2 G, 7 A) in 20 games for the Panthers last season. He also had 11 points (4 G, 7 A) in 20 playoff games.

Duclair is in the final year of a deal that has a $3 million AAV. Expect him to get more ice time with the Sharks than he might have with the Panthers, including time on the power play.

The Sharks also added some veteran leadership to help guide the young players on the Barracuda and possibly slot into the Sharks’ roster, depending on how things play out. 32-year-old Ryan Carpenter returned to San Jose, and signed a one-year, two-way contract. While 30-year-old Scott Sabourin signed a two-year, two-way deal.

Other Sharks news of note:

• Jeffrey Viel signed with the Winnipeg Jets.
• Matt Nieto joined the Pittsburgh Penguins.
• Kyle Criscuolo signed with the New Jersey Devils.
• Derrick Pouliot signed with the Dallas Stars.
• James Reimer joined the Detroit Red Wings.

Sunday, July 2

San Jose made one small move on July 2, sending defenseman Artemi Kniazev to the Winnipeg Jets for Leon Gawanke. Kniazev seems to have fallen far down the Sharks’ depth chart, so the trade is no surprise.

In Gawanke, San Jose gets a 24-year-old with offensive upside. In 68 games with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose last season, Gawanke had 45 points (20 G, 25 A). Gawanke has played 207 AHL games over the past four seasons so even if he doesn’t move up to the Sharks, he will make the Barracuda better.

Later in the day, Grier added another veteran AHLer to the Barracuda, signing Nathan Todd to a two-year, two-way contract. 27-year-old Todd played 16 games for the Springfield Thunderbirds last season, scoring 14 points (8 G, 6 A).

Monday, July 3

Things continue to be all quiet on the Erik Karlsson front. Rumors are flying about who is in and who is out. Sounds like it’s still all about how much money San Jose is willing to retain. The Carolina Hurricanes are in the mix, and Pittsburgh would like to add the veteran defenseman, but it’s a matter of money.

On Erik Karlsson: Carolina is in the mix. Seattle took a run but Elliotte thinks they are out. A Pittsburgh trade is harder cause of their cap space. Carolina and Pittsburgh were the two teams left standing on Sunday. (1/x) #sjsharks #LetsGoCanes #LetsGopens #seakraken

— NHL Trade Alert (@NHLTradeAlert) July 4, 2023

We’ll see what happens over the next few days, but not much so far by way of trade.

Prospect camp started July 4 and a majority of the 2023 draft picks were there. Fear the Fin will have details soon.