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No one is saying that the rebuild is over for the San Jose Sharks, but it feels like a new day at SAP Center.
On Monday, GM Mike Grier surprised the hockey world, sending a pair of second-round picks to the Vancouver Canucks for pending UFA winger Kiefer Sherwood. This was, as Grier would confirm on Thursday night, something of a reward for a team that has shocked the NHL, after back-to-back league-worst finishes, with their 25-21-3 record so far this season.
As of Jan. 22, the Sharks are tied for the final wild card berth in the Western Conference.
So it was a more-happy-than-not occasion on Thursday, when Grier addressed local media after the season ticketholder State of the Sharks event at SAP Center.
Grier spoke on why Sherwood was the right fit for the Sharks, his hopes to re-sign Sherwood, his biggest trade deadline decisions, what he’s looking for on defense and more.
These were some of my takeaways from Grier’s availability.
Kiefer Sherwood
As expected, Grier did not send that much draft capital to the Canucks for a rental.
“He’s someone we’ve gone after with the idea of him not being a rental,” Grier said of Sherwood.
Grier also noted that he had no trade deadline plans to send any of the Sharks’ first-rounders out for a rental. San Jose isn’t that far ahead in their rebuild, after all.
What makes Sherwood, who’s got 17 goals this season and is second in the NHL in hits, so valuable to Grier?
“His acquisition was a targeted acquisition. He’s what this team needs, as far as someone who plays with some sandpaper, some grit, some speed, some physicality,” Grier said. “He fits right now, but it’s just something I think, like I said from day one when I got this job, he’s the type of player I was speaking about that we need to have in here in order to be hard to play against. He just fits the identity.”
Of course, Sherwood, 30, could end up being a rental. Early reports suggest that Sherwood and the Sharks’ camp are far apart in contract talks.
But Grier, who usually stays away from negotiating in public, didn’t seem overly concerned.
“I think we’ll be able to work something out,” he said, “but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
There’s also a chance, if contract negotiations are going nowhere, that the Sharks could ship Sherwood out again, before the Mar. 6 trade deadline.
There is precedent for this: Last January, the Carolina Hurricanes acquired superstar winger Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche, but after concluding that the pending UFA wasn’t going to re-sign, flipped him to the Dallas Stars during the trade deadline.
Sherwood has value.
“He would help 32 teams,” an NHL scout told San Jose Hockey Now this week.
State of Defense at Trade Deadline?
The Sharks currently have just two defensemen signed beyond this season, Dmitry Orlov and Sam Dickinson.
Youngsters Shakir Mukhamadullin and Vincent Iorio are restricted free agents, meaning that the team has control over them.
Beyond that, however, the Sharks have four UFA blueliners, Mario Ferraro, John Klingberg, Timothy Liljegren and Vincent Desharnais, all of whom have contributed to the team’s surprising start.
While outside consensus is that the Sharks must improve their blueline to take the next step, Grier went out of his way to recognize the current defensive corps’ underappreciated efforts.
“It might not be the most glamorous group of defensemen,” Grier said, “but they’ve played well, they’ve played hard, they’ve produced.”
Grier conceded, however, that what he decides to do with his UFA blueliners could be his biggest Trade Deadline decision.
Like the Sherwood acquisition now, the Sharks’ record in a little more than a month will guide Grier.
“Probably the toughest decision I’ll probably have to make at the Deadline is trying to figure out where the group is at, where the team’s at, and what’s the best decision for the group short-term, but also long-term. If there’s a deal out there that gets presented to me, that makes sense? It’s something that [we’re] going to have to really think about and consider,” Grier said about his free agents. “If we’re going well and things are good and we decide that we just roll through it and see what happens, it’s something we’re prepared to do.”
Grier, interestingly, cited the example of the Montreal Canadiens last year. They had a pair of pending UFA centers, Jake Evans and Christian Dvorak, both contributing to their playoff run. They held on to both, made the playoffs, and re-signed Evans but lost Dvorak to free agency.
Anyway, Grier declined to be as emphatic about keeping any one of his UFA defensemen, as he was about Sherwood. It doesn’t mean that Ferraro and company aren’t long for San Jose, but it’s noteworthy.
Grier, obliquely, also discussed how the Sharks are looking to improve their blueline: “I think everyone’s looking for a D that can defend hard, defend the rush, and be hard around the net. If you talk to every team in the league, I think that’s what they’re looking for, because you got to defend, you got to be hard on and around your net, and you got to be able to exit your zone. Those are the things we’re looking at, they’re probably no different than anyone else.”
This certainly sounds like a greater emphasis on defense than offense from the blueline, for what it’s worth.
Grier said that he wouldn’t deal first-rounders for a rental, but could those come in play for the right young defenseman who can grow with Macklin Celebrini and company?
Besides their own first this year, they also have the Edmonton Oilers’ first this season, from last year’s Jake Walman trade.
Whatever happens, it feels like the Sharks’ defense will look much different after Mar. 6.
Next Step?
It’s been a good season for the San Jose Sharks’ scouting and development staff.
2024 second-round pick Igor Chernyshov’s immediate impact is a tribute to the amateur scouts.
Free agent Collin Graf’s transformation from college playmaker to ace NHL penalty-killer is a tribute to development.
And Zack Ostapchuk’s emergence as a shutdown fourth-line center is a tribute to the pro scouts, who targeted him in the unpopular Fabian Zetterlund trade last season
“It’s similar to when we got Chucky last year at the Deadline and people were wondering why we would trade an established player [like Zetterlund],” Grier said, “but you have to build a team.”
Grier called Sherwood a “targeted acquisition”. So was Ostapchuk.
Expect more of these, if not this summer, then during the off-season, now that the Sharks have their franchise center in Macklin Celebrini, and other potential pillars in Yaroslav Askarov, Will Smith, William Eklund, Graf, Chernyshov, and Sam Dickinson.
“You need players like Kiefer, players like Chucky. You need those styles of players to help supplement your group. We got a lot of skill with Mack, Will, Eky, and Toff, and guys like that,” Grier said. “You need guys who can be physical, who can skate, who can be hard to play against, because, at the end of the day, that’s what wins in the playoffs, and that’s the goal for us: To get into the playoffs and win the whole thing.”
That’s still the real goal, not just making it into the playoffs this season.
This season, Grier and his staff, up and down the organization, are showing, playoffs or not, that they can put together a winning team.
“It takes all different types of parts and all different parts of character,” Grier said. “It’s not just like fantasy football, where you’re just accumulating stats.”
Next step: Can they build a champion?