San Jose Sharks General Manager Mike Grier is bringing in reinforcements to help address one of the team’s biggest offseason needs: defense. Today, the Sharks announced that it traded the 20th overall pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the rights to Michael Kesselring and the 27th overall pick in the draft.
Kesselring is the key piece in this deal. The 26-year-old is a pending restricted free agent who doesn’t have a contract. However, the Sharks now have team control and the chance to sign the right-shot defenseman.
What does Kesselring bring to the Sharks?
Kesselring and Josh Doan were the two pieces that the Sabres received in return for JJ Peterka last summer. While the Doan acquisition turned out to be spectacular for the Sabres, the Kesselring acquisition never quite panned out. While Kesselring was fine, he wasn’t better than the depth defensemen the Sabres had. As a result, he was in and out of the lineup for Buffalo last season and only played 34 games. Ultimately, he was expendable.
Still, that doesn’t take away from what he could be for a team like San Jose. A team that needs defense. Kesselring’s performance over those 34 games was better than some of the other defensemen the Sharks iced last season. Looking at his Evolving-Hockey Regularized-Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM) chart, you can see that his xGF/60 (expected goals for per 60) was a positive and so was his xGA/60 (expected goals against per 60), two things the Sharks can use more of next season.
While offensively, he might not move the needle, defensively, he’s reliable. Looking at his performance between 2022-25 with the Utah Mammoth/Arizona Coyotes (a team that was, like the Sharks, not playoff worthy), you can see that Kesselring was defensively sound.
The Sharks have puck-moving defensemen who can play the left side in Sam Dickinson and Luca Cagnoni, so adding right side defensemen who play more of a lock down role, like Kesselring, will be beneficial to the team.
What kind of contract could Kesselring demand?
Kesselring’s most recent contract was two years at $1.4 million per season, but most experts believe he is due a raise. The defenseman is in his prime, so that’s another factor to take into account.
In the 2025 offseason, The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn looked at what kind of contract Kesselring could demand just after he was traded to the Sabres. At the time, AFP Analytics projected his cap hit at around $4.25 million for four years. A few weeks ago, Fairburn took another look and found that Kesselring’s value had dropped more than a million over the course of the season. AFP Analytics now has him listed in the $2.86 million range.
Taking all of this into account, we’d guess that a contract that ranges from $3 to $3.5 x 4 years would be more than fair. We might even get closer to that $2.86 million range since we have palm trees and the Sabres don’t.
What do the Sharks lose by trading the 20th pick for the 27th pick?
To make this deal happen, the Sharks had to trade down in the upcoming draft. The throw in to make the deal happen was a first-round pick swap. The Sharks handed over the Edmonton Oilers’ 20th overall pick and received the 27th overall pick in return. But does the seven spot drop matter that much?
If you believe The Athletic’s Corey Pronman’s prospect rankings, then players 16 through 36 are all “Tier 3” players, meaning that they are “middle of the lineup players.” If that’s the case, then it’s hard to say if there’s huge separation between the 20th player taken overall and the 27th.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that anything can happen on draft day. No one expected that both Sam Dickinson and Zeev Buium would be available on draft day a few years ago, and yet they both were there when the Sharks picked 11th overall. Teams can surprise you and it’s possible that the Sharks have multiple good options when the 27th pick comes around.
Dropping down to 27th is a small price to pay when you take into account that the team was able to add a 26-year-old right shot defenseman in Kesselring that will help the Sharks roster now.
