1. Macklin Celebrini
2. Will Smith
3. Michael Misa
4. William Eklund
5. Yaroslav Askarov
6. Sam Dickinson
7. Shakir Mukhamadullin
8. Igor Chernyshov
9. Quentin Musty
10. Luca Cagnoni
11. Collin Graf
12. Filip Bystedt
13. Joshua Ravensbergen
14. Kasper Halttunen
15. Eric Pohlkamp
16. Cam Lund
17. Ethan Cardwell
18. Haoxi Wang
19. Leo Sahlin Wallenius
20. Jack Thompson
21. Cole McKinney
22. Zack Ostapchuk
23. Mattias Havelid
24. Egor Afanasyev
25. Carson Wetsch
Honorable Mentions: Joey Muldowney, Jake Furlong, Brandon Svoboda, Nate Misskey, Gabriel Carriere

Nine players on the list are no longer in the Sharks’ system, including some from the top ten.

Last year’s number four, William Eklund, is the biggest loss after the trade this spring that sent Eklund, number 14 Kasper Halttunen and honorable mention Brandon Svoboda to the Ottawa Senators in return for the 9th overall pick. That pick ultimately brought in defenseman Keaton Verhoeff, who will most certainly be on this season’s list.

Also falling off the list is number seven, Shakir Mukhamadullin, who was the key piece in the trade with the Edmonton Oilers for Darnell Nurse. Prospect Zachary Sharp was also included in that trade. While losing a top ten player hurts a bit, the truth is, Mukhamadullin most likely would have fallen out of the top ten this year.

Last season’s number 20, Jack Thompson, is also gone. He was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for defenseman Jett Woo. Woo is no longer with the Sharks either. As for number 24, Egor Afanasyev, he never received another contract with the Sharks. He’s aged out anyway, so he won’t be returning to the list.

In the honorable mentions, Jake Furlong was traded to the Winnipeg Jets in January for Laurent Brossoit and defenseman Nolan Allan, who can now be added to our poll. In the meantime, goaltender Gabriel Carriere and Joey Muldowney never received contracts in the spring. In Muldowney’s case, it looks like the Sharks lose the rights to him.

Other players no longer in the poll include Michael Fisher, Eli Barnett, Reese Laubach, Artem Guryev, Gannon Laroque, Oskar Olausson and Matt Davis. The Sharks had until June 1, 2026 to sign Fisher, Barnett and Laubach to contracts to retain their rights, but did not sign any of the players. Davis never received a new contract. Guryev was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in October of last year in a deal that brought the Ryan Ellis contract to the Sharks.

Laroque battled injuries for many years, but didn’t officially retire until earlier this month.

As for Olausson, he was traded to the Sharks from the Colorado Avalanche for Danil Gushchin in July 2025 and made it just in time to make last year’s poll. Then, after the poll, he was traded to the Minnesota Wild for Kyle Masters, who played no games for the Sharks and none for the Barracuda either. Masters isn’t with the Sharks anymore.

Players added since the last Fear the Fin poll

That said, the Sharks have also added prospects since the last time we ran this poll, including three players who could find their way into the top ten. With the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, the Sharks selected forward Ivar Stenberg and then followed it up with defenseman Verhoeff at ninth overall. Some say the big steal came at 21st, when the Sharks snagged another right-shot defenseman in Ryan Lin.

On day 2 of the draft, the Sharks added a few more players, though these are more fringe players and we’ll have to see how they turn out. Goaltender Brady Knowling, forward Jake Gustafson and defenseman Alexander Karmanov rounded out the Sharks’ draft.

The Sharks also brought in Phillip Sinn from Germany after the 2026 World Championship, signing the young defenseman to a two-year entry-level contract. Then in June, the team traded with the Boston Bruins, handing over a 2026 fourth-round pick and a 2026 fifth-round pick for Andre Gasseau and a 2026 fourth-round pick. Gasseau is a California native who just finished his senior season at Boston College.

So, here’s the new poll with the additions and subtractions. We’ll leave it open until Aug. 15. Thanks!

During his media availability this afternoon, Grier was clear that Celebrini was well worth every penny of that max deal and if that was what the forward had asked for, it was likely that he would have received it.

“With what he’s done in his first couple years in the NHL and in the Olympics and World Championships and everything, he would have had every right to ask for the max 20%,” said Grier. “We’re very thankful that he was willing to give us some flexibility and take a little bit less and leave some money on the table to help us continue to grow our team.”

With how the cap is expected to rise next season, a max deal would have been over $20 million per season if Celebrini had chosen to ask for it.

For his part, Celebrini is all about committing to the team.

“I couldn’t be happier to sign an extension today,” Celebrini said in the team’s news release. “The faith and support that Mr. Plattner, Mike Grier and the entire staff have shown me throughout the past two seasons is proof that we are building something special here. My teammates and I are ready to take another step toward the ultimate goal of bringing a Stanley Cup to this city and its incredible fans. I can’t wait to get going.” 

The structure of Celebrini’s new contract

Of note, the new contract doesn’t go into effect until 2027-28, so this season, the Sharks still get Celebrini for $975,000 ($4.475 million when you take into account performance bonuses).

