Earlier, we looked at how the Sharks’ forward lines could shake out next season based on who the Sharks currently have under contract. Today, we take a look at the piece of the Sharks that might need the most work in the offseason, the defense. That includes the goaltending.
Sharks defensemen under contract
Let’s start out with what we know. There eight defensemen under contract for next season, all of whom played at least one game with the Sharks in 2023-24. That pretty much rounds out the defensive pairings without taking any action.
Mario Ferraro – Shakir Mukhamadullin
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Jan Rutta
Kyle Burroughs – Jack Thompson
Matt Benning – Nikolai Knyzhov
Let’s assume the Sharks pull Mukhamadullin up from the Barracuda. He was good in the small sampling of games he played with the Sharks last season, and it’s time to see what he can do with a full 82-game season in the NHL.
He’s on the top pair with Ferraro because there’s really no other option. I’d love to play Ferraro lower in the lineup, but without any new signings, there’s no one that slots into that number one pairing better than him.
The second pair is Vlasic and Rutta because, again, there aren’t many other options. I’m not a huge fan of Burroughs’ game, but he’s our sixth defenseman until we know how Benning is feeling after surgery. Thompson plays on the third pairing to give him time to find his NHL game. Benning will bump Burroughs when he’s healthy enough to play.
Knyzhov serves as the eighth defenseman and likely ends up with the Barracuda.
Sharks goaltenders under contract
Meanwhile, the Sharks have a solid group of players under contract as goaltenders next season.
The headliner is Mackenzie Blackwood, who has one more year on his contract and is the presumed number one for the Sharks next season.
San Jose acquired Vitek Vanecek from the New Jersey Devils at the trade deadline. Though Vanecek is still injured, he’s expected to be healthy for next season. He’ll play as the backup to Blackwood and the Sharks will likely do a 1A and 1B model with the pair.
Down with the Barracuda, Georgi Romanov and Magnus Chrona are a solid pairing that should make fans confident that the AHL team will be competitive in net next season.
Filling the holes in the Sharks defense
With eight defensemen under contract for next season, it sounds funny to say there are a ton of holes that need to be filled. Just about anyone will tell you that the team’s defense in 2023-24 left a lot of room for improvement.
The Sharks will likely re-sign free agents like Henry Thrun, Ty Emberson and Calen Addison, giving San Jose more options on defense. However, that only brings us back to where we were in 2023-24 … a bad spot.
Moving Mukhamadullin up to the Sharks full-time will help, but he’ll need more support than he’s currently getting. An Emberson-Mukhamadullin pairing might be interesting and could improve the Sharks defensively.
Thrun with Rutta seems like an obvious combination, though I have some concerns about how poorly the pairing played together this season. As a result, we’ll pair Thrun with Benning and leave Ferraro and Rutta to round out the six.
The draft might help determine what happens to Addison and Burroughs. Having them as options at this moment is good, but if the Sharks use the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first-round draft pick to take a top-end defenseman, things look different. It would mean there’s an option, in addition to Luca Cagnoni, in the Sharks’ defensive pipeline to slide in. It’s also time to give Thompson a hard look at defense, something more than what he had at the end of this season.
Knyzhov has the opportunity to prove he belongs at the NHL level, but it’s likely he’s headed back to the Barracuda. Let’s assume that we trade Burroughs and Addison and let Vlasic and Thompson serve as the depth defensemen. Sadly, Vlasic seems to serve the team better as a seventh defenseman. A few games off here and there seemed to serve his overall game better.
Here’s what the defensive lines could look like after re-signing the RFAs.
Shakir Mukhamadullin – Ty Emberson
Henry Thrun – Matt Benning
Mario Ferraro – Jan Rutta
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Jack Thompson
The big questions with this lineup are Emberson and Benning’s health, but with both of them healthy, I think the defense is improved … slightly.
Filling the holes in the Sharks goaltending
On the goaltending end of things, there aren’t exactly holes, but adding a bit of depth might be nice. Teams have been in desperate need of goaltending the past few seasons, sometimes sending their top guys down to find their game in the AHL. Goaltending depth is very important and the Sharks could get deeper.
Re-signing Devin Cooley would be a good reward for a young goaltender who’s just starting to get his shot in the NHL. Plus, for a hometown kid, knowing your hometown team wants you has to create some warm fuzzies.
The Sharks will also need to decide what to do with Eetu Makiniemi. He’s still under team control, so the Sharks have the right of first refusal. However, thanks to injuries, Makiniemi has been passed by several goaltenders on the Sharks depth chart. Is it time for the two sides to part ways?
Free agency is also an option. If there’s a young goaltender that needs a change of scenery, the Sharks should be in on it.
Does the money work?
With all of this in mind, how does the money shake out on defense?
| $894,167 (Mukhamadullin) | $1 million (Emberson) |
| $1.1 million (Thrun) | $1.25 million (Benning) |
| $3.25 million (Ferraro) | $2.75 million (Rutta) |
| $7 million (Vlasic) | $828,333 (Thompson) |
Both Thrun and Emberson get raises, though I don’t expect them to be huge. In Emberson’s case, injuries have prevented him from proving he’s worth more. For Thrun, he probably deserves slightly more than Emberson, but his up-and-down season doesn’t get him that much more.
When all is said and done, the Sharks will spend approximately $22.3 million on defense next season if they just stand pat.
As for the goaltending, this is how it looks, assuming the Sharks also sign Cooley to a short-term contract.
| $2.35 million (Blackwood) | $3.4 million (Vanecek) |
| $910,000 (Romanov) | $867,500 (Chrona) |
| $975,000 (Cooley) |
That leaves about $10.2 million dedicated to goaltending next season, assuming the Sharks re-sign Cooley for a contract with approximately $1 million AAV.
Conclusion
At this moment, it’s hard to say the Sharks will be better defensively, even if everyone is healthy. But we don’t know what will happen in free agency. GM Grier said in his end of the season interview that the team now has the cap flexibility to make some moves and possibly bring in guys who play the way the Sharks want to.
Looking at the goaltending and defense, the Sharks have about $32.5 million committed there, assuming the team re-signs most, if not all, its pending RFAs. Earlier this week, our recap of the forwards found that the Sharks have approximately $32.5 million committed to forwards, also assuming some free agent signings and a few RFA re-signings. That leaves San Jose at approximately $65 million, near the cap floor.
That’s plenty of space to sign or trade for a young defenseman or two that could help move the rebuild along.
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