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Trade

Canucks trade Kiefer Sherwood to San Jose Sharks

This post was originally published on this site.

By Jesse Granger, Thomas Drance and Eric Stephens

The Vancouver Canucks traded Kiefer Sherwood to the San Jose Sharks on Monday for San Jose’s second-round picks in 2026 and 2027, and defenseman Cole Clayton.

Sherwood is in the final year of a two-year deal, with a modest salary-cap hit of $1.5 million, and is set to hit unrestricted free agency in July.

The 30-year-old was No. 2 on The Athletic’s latest NHL trade board, released Monday morning.

Sherwood is having a career season, with 17 goals in 44 games. He needs only two more to surpass his career high of 19 from last season, and the gritty winger’s goal-scoring has trended upward in each of the past four seasons.

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After scoring a total of only 14 goals over his first five NHL seasons with Anaheim, Colorado and Nashville, Sherwood put up double-digit goals for the first time in 2023-24, scoring 10 goals for the Predators. He nearly doubled that total to 19 goals last season, his first in Vancouver, and is on pace to fly past that mark this season.

On top of his increased scoring ability, Sherwood brings tenacity and physicality on the forecheck. He’s a strong skater who can chase down pucks and win board battles, and he can play on either wing. The Ohio native originally signed with the Ducks in 2018 as an undrafted free agent, and spent his first five professional seasons bouncing between the NHL and AHL before becoming an NHL regular over the last three years.

How Canucks fared with Sherwood return

The Canucks have made the first pure-rebuilding trade of the post-Quinn Hughes era.

The return for Sherwood itself is relatively underwhelming. While Sherwood isn’t a premium player and it’s rare for teams to swap first-round picks for wingers of his calibre, the 30-year-old is still one of the NHL’s most frequent hitters, was pacing to score 30 goals before a recent injury and has a wildly attractive $1.5 million cap hit.

It’s somewhat surprising that Vancouver couldn’t manufacture a creative path to returning a first-round pick outright, even if it included the team taking on a more onerous contract in return.

The Canucks, however, did juice their return somewhat by taking Clayton back in the deal. The AHL defender has a pricey $275,000 salary in the minor leagues, so the Canucks at least flexed some ingenuity and financial muscle to maximize their return. The club also effectively returned double what loosely comparable (but inferior) players like Anthony Beauvillier and Brandon Tanev returned ahead of the trade deadline in 2025.

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Overall, this was a necessary deal and appears to have been reasonably well executed. That it focuses on the acquisition of surplus draft capital is additionally welcome, and a departure from so many previous Canucks seller trades.

The Sherwood return wasn’t quite a home run for an embattled Canucks management team and an organization launching, at least, a new forward-looking phase of their team-building cycle. It’s a solid, stand-up double, however. — Thomas Drance, Canucks beat writer

What it means for the Sharks

This is a targeted buy for San Jose, which could still do a little selling at the trade deadline with all its impending unrestricted free agents, but is also taking advantage of its surprising season and placement in a playoff race. Sherwood will make the Sharks’ forward group tougher to play against while adding some experienced offensive capability.

After years of trading movable assets, the Sharks showed a shift in their direction by signing valuable center Alexander Wennberg to a three-year extension. Now they’re adding Sherwood, who plays a hard game and has shown some improved finishing ability with 19 goals last season for Vancouver and another 17 in 44 games with the Canucks this season.

Sherwood will be due for a big raise from his $1.5 million cap number as an oncoming UFA, but the Sharks can see how it works out with the physical winger while not feeling too guilty about the assets they surrendered. Two second-round picks over the next two years seem like a lot, but San Jose is improving, and those selections don’t figure to be as high as when it was at the bottom of the league. The Sharks still have three firsts over 2026 and 2027.

Clayton, 25, isn’t a highly regarded prospect, and the Sharks aren’t losing much on that front. Acquiring Sherwood when there figured to be several other suitors shows that general manager Mike Grier sees how his club has played above what everyone expected this season and is rewarding the dressing room with a shot in the arm for what will be the most important games this franchise has seen in years.

It also doesn’t hurt to show 19-year-old superstar Macklin Celebrini that San Jose is on the come-up and wants to become a destination for players looking to contend and play with one of the NHL’s best as he moves into his prime years. — Eric Stephens, NHL staff writer