Next season, Celebrini will get PAID. While the cap hit is $18.8 million, he’ll actually receive $20.8 million in year one, according to Puckpedia. Celebrini’s base salary is $950,000, and he’ll receive a signing bonus of $19.85 million. There’s a similar structure in the 2028-29 season.

The five-year deal takes Celebrini into his first year of unrestricted free agency. Interestingly, that first year of unrestricted free agency also includes a no-movement clause, though Puckpedia wasn’t clear on the details of the clause.

Grier praised owner Hasso Plattner for his willingness to pay what it took to get this deal done.

“I think he realized what a special player Macklin is and how important it is and was for us to get him under contract. So he didn’t hesitate when the signing bonus stuff came up,” said Grier. “He was more than willing to do it to get the deal done. I think it just shows his commitment to the organization and to us trying to be the best hockey team we can be.”

Percentage of the salary cap

According to Puckpedia, when Celebrini’s contract kicks in, it will be 16.56% of the cap. Of course, if the cap continues to increase as his contract wears on, the percentage of the cap that Celebrini’s deal consumes decreases, and the deal only gets better and better for the Sharks.

During the news conference, Grier told the media that Leo Carlsson’s $18 million offer sheet didn’t really change anything much for the Sharks, except maybe set the bar a little bit higher. The team knew from the start that Celebrini was going to get paid whatever he wanted based upon his performance to date. The Sharks also knew that Celebrini was likely going to be the highest-paid player in the league.

“We kind of had an idea it was going to head that way, just with what he’s accomplished so far and his age and everything,” said Grier. “We thought there was probably a good chance it was gonna be somewhere above [Kirill] Kaprisov’s; we didn’t know where it would be above there, but we thought there was probably gonna be a good chance it would be above there.”

For Grier, he was again just grateful that Celebrini was willing to do what he could to help the team win down the road.

“For him to come out right away and kind of tell us that he wanted to make sure we had some flexibility down the road, and he wasn’t looking to take the max amount of money he could, meant a lot to me … showed his faith and his commitment to the organization, and him wanting to be here and be successful here,” said Grier. “It was pretty important, and pretty cool for me to hear that from such a young player, having that maturity.”

Celebrini isn’t the first star player to go the route of taking less to make their teams better. The question is, how does his first contract stack up against the first contracts of some of the other top players in the league?

It’s a little difficult to say because Celebrini is somewhat of a unicorn. There aren’t a lot of players who have jumped into the league at 18 and made as big an impact as he has in their first two years. His contract can be best compared to players like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. To a lesser extent, you could also throw Connor Bedard, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews into the mix.

Looking at the numbers, Celebrini’s contract is the average length of most of those players, five years. He’s taking up a higher portion of the cap than Crosby or McDavid, though by about 1%. For comparison’s sake, Carlsson, whose contract kicks in this season, comes in at 17.31% of the cap to start.

It’s also worth noting that two players aren’t on the list, Nathan MacKinnon and Alexander Ovechkin. For MacKinnon, it took him a bit longer to break out as a player. After his rookie season, he scored 38 points in his second season and then 52 points in his third season. The Avalanche signed him to a seven-year contract worth just 8.63% of the salary cap, one that later came to be known as one of the best deals in the NHL.

As for Ovechkin, he isn’t on the list because while he had an exceptional entry into the NHL, he signed an irregular contract, one that isn’t even legal in today’s NHL. At 22, Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals agreed to a 13-year deal that, at the time, was 16.82% of the salary cap according to Puckpedia.

Why didn’t Celebrini sign a longer deal?

In an ideal world, the Sharks would have locked Celebrini up for three more years, getting him to the max eight years and eating up more of those unrestricted free agent years. However, Celebrini clearly only wanted to burn one year of his free agency before working out a new deal.

Grier was very matter-of-fact about the contract, and he seemed to understand that it was just the nature of the league right now.

“I think every manager who has a player like Macklin, of his quality and his status, sure, we would have loved to have gone eight years, the full term allowed, but at the same time, I think we’re happy that he was willing to commit these five years more years with us,” said Grier.

“Every player is different. Some players want the security of as many years as they can get, and other players want to kind of see how things go,” continued Grier. “I think in this situation, it makes all the sense in the world for Macklin to commit these five years to us, which we’re happy about, but at the same time, give them some flexibility to look and see where the cap is in five years, see how the team’s doing, how the team’s involvement evolved. Are we winning? Are we on track to win, and things like that. So, I think it gives them some options down the road. I think every player handles this differently and wants different things.”

Egor Afanasyev, Forward

Afanasyev never really got a shot with the Sharks and as such, he was allowed to walk into free agency this summer. It looks like there were no NHL teams looking to sign him, so, according to Tony Androck of Inside AHL Hockey, Afanasyev is headed back to the KHL.

AHL ➡️ 🌎#SJSharks UFA forward Egor Afanasyev signed two-year deal with Avangard Omsk (KHL).

Afanasyev, 25, had 40 points (14G-26A) in 64GP with @sjbarracuda in 2025-26.@InsideAHLHockey #AHLFreeAgency26

— Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) July 5, 2026

Androck reports that the 25-year-old has signed a two-year deal with Avangard Omsk.

