Luca Cagnoni not ‘holding back’ in bid to make San Jose Sharks’ roster

SAN JOSE – Sharks coaches had one main message for Luca Cagnoni during their exit meeting at the end of last season: How hard was he willing to work over the summer to give himself the best chance of becoming a full-time NHL player?

“Nothing’s really given in life. You’ve got to go and earn it,” Cagnoni said Saturday. “My mentality was just if I show up to camp ready, then there’s always a shot.”

There’s little doubt that Cagnoni, among the at 5-foot-9, is giving himself that chance.

Through the first three days of camp, Cagnoni, the Barracuda’s top-scoring defenseman for the past two seasons, has impressed not only with his offensive skill but with the improvements he’s made in the defensive zone.

With spots available on the Sharks’ blue line right now — and a shortened camp — it’s getting easier to envision Cagnoni on the team’s 23-man roster to start the season.

“Cags has come a long way,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “His skill and being able to make plays and run a power play is obviously unique, but he’s come a long way defending and understanding what’s coming at him throughout the game.

“Whether that’s off the rush, whether that’s in D-zone coverage, whether that’s off a faceoff and a box out, or you’re fronting, his details have come a long way in understanding what situation he’s in to put him — as a smaller defenseman — in the right spots.”

As of late Saturday afternoon, it was unclear whether Cagnoni would be in the lineup for today’s preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. But the Sharks want to give him and other younger players a chance to stand out before more NHL veterans start getting into the lineup over the final three exhibition games.

“I’m definitely going to show what I can do out there,” Cagnoni said about the opportunities he’ll get in the preseason. “I’m not really going to be holding back.”

The Sharks made massive offseason changes to their defense corps, allowing Mario Ferraro, Vincent Desharnais, Nick Leddy and John Klingberg to walk as free agents. Ferraro is now with the Winnipeg Jets, Desharnais signed with the Washington Capitals, Leddy remains unsigned, and Klingberg recently announced his retirement.

In their place are Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring, with Dmitry Orlov and Sam Dickinson the two main holdovers on the blue line.

All three new Sharks defensemen bring size and experience, but none is a true power-play quarterback. Orlov filled that role last season with mixed success, as the Sharks’ power play ranked 16th in the NHL at 21.2%.

The role seems to be tailor-made for Cagnoni, the Western Hockey League’s top-scoring defenseman in 2023-24, who racked up 95 points in 131 AHL regular-season games over two seasons with the Barracuda.

Cagnoni worked on the Sharks’ top power play unit for three games at the end of last season, almost serving as an audition for this year. Now it’s a matter of whether the smaller Cagnoni, who turns 22 in December, can make that skill set work in the NHL full-time. Cagnoni also played six games with the Sharks in 2024-25, and has two assists in nine NHL games.

“I think he’s getting more mature every year,” winger Ethan Cardwell said of Cagnoni, his Barracuda teammate the last two seasons. “You can tell on the ice and off the ice, he’s taken big strides. He’s got himself into great shape this year. He looks fast out there.

“Obviously, we all know he can run a power play, and he’s got the most skill in the world. For him, it’s just that defending side, and I’m not getting around him too easily out there, so he’s doing a good job.”

Defending will be the biggest question mark about Cagnoni until he proves he can do it consistently against the world’s top players.

“(Cagnoni’s) not going to be a guy that’s going to box out Tom Wilson in front of the net,” Warsofsky said of the 6-4, 225-pound Capitals winger. “So we’ve got to use some different tactics to help him have success around our net, defending, using his body, using his stick and getting in front of pucks and fronting.”

The Sharks stressed to Cagnoni that he needed to improve his conditioning to stay in the NHL. For example, if Cagnoni has to spend the first 30 seconds of a shift in the defensive zone against bigger players, does he have enough left in the tank to join the forwards if the Sharks can break out?

“The motor that you have to play with to defend big, fast, physical guys, you only get that maybe on one line in the American League,” Warsofsky said. “The NHL, you’re getting it with four lines.”

“I think that one thing I focused on conditioning this year was just being able to get that extra 20 seconds out of me and jump in the rush that final play,” Cagnoni said. “So I put a lot of effort in the summer to get that length going a little bit more.”