SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks spent big on the first day of free agency, handing out more than $66 million in new contracts to three players, while adding another $37 million to the payroll with the acquisition of defenseman Darnell Nurse from the Edmonton Oilers.
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Time will tell whether it was money well spent, especially with the players brought in on Wednesday, all 30 or older and on multi-year deals.
Still, general manager Mike Grier is confident that he has a better team now than he did last season, with a deeper forward group flush with young talent and a defense corps that’s bigger and more dynamic.
As he’s done previously, Grier on Thursday steered clear of any talk about making the playoffs next season. But the considerable outlay for veteran players certainly signaled that the Sharks intend to take another step forward after barely missing the postseason this past year.
“I think we’re a better team now than we were last year. So, if that gets us in the playoffs, great,” Grier said. “You never know how the season’s going to go, but it’s a step in the right direction, where we were able to address some of the things we wanted to address.”
Grier gave defensemen Jacob Trouba a four-year, $33 million deal and winger Mason Marchment a five-year, $33.75 million contract. Defenseman Darnell Nurse, now midway through an eight-year, $74 million deal, was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers for defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin and forward prospect Zack Sharp.
The Sharks on Wednesday also signed veteran goalie Eric Comrie to a two-year, $2.3 million contract. Barring an injury to either Yaroslav Askarov or Alex Nedeljkovic, Comrie will likely start this upcoming season in the AHL with the Barracuda.
Whatever happens, the Sharks’ biggest priority this offseason was finding players who can help them cut down on the number of goals against. San Jose gave up 292 goals this past season, the third-highest total in the NHL, and was also fourth-to-last in 5-on-5 goals allowed (190).
The Sharks need to improve in that area before they can take another step forward. Grier feels the additions, including the 6-foot-5 Michael Kesselring, plus growth from defensemen Sam Dickinson in his second year, can help address that issue.
“I think we’re a better team defensively, for sure,” Grier said. “We’ll be harder around our net. I think we’ll be able to kill more plays. The length alone of Kesselring, (6-3 Trouba), and (6-4 Nurse) will make it harder on teams in the offensive zone (to) make plays and find time and space.
“We should be better, but we still have to go out and play the games.”
“As much offense as you want to have today in the NHL, you’ve got to be able to keep pucks out of the net to win games,” Trouba said. “The best teams and the teams that win across the league are good defensively.”
Nurse, Trouba and Marchment are now the Sharks’ three-highest-paid players in terms of AAV, a reflection of the NHL’s rapidly rising salary cap. Those three deals make up over 23.3% of this year’s $104 million upper limit.
Is there any concern about those contracts not aging well?
Grier said the 31-year-old Marchment, with 370 NHL games, doesn’t have the “hard miles” of some other players his age, and added that he doesn’t have any concerns about Nurse, 31, saying his conditioning will allow him to continue to be a strong skater.
Regarding Trouba, 32, Grier said his value is his reliability and how hard he is to play against.
“There’s always some risk when you have a little bit of term,” Grier said. “But we think these guys will be fine, and I think we felt like we were able to kind of keep the term to a manageable number on all of them.”
Along with those contracts, the bill is also coming due for the Sharks’ top young players, with restricted free agent Collin Graf in need of a new deal this offseason and the entry-level contracts for the team’s two leading scorers, Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, expiring in 2027.
With the salary cap projected to be $113.5 million in 2027-28, Grier dismissed any notion of a future cap crunch. He is confident he can make it all fit and still have enough room left over to make additions in the coming years, either at the trade deadline or during the offseason.
“We’ve done our work on the numbers,” Grier said.
Asked if there was any talk between him and Oilers GM Stan Bowman about retaining part of Nurse’s $9.25 million cap hit, Grier said, “We made the deal we made. We’re happy with that.”
The Sharks have about $53 million in cap space available for the 2027-28 season before the sizable Graf, Celebrini and Smith deals are completed.
Graf was third on the Sharks with 21 goals last season, and Grier said Thursday he doesn’t think the two sides are too far apart on what the winger’s next contract will look like. He added that he and the agents for Celebrini and Smith haven’t dug too deeply on their respective extensions.
“It’s just making sure when those extensions kick in that we still maintain some flexibility to improve the group and add players if need be,” Grier said. “With the cap going up and we’ll still have some younger guys on cheaper contracts, we’ll be able to maneuver over these next three or four years.”
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