Nolan Allan, Defense

Allan is back with the Sharks on a two-year deal worth $875,000 per season. There’s just one problem: while Allan’s deal is a two-way contract, which means he can move up and down between the big club and the Barracuda, he’s not waivers exempt. That means another team can steal him at any time. Still, Allan might find his way into the lineup for a game or two this season if injuries plague the Sharks’ lineup.

Noah Beck & Shane Bowers

Neither Beck nor Bowers was extended a qualifying offer by the Sharks, so they both became unrestricted free agents on July 1. So far, there’s no word on either player receiving offers from other teams, so it looks like they’re unsigned to date.

Laurent Brossoit

Goaltender Brossoit is headed down the I-5 to Anaheim. The Ducks signed the 33-year-old to a one-year deal worth $1.1 million. Brossoit is expected to be the third goaltender in the Ducks’ rotation behind starting netminder Lukas Dostal and backup Ville Husso.

Ethan Cardwell

Cardwell is back with the Sharks for at least one more season. The 23-year-old signed a one-year deal worth $850,000. It’s a two-way deal and Cardwell will still be an RFA even after the contract expires. Just the same, it feels like this is the forward’s final shot with the organization.

Cardwell’s deal is not waiver-exempt, which means that every time he moves up and down between the Sharks and the Barracuda, the Sharks risk losing him.

Lucas Carlsson

Despite helping the Barracuda last season, Carlsson will not be returning to the United States in the fall. The 29-year-old defenseman has decided to return to Sweden to play for Djurgården IF. Carlsson signed a four-year deal with Djurgården IF in May.

It’s a tough loss for the Barracuda, who relied on Carlsson as a leader on the blueline.

Gabriel Carriere

Carriere was not tendered a qualifying offer and, so far, has not received any offers from other teams. As of now, we do not know where he will be playing in the 2026-27 season.

Vincent Desharnais

On the first day of free agency, Desharnais cashed in and good for him. The defenseman parlayed his quality play for the Sharks into a four-year, $16.8 million contract with the Washington Capitals. Desharnais now has a place to play for the next four years. His biggest contract prior to this was $4 million total for two years, so good for Vinny!

Mario Ferraro

There was a rumor out there that the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to sign Ferraro, but that the team needed to wait to get its Morgan Rielly mess worked out before it could make that signing. Of course, none of that was confirmed and on the first day of free agency, Rielly was still a Leaf and Ferraro needed a home. So, the defenseman instead signed a three-year, $12 millon deal with the Winnipeg Jets.

For fans saying, the Sharks could have kept Ferraro for that much. It’s probably true, but it’s also true that the time was right for the team and the defenseman to part ways.

Collin Graf

The Sharks have tendered a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, which is all the team needs to do to ensure that the forward will be there next season. That said, to keep things on good terms with the forward, working something out soon would be ideal. Graf isn’t arbitration eligible, which means they’ll have to talk things out.

The good news is, it sounds like the two sides aren’t too far apart.

Mike Grier said the Sharks and Collin Graf's camp are not super far apart in terms of what that next deal looks like. Graf is an RFA coming off a 21-goal season.

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) July 2, 2026

Jimmy Huntington

Huntington will return next season on a one-year, two-way contract. He’s expected to be one of the leaders with the Barracuda and had 48 points in 71 games last season. The forward is not waivers eligible, but we expect he’ll clear just fine.

John Klingberg

Klingberg was allowed to walk in free agency, and we doubt, given the way Grier has now filled the holes on the blueline, that there will be a last minute reunion with the defenseman. That said, it’s a bit disappointing that no other team has offered him a small one-year deal to try things out. As of this writing, Klingberg still sits on the free agent market, but we hope he finds a place to land. He’s a good guy and he deserves another shot.

Philipp Kurashev

Forward Kurashev was allowed to walk in free agency, but still hasn’t found a team to call home. While it sounds like he’s holding out hope that an NHL team will sign him to a contract, he’ll have a place to land if he doesn’t find a home in North America. According to Swiss Hockey News, at least one team has tried to get Kurashev to come home to Switzerland.

So far, the 24-year-old has not committed to a return to Europe. It’s possible he’s waiting for some of this free agency dust to settle with names like Anthony Mantha, Patrik Laine and Vladimir Tarasenko still on the board.

Samuel Laberge & Nick Leddy

Both Laberge and Leddy were allowed to walk in free agency. So far, there’s no word on where either player will play next season.

Shakir Mukhamadullin

Mukhamadullin was traded in that deal that brought Darnell Nurse to the Sharks and a few days later, the Edmonton Oilers announced that they had re-signed the 24-year-old defenseman to a two-year deal with $1.75 million per season.

Ryan Reaves

A few months ago, it looked like the Sharks might be open to bringing back the 39-year-old enforcer to help keep the vibes going in San Jose, but then free agency dropped. The Sharks signed Mason Marchment and Jacob Trouba and now it looks like Reaves will not be back. There’s no way that the Sharks can guarantee that Reaves reaches the 1,000 games mark, which is the most important thing for the player.

While he might get a shot with another team, it might be a while before we hear that the forward has a deal in place.

Pavol Regenda

The Sharks chose not to offer Regenda a new contract and so far, the forward has not found a new team to call home. Like Kurashev, he’s going to have to wait until some of those bigger names fall off the board. He might also just have to see if he gets a PTO with a team.

