Editor’s note: Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on X at @Sheng_Peng.
OTTAWA — The Sharks still could have an exciting 2025 NHL trade deadline.
Sure, their obvious top trade chips are long gone — Mackenzie Blackwood went to the Colorado Avalanche for Nikolai Kovalenko and a second-round pick in December, and Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci went to the Dallas Stars for a first and a conditional fourth a few weeks ago — but there’s still plenty of intrigue.
San Jose Hockey Now reached out to a few league sources to get a sense of the trade values of pending UFAs Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm and Jan Rutta. What about goalies Vitek Vanecek and Alexandar Georgiev?
Mario Ferraro, as usual, is a figure of some interest. And could the Sharks be in on any of the top trade targets?
For San Jose to take the next step in its rebuild, it needs to improve its defense a lot.
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Preferably, the Sharks can do so with a young blueliner who can grow with the likes of Macklin Celebrini and company.
Byram is 23, Miller and Dobson are 25, and all are pending RFAs.
Byram seems more likely to move, just because the Sabres already have so much invested in their blueline between No. 1 picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
“[Byram would] be great for the Sharks,” one NHL scout, not with San Jose, opined.
Another scout sees him as a little too offensive-leaning right now: “He has the tools, just comes down to if he actually wants to defend and compete. Hard to be top-pair guy being too one-dimensional.”
For what it’s worth, a league executive believes that Byram has the character to compete to be a lot better defensively one day.
Of course, it can take young defensemen a while to come into their own, so Byram seems like a sensible target for the Sharks: He’s already a bona fide top-four blueliner who can conceivably grow into a top-pairing guy in the right situation.
The question is, what does Buffalo want for Byram?
The Sabres, 13 years and counting out of the playoffs, probably don’t want to continue their seemingly forever rebuild.
Right now, the Sharks’ best trade assets trend toward the younger side, from the Dallas Stars’ 2025 first-round pick to top prospects who haven’t quite hit yet, like Buffalo-area native Quentin Musty.
A scout opined that the Sabres need grit, and he wasn’t talking about a run-of-the-mill fourth-line grinder. Buffalo has a lot of talent, but maybe a culture-setter with grit and skill, a la Matthew Tkachuk or Sam Bennett, would intrigue them.
San Jose doesn’t have an established NHL player like that available.
So I’m not sure that the trade fit is there between the Sharks and Sabres? But that’s purely speculative; who knows what Buffalo is doing?
As for Miller, a league source told San Jose Hockey Now that he’s not going anywhere.
Vince Mercogliano, who covers the New York Rangers for USA Today, reinforced that, though he cast a little more doubt.
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere, at least not [before the Trade Deadline], but he’s had an uneven season and they’re bracing for a tough contract negotiation this summer,” Mercogliano said.
The Rangers, however, still appear to be all-in to win now, despite their struggles this season, so a Miller trade before Mar. 7 would need to serve them for a playoff run this spring.
If San Jose had a lot of win-now players, well, they’d be winning more right now. They don’t.
As for Dobson, there’s not a lot of reason for the New York Islanders to deal a defenseman who notched 70 points in 2023-24.
Elliotte Friedman reported that the blueliner is not widely available, that a Dobson trade would be more likely for a specific player that the Islanders were targeting, basically, a star-for-star swap.
Again, I don’t see a fit with the Sharks there.
All that said, the Sharks do have plenty to offer in trade, probably to a team that’s looking to rebuild or is backed into a corner to move a valuable piece (a la Yaroslav Askarov).
It wouldn’t surprise me to see, for example, that 2025 Stars’ first-round pick to be moved, either this Trade Deadline or before the Draft, for a player who can help sooner than later.
The Sharks have probably missed their window for extracting maximum value for Ferraro.
Now 26, Ferraro is still the all-heart, Energizer Bunny defenseman that he was as a rookie six seasons ago. The problem is, he’s never developed into a true defensive stopper or two-way blueliner, which is why the Sharks held onto him all these years.
An NHL scout, who’s a big Ferraro fan, agreed with SJHN’s assessment that the team-first blueliner just hasn’t been able to get away from the bad defensive habits that playing for a perpetual loser can engrain in you.
For example, Ferraro has never developed high-end patience with the puck, but who can blame him when he’s been under siege in the defensive zone his entire career?
“Making too much money for his role,” one NHL scout, who sees Ferraro as a bottom-pairing defender, said.
Ferraro has one more year left on his contract at $3.25 million AAV.
In 2023, the Carolina Hurricanes, according to SJHN’s sources, offered a second-round pick and then-prospect Jack Drury for Ferraro.
It’s hard to see the Sharks getting a similar offer for Ferraro today.
But it does take just one interested GM, and two to start a bidding war.
“Ferraro is interesting,” another scout said. “People seem to be pretty split on him.”
What can Sharks GM Mike Grier get for pending UFAs Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, Jan Rutta, Vitek Vanecek, and Alexandar Georgiev?
Kunin should extract the most value.
“Kunin is versatile. Can play center or wing and up and down the roster. So he may get you a third,” a scout said.
Two other scouts agreed with that assessment.
Kunin is also gritty, a solid penalty-killer, and has some scoring touch, useful attributes for any playoff run.
Sturm, however, is seen strictly as a fourth-liner, albeit a reliable 4C who won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. He expects to be moved before Mar. 7.
Rutta, in much the same way, is regarded as a bottom-pairing defenseman at best. He also has extensive playoff experience, winning back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“A fourth maybe?” the scout said about Sturm and Rutta. “Just a guess.”
Two other scouts agreed.
A fourth could be high, a fifth might be more realistic.
Rutta is also currently injured and won’t be back until after the Trade Deadline. So the Sharks may be stuck holding the bag on him.
As for Georgiev and Vanecek?
They’ve been pretty bad this year, so I didn’t bother asking league sources about them, to be honest. Obviously, they’ve also been under siege, so it’s not all on them.
They’re also both playoff-tested recent starting goalies, so they could provide excellent insurance for a contender.
That’s not worth a lot in the open market, but I could see one of them going at the Deadline.
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