Sharks GM navigating trade waters — The Fourth Period
The San Jose Sharks are among the teams interested in both adding to their roster and selling some pieces between now and the March 6 trade deadline.
Sharks GM Mike Grier is believed to be exploring the trade market for upgrades both on the blueline and in their mid-six, while also taking calls on some of his pending unrestricted free agents.
Forwards Alexander Wennberg, Jeff Skinner and Ryan Reaves, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, and defencemen Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren, Nick Leddy, John Klingberg and Vincent Desharnais are all playing on expiring contracts and are eligible to become UFAs July 1.
Several teams have expressed interest in some of San Jose’s defencemen, while Grier has also been looking for a top-four blueliner in his mid-to-early-20s who has term remaining on his contract.
The Sharks currently sit ninth in the Western Conference with a 20-18-3 record, tied in points (43) with the two wildcard teams in the West, the Seattle Kraken and Los Angeles Kings.
Grier would like to add up front, as well, to further insulate his young forward corps, and has been linked to Vancouver Canucks forward Kiefer Sherwood, who is also on an expiring contract, and St. Louis Blues winger Jordan Kyrou, who has an $8.125 million salary cap hit and owns a full no-trade clause.
While the Sharks have just over $8.45 million in current salary cap space, they have just over $54.485 million in cap space for next season.