Jakub Skarek

The Sharks allowed Skarek to walk at the end of the Barracuda season and it would be no surprise if he finds his way to Europe. After all, the goaltender was on his way there before the Sharks scooped him up on July 10 of last year. Skarek was headed to Finland to play hockey last season before Grier decided that he needed someone a bit more seasoned to play with the Barracuda.

But this year, Grier signed Eric Comrie to fill that role, so it looks like Skarek is on his way out.

Colin White

White was another veteran with the Barracuda that the Sharks allowed to walk on July 1, who, so far, has not found a new home. As far as we know, White has no offers at this moment and is still looking for a team.

Jett Woo

This one’s a bummer because it initially looked like a good swap when the Sharks traded Jack Thompson to the Vancouver Canucks for Jett Woo. It looked like the two teams switched off right-shot defensemen to see if they could jump-start both. But the Sharks allowed Woo to leave at the end of the season and Woo ended up signing a two-year, two-way contract with the Anaheim Ducks on July 1.

As the Sharks navigate one of the busiest stretches of the offseason, balancing free-agent additions, trade speculation and the continued growth of one of the NHL’s deepest prospect pools, Thursday’s team Thornton vs. Marleau scrimmage offered a timely glimpse of the organization’s future. The annual event gave coaches and management another opportunity to evaluate their young talent in a competitive setting while fans got an early glimpse of what’s ahead.

Team Marleau skated away with the win in Thursday’s scrimmage, fittingly beating Thornton on his birthday. Goals from Jake Gustafson (opening goal very early) highlighted the action, while 2nd overall pick in 2026, Ivar Stenberg, also found the back of the net in an encouraging showing from San Jose’s newest draft class. Towering 7-foot-1 Alexander Karmanov drew attention with several key shot blocks and his reach, highlighting the physical tools that made him one of the more intriguing prospects in camp. As the game’s pace picked up, the scrimmage gave coaches and management another opportunity to evaluate their young talent in a competitive setting.

McCarthy said the scrimmage was largely about application rather than judgment, noting, “You see some guys trying to apply what we worked on on the ice and the scrimmage … it’s more of a teaching environment, not much evaluation, but it’s been a good couple of days.”

If the scrimmage was the final checkpoint of development camp, it also showed how far many of the Sharks’ prospects have already come in just a few days on the ice. McCarthy noted the biggest takeaway was the ability for players to take coaching and immediately apply it in game situations.

“You see some guys trying to apply what we worked on on the ice and the scrimmage … it’s more of a teaching environment,” said McCarthy.

That adjustment showed up in small details throughout the week, from cleaner puck decisions under pressure to more structured play in transition. Beyond the ice, McCarthy pointed to the way returning players and newcomers have started to blend into one group, emphasizing the importance of familiarity and leadership habits forming early in camp

“They [vets] tend to know the area, know how things are done … so guys tend to gravitate towards that.”

For a group still adjusting to the pace and expectations of pro environments, the progress was less about standout moments and more about consistency building across each day.

The scrimmage had the kind of controlled chaos that never really settles into structure.

“It was fun, nice to play in front of the fans, and the crowd,” Stenberg said, still riding the rush of a week that felt like it moved faster than he could process. On the ice, it came in flashes, quick transitions, broken plays turning into chances, and moments where Karmanov’s reach erased what looked like open looks a second earlier, the kind of detail that stood out more than the scoreboard ever did.

Off the ice, the organization’s tone matched that same energy, just with purpose behind it. General Manager Mike Grier described the stretch as a clear step forward

“We were looking to improve our team, and I think we did that yesterday,” said Grier, framing free agency as less about splash and more about reshaping the identity of the roster. The additions of players like Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, and Mason Marchment brought size, edge and experience, the kind of pieces Grier said make the group “harder to play against” while also giving the young core more insulation to grow into bigger roles.

It wasn’t framed as a finished product, but as momentum, “a step in the right direction,” as Grier put it. Where the roster looks deeper and more competitive, even if the real answers won’t come until camp turns into games.

For the fans, it all blurred together in the best way. The new faces already fitting into the noise, and a roster that suddenly feels like it has more weight behind it than it did a month ago. Stenberg talked about it simply.

“It’s been amazing … super happy every time I hear them shout my name.”

That was the thread running through the week, from scrimmage moments to offseason moves, a sense that something is actually starting to form again.

After the final buzzer, it felt less like an end to development camp and more like the first small signal of a season that’s already starting to take shape.

How does Nurse’s contract break down?

Nurse’s contract comes with a $9.25 million AAV, but the actual cost of the deal is a bit less for the Sharks. That’s because Edmonton put the bulk of the cost in the front-end of this contract. The trouble for San Jose will be moving away from this deal if it needs to. Here’s how things break down according to PuckPedia.

While the final salary has no impact on the cap, it certainly makes management happier. It also makes other teams happier if they’re looking to acquire a player’s contract down the road. If the Sharks were looking to move Nurse’s contract in the future, a $7.2 million or even better, a $1.2 million payout (after the bonuses) is much easier for a team to agree to.

More than that, after this upcoming season, the Sharks will have more flexibility than Edmonton had when it comes to trying to trade Nurse’s contract. That’s when his no-trade clause turns into a modified no-trade clause, and he has to submit a ten team list at the start of every season.

Nurse controversy and potential redemption

Of course, Sharks fans have reason to be nervous. The 31-year-old defenseman has often been the scapegoat of Edmonton fans, who have criticized him for much of the team’s playoff troubles. While Nurse hasn’t been the best in big game situations, he doesn’t believe he should shoulder all of the blame.

Perhaps because of his contract, it seemed like Darnell Nurse bore the brunt of a lot of fan (and media) criticism in Edmonton. It was warranted at times, no doubt, but I asked him how he felt about that.

"No one expects more of myself and the way I play than myself. If I'm…

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) July 1, 2026

“No one expects more of myself and the way I play than myself,” Nurse told the media earlier today. “If I’m being quite honest, Joe from down the street could be mad because he can’t drink his beer and watch the second round of playoffs, but I live with each and every game and each and every moment throughout the summer, and try to learn from it, grow from it.

“So I think there were times that definitely when you have a high cap hit, there’s things that were definitely warranted … and there was probably a lot of things as well that really weren’t warranted, and for whatever reason that was, I was the problem, so that’s that’s how it works,” he said.

Nurse will look to redeem himself here in San Jose. Hockey analysts believe there’s still a good player there, even if he can’t live up to that $9.25 million AAV contract he carries. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn said on Twitter that he believes Nurse is still a legit top-four defenseman.

Darnell Nurse is overpaid, but he's a legit top-four defenseman — something the Sharks desperately need. Don't mind the add for them while the Oilers get some much-needed cap relief. pic.twitter.com/rNwqlAFTKF

— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 1, 2026

What role will Nurse play in San Jose?

In San Jose, look for him to play a top-four role as well. He might also play on the power play, though in an ideal world, those reins are handed over to Sam Dickinson and Luca Cagnoni sooner rather than later.

Because he plays on the left side, he’s more likely to be paired with Dmitry Orlov or Jacob Trouba. There’s an outside chance he plays alongside Michael Kesselring, but Kesselring is the third-pairing defenseman to start the season. I’d be interested to see what happens if/when Eric Pohlkamp comes up. Seeing Nurse paired with Pohlkamp might be ideal.

Nurse isn’t that far removed from a good season with the Oilers, so he could return to that form. Looking at his Evolving-Hockey regularized-adjusted plus-minus (RAPM) chart from 2022-25, you can see that Nurse was a dynamic force in creating opportunities for his team and helping his team possess the puck. He could return to that form this upcoming season.

One other note I will make about Nurse’s season with Edmonton last year is that in his 1,557 plus minutes of even-strength play, he had five different defensive partners that he played 100 minutes or more of ice time and one that he played nearly 99 minutes with.

His defensive partners ranged in skill from 376 minutes with Jake Walman and 289 minutes with Connor Murphy to 283 minutes with Alec Regula. He also played 194 minutes with Ty Emberson, who you might recall the Sharks traded away for Cody Ceci and a third-round pick.

Is Nurse an upgrade?

The real question Sharks fans need to ask as they examine what’s happening for the upcoming season is whether Nurse is an upgrade over the defensemen the Sharks had previously. The Sharks allowed three defensemen to walk in free agency (we’re only focusing on John Klingberg, Mario Ferraro and Vincent Desharnais) and traded another, Mukhamadullin.

While Nurse is not the home run defenseman the Sharks were looking for, it looks like he is an upgrade over some if not all of these defensemen. Let’s start with Klingberg. Look what happens when you compare Nurse’s RAPM chart to Klingberg’s at even-strength.

You find that while Klingberg produced more goals, GF/60, he and Nurse were pretty similar in the xGF/60 (expected goals per 60 minutes) category. This seems to mean that both were generating chances at roughly the same level; it’s just that players were converting on the offense Klingberg was creating, while they were not converting on the offense Nurse was creating.

Nurse’s CF/60 (Corsi for per 60 minutes) was also better than Klingberg’s, and his xGA/60 (expected goals against per 60 minutes) was much better. Generally speaking, he was better defensively than Klingberg last season.

Looking at Mario Ferraro and Nurse, you can see that, like Klingberg, Ferraro generated more goals than Nurse did last season. However, in this instance, Nurse was much better at creating offensive chances. Defensively, they were similar, though the slight edge goes to Ferraro.

In terms of time on ice, Ferraro is the closest of the bunch to Nurse. Both defensemen played top-four minutes for their respective teams last season.

Comparing Nurse to Desharnais is interesting. Offensively, Nurse was much better at driving play. However, defensively, Desharnais was clearly the better choice.

That said, Nurse played more than twice the minutes that Desharnais did. Desharnais averaged 18:11 in 53 games this past season. It’s the most ice time per game he’s had in his career. Nurse, on the other hand, averaged 20:58 in 82 games this season.

It would be curious to see if Desharnais could put up similar numbers if asked to take on a larger role.

Finally, looking at Nurse compared to the player he was traded for, Mukhamadullin. Looking at the stats, you can see that Nurse excels in the areas that I think the Sharks valued more and wanted to see more from Mukhamadullin this past season – the CF/60.

I don’t think the Sharks care whether a player is a stay-at-home defenseman or one who scores a ton of goals, as long as that player can transition the puck out of their own end. The CF/60 stat shows how many shots, missed shots, blocked shots and saved shots are generated when the player is on the ice. In other words, how well the puck stays in the other end and offense is created.

Nurse may be flawed a bit on defense, but he is able to do that. The Sharks wanted to see Mukhamadullin take that next step and do that this season. But as you can see from his CF/60 stat, he struggled mightily with that area of his game this season. And, if you look at the charts above, you can see that other defensemen on this list, Ferraro, Klingberg and Desharnais, did not have similar struggles.

Conclusion

Nurse isn’t the best defenseman in the league. But he is an upgrade, and that’s what the Sharks need right now. The cost of his contract might hurt in a few years, but there is some flexibility and Grier can move the defenseman in a year or two if he needs to. As it stands, this trade has made the Sharks a better team today and that’s what counts. San Jose needed to take a step forward.

So far, Grier has shown he can be a creative general manager who can think on his feet and make lemonade out of lemons. We have watched him take bad situations and turn them into palatable ones. This might not be the most ideal deal for the Sharks, but it was the one that was available in a world of insanely high trade prices and a really crappy free agent market.

It’s a long time until puck drop, so let’s see how things shake out.

Breaking down the contract

According to Puckpedia, the contract is front-loaded. It includes a no-trade clause for the first two seasons, but after that, there’s a modified no-trade clause.

The money up front will help the Sharks move Trouba’s contract in two to three years if Verhoeff or another defenseman develops faster than the Sharks anticipate. While not ideal, it gives the Sharks the flexibility to move on from Trouba if needed, especially with his no-trade list opening up the further into his contract the team gets.

There’s also the fact that after a bonus is paid, the actual money out the door in the final few years of his contract is just $4.40 million per season. That’s a pretty palatable number for many teams, especially near the trade deadline if the Sharks need to move the Trouba contract for whatever reason.

What does Trouba bring to the Sharks?

First and foremost, Trouba is an NHL-proven defenseman who fills the team’s most important need on the right side. Given that the Sharks had just two NHL defensemen under contract heading into free agency, the addition helps bolster the blueline.

Trouba also brings some sandpaper, something Grier knows will be necessary if the Sharks make the postseason in the next year or two.

Finally, he brings a veteran leadership voice to the backend that the Sharks lost by letting John Klingberg, Nick Leddy and Mario Ferraro walk in free agency.

Where could Trouba fit on the Sharks this season?

Trouba will not play on the power play, but he will play some of those shutdown minutes that take the pressure off the kids like Sam Dickinson and Luca Cagnoni. Looking at his Evolving-Hockey regularized-adjusted plus-minus (RAPM) chart, you can see that he was impactful in creating scoring chances at even-strength, but his defense did not help the Ducks.

The Ducks finished with a minus-15 goal differential last season. Trouba spent a lot of time playing top-pairing minutes, so he did his part to contribute to that negative plus/minus. More than half of his time at even-strength was skating with Jackson Lacombe.

When he was not paired with Lacombe, Trouba was skating with Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov and Ian Moore. His defensive partners had a lot to learn. Zellweger had played a total of 88 NHL games before this season, Mintyukov 131 and Moore 3.

Look for Trouba to take on a similar role with the Sharks, skating with the younger defensemen like Dickinson and Cagnoni and potentially covering up for any mistakes the young players might make.

For Sharks fans, the big concern is Trouba’s numbers compared to the other defensemen on the Ducks. When you look at how he stacks up, Trouba was only better than Mintyukov, who has long been rumored to be on his way out.

A change of scenery might fix matters, but that’s never a guarantee. As it looks now, the Trouba contract might not age well, something that The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn sees happening almost immediately, given his modeling of Trouba’s decline on defense.

Nasty, nasty stuff. WOOF. pic.twitter.com/oFMfCkcE0G

— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 1, 2026

Conclusion

General Manager Mike Grier needed to fill a giant hole on the Sharks’ right side and he did it with the addition of Trouba. What’s more, he needed to add grit on the backend. He did that as well. The pickings were slim on the free agent market, especially after the Toronto Maple Leafs completed the sign-and-trade for Darren Raddysh. Grier got one of the best of the remaining bunch.

That said, he overpaid by a rather large margin, and the term on the contract is longer than most would like. But all is not lost. Grier left himself some outs, most notably by front-loading the contract and ensuring the player’s trade list expanded in years three and four.

With other teams bidding for Trouba’s services, Grier did what he could to guarantee he got the player he needed. He had to make a signing like this in free agency and he did just that. Interestingly, I don’t think he realized that Darnell Nurse was going to become available today or this deal might not have happened, or at least not at the price that it did.

Led by Barracuda Head Coach John McCarthy, alongside Sharks legends Joe Thornton and Evgeni Nabokov, day one was a plate full of excitement for the rookies, with a side of tempering.

“They come in ready to work,” McCarthy said. “You can tell the guys that have had success in the past and will continue to have success … the guys that come in can process things in real time; they can apply it on the ice. It’s what’s led to their success so far, and will continue.”

This draft is a huge turning point for San Jose, as they have been inching closer and closer to clinching a playoff spot, and these young stars may be pillars supporting another run towards the Stanley Cup.

For many of the newcomers, the first day in teal was everything they imagined.

“It’s been super cool, super fun for sure,” second-overall pick Stenberg said. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment my whole life, and I’m here.”

The excitement wasn’t limited to the top of the draft board. Seventh-round defenseman and 7’1″ Alex Karmanov described arriving in San Jose and seeing the organization’s facilities for the first time as another reminder of what he’s working toward.

“When you see all the professional stuff, you just want to work more and more just to get here,” Karmanov said. “It’s really great when you’re seeing all those professionals and all those opportunities.”

The renovated Sharks facilities also left an impression on several players, with prospects repeatedly describing the environment as “high-class” and “top-notch” as they got their first taste of life in the organization. Returning prospect Haoxi Wang noticed the difference in the room immediately.

“It feels good,” Wang said. “Definitely second year coming in, feeling a little bit more comfortable … Good to see all the guys, and this year’s draft picks.”

He believes the newest class has injected another level of excitement into an already promising prospect pool.

“We got younger talent like Ivar, Ryan, all the exciting prospects that came in,” Wang said. “Getting to know them and see what they’re about, it’s really exciting.”

McCarthy echoed that sentiment, pointing to the rarity of having three first-round selections on the ice together.

“With the way the draft went, we have those three guys here, and we don’t typically have three first-round picks here,” McCarthy said. “That’s the biggest difference.”

Still, the focus of the development camp isn’t just showcasing talent. McCarthy said the week is about seeing how quickly players process information, respond to coaching, and compete in game situations before they eventually report to training camp.

“It’s been fun,” McCarthy said. “A lot, a lot to be excited about.”

For one day, at least, that excitement was shared throughout Sharks Ice, where the organization’s newest wave of talent took its first strides toward what everyone hopes is a bright future in San Jose.

Locking up a fourth-line center and a mid- to bottom-pairing defenseman for the next few years is tidy work for the general manager after pulling off such an immensely successful day one of the draft.

What Ostapchuk’s deal indicates

Ostapchuk’s four-year contract is for $2.35 million per season. With the cap going up for the foreseeable future, that means the Sharks have a very reasonably priced fourth-line center locked in and plenty of room to make sure centerpieces Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson get the proper extensions they deserve.

For this season, it means the Sharks are likely rolling with a fourth line of Barclay Goodrow – Zack Ostapchuk – Ty Dellandrea. If the Sharks re-sign Ryan Reaves, look for Reavo to slot in there as well.

Next season, don’t expect San Jose to re-sign Goodrow. With Ostapchuk locked in for 2027-28 and Dellandrea as well, the Sharks will use free agency to sign a fourth-liner or move up one of the younger players like Carson Wetsch.

Call next season a changing of the guard, if you will.

Was Kesselring’s deal an overpay?

As for the Kesselring deal, Grier continued his tradition of not signing long-term deals. He signed the defenseman to a three-year contract worth $4.50 million per season. It’s more than was expected for a defenseman who only played 34 games last season and had two assists, but Sharks fans should remember a few things.

First, the Buffalo Sabres were stacked on defense. The Sharks are not. That means Kesselring will get much better usage in San Jose, and both the team and the player believe he can manage the workload. As AFP Analytics puts it, this contract takes last season out of the equation.

Michael Kesselring signs a new contract with @SanJoseSharks. His 3 year, $4.5M AAV contracts comes in significantly higher than our offseason projection. After having a rough season in Buffalo, we did not have the comps to justify much higher. However, this is very in-line with… pic.twitter.com/elOjYv6SNl

— AFP Analytics (@AFPAnalytics) June 29, 2026

Without last season, Kesselring’s play with the Utah Mammoth would have earned him approximately $4.5 million per season, so this is in line with that.

Then there’s the fact that the Sharks avoided any of those handcuffing no-movement or no-trade clauses that players like to work into their deals. As The Athletic’s Thomas Drance points out, there’s a price to pay to keep away from those.

Brilliant contract for the Sharks, who just keep cooking.

The lack of trade protection is worth paying the premium price for, especially with a player who has the sort of premium exchange value traits that Kesselring does. https://t.co/QaRD6n8UAD

— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) June 29, 2026

Ultimately, three years still gives the Sharks flexibility, and it’s unlikely that Kesselring is going to turn into the Sharks’ $10 million defenseman in that three-year span, especially with players like Dickinson, Luca Cagnoni, Keaton Verhoeff, Ryan Lin and Eric Pohlkamp working their way into the lineup. One or more of those players are scheduled to surpass Kesselring’s value in the next few years. In other words, the Sharks aren’t leaving any value on the table by signing Kesselring to a shorter-term deal.

Among all of the players left on the draft board, Stenberg was the one most likely to make the jump to the NHL right out of the draft. Look for him to compete out of camp for a spot in the top six. Stenberg is expected to be leaned on to try and fill the role left open by the William Eklund trade earlier this week. If he plays alongside Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith next season, as some expect, he could be one of the favorites to compete for the NHL’s Calder Trophy by the end of the season.

Sharks select defenseman Keaton Verhoeff at 9th overall

After filling the hole left open by the Eklund trade, the Sharks filled the team’s biggest need, a right-shot defenseman who can move the puck. With the 9th overall pick, the Sharks drafted defenseman Keaton Verhoeff. I have more details about the large – he’s 6’4″ and 212 pounds – puck-moving defenseman in this post.

Verhoeff didn’t have the best of seasons with the University of North Dakota last season, but he was also a 17-year-old playing in the NCAA. What it says is he doesn’t shy away from a challenge. The kid could have had the easier route and played another season in the CHL to pad his stats before making the jump to the NCAA, but he wanted the challenge. He got it and he improved in the second half of the season. He has a lot more to learn, but he’s getting there.

Grier trades up to take defenseman Ryan Lin at 21st overall

If Grier had stopped there, Sharks fans would have been happy with the days draft, but he wasn’t done. He was pretty sure he couldn’t get the player that he wanted at 27th overall, so he traded up, handing the 27th, 62nd and 120th overall picks in this year’s draft to the Philadelphia Flyers for th 21st overall pick. With that pick, Grier took right-shot defenseman Ryan Lin.

Lin has all the tools of a top ten defenseman; the only problem is that he’s under six feet tall. The defenseman comes in at 5’11” and 176 pounds. But he was still more than a point per game player for the Vancouver Giants in the WHL last season. The evaluations of Lin were all over the board, but The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler was the highest on him.

“Lin is, for me, the smartest defenseman in this draft class and arguably its most well-rounded,” wrote Wheeler. “Lin does almost everything at a high level, executes the small things extremely well and plays the game with a rare quality, maturity and detail for a D his age. He steers play with his quiet efficiency, feel for the game, puck-moving, A-level hockey IQ, good skating (he could use another gear in straight lines, but his footwork, pivots, edges, surfing, etc., are all high-end), a great stick offensively and defensively, and head-on-a-swivel defensive play and reads (shoulder checks, positioning, etc.). He’s comfortable in any situation and playing with anyone, and excels on both special teams. He adjusts well to his teammates and coverage and has become very active moving pucks and then immediately moving his feet off the puck to jump into holes and beat opposing players to spots. He has a great first touch. His head is always up, and he moves pucks crisply on the breakout but can also read right through the first layer of pressure into the next play. He can carry pucks and make plays, but he can also find space off pucks. He never seems to have to overdo it or overextend to create his offense, knowing when to move it and when to try to make something happen. He picks his spots to carry and attack for himself smartly and is starting to do it more and more often to impose himself on games more (jumping quickly in give-and-gos off the line to put opposing D zone structures into uncomfortable spots). He takes pucks off the wall really well, his first touch reception is pristine, and he navigates play out of the defensive zone with a ton of poise, making a lot of little plays under triangles or off the wall to find his way out of trouble. He anticipates at an extremely high level. He closes out nicely, is disruptive and heady defensively and defends with polish and consistent reads and habits. And, importantly for a 5-foot-11 D, he battles and competes for pucks and into contact along the wall, and will deliver big hits when they’re there.”

Day 2 of the draft tomorrow

The craziest thing of all is that Grier isn’t done. There’s still a second day of the draft, though all the heavy lifting is pretty much over. The Sharks traded away picks 62 and 120 to acquire Lin, so the team won’t have another selection until the fourth round. Given how packed the prospect pool is at the moment, we imagine that GMMG is pretty okay with where he’s at.

Tomorrow, the Sharks pick at #127 (Round 4), #174 (Round 6) and #201 (Round 7).

Sleep tight, Sharks fans. It was a great night!

#⃣ Got our (updated) numbers. pic.twitter.com/gTPCY8WTdm

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 24, 2026

With three picks in the first round … for now … the Sharks are set to make moves in tonight. Whether it’s bolstering one of the best prospect pools in the NHL or making a trade to make the current core better, the Sharks are certain to make a splash tonight.

Fear the Fin took a look at who the Sharks could select at second overall in some previous posts. While defensemen Chase Reid, Carson Carels and Keaton Verhoeff are certainly entertaining prospects and would most definitely help the Sharks in a position that they need the most, they’re likely not going to be the best player available when that second pick rolls around. That honor will most likely go to Ivar Stenberg.

Grier seemed to signal to the hockey world that he was thinking along the same lines earlier this week when he traded William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda to the Ottawa Senators to acquire the 9th overall pick in this year’s draft. You don’t send out a top-six forward on a team that’s on the rise unless you think you can replace that kind of offense immediately. Stenberg projects to do just that.

As for that 9th overall pick. There’s hope that Carels, Reid, or Verhoeff will drop to 9th, and there’s an outside chance that one of them will. If not, defensemen like Alberts Šmits or Daxon Rudolph are likely to be available. We looked at both of them in a separate post. Either one of them would also immediately boost San Jose’s defensive prospect pool, with Rudolph giving San Jose a potential top power play quarterback of the future.

As for the 27th overall pick, it’s hard to say. At that point in the draft, no one knows what’s going to be left. General managers tend to go so far off-script by then that it truly is a best-player-available game. I always think back to last season when Grier chose goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen despite having Yaroslav Askarov in the pipeline. At this point, if he sticks to his script, Sharks fans should be good.

The first round of the NHL draft starts at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Rounds 2-7 will start at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET on Saturday on NHL Network/ESPN+ and SportsNet.