Analyzing fit of six defensemen Sharks could target before NHL trade deadline originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
How can the San Jose Sharks improve their defense ahead of the March 6 NHL trade deadline?
The Sharks, heading into the deadline, are trying to straddle two paths.
There’s the here and now: Five points out of the last wild-card spot in the West and Macklin Celebrini ascending to a superstar level. They’re trying to make the playoffs this season.
But there’s also the future: The Sharks are building to be a Stanley Cup contender, not right now, but in a couple of seasons. So it’s not necessarily time to sell the farm for a small improvement.
Based on The Athletic’s most recent Trade Board, here are a half-dozen possibly available defensemen who fit one of these two paths, or both.
Multiple league sources also shared their thoughts. Also, who would I target if I were the Sharks?
Dougie Hamilton
The offensively gifted Hamilton should be able to help the Sharks’ top power-play unit, but he’s more likely a bridge option.
The 2028 UFA is 32 and has a $9 million AAV. He also has a 10-team Trade List, which the Sharks reportedly aren’t part of.
All that said, the right-hander should come cheap via trade, as long as he agrees to come to San Jose. The New Jersey Devils badly need to clear salary cap space and Hamilton has had a down campaign.
Hamilton would be a solid target for the Sharks: They’ll have the cap space for the next couple of seasons, and someone will have to be their PP1 quarterback if they allow veteran John Klingberg, who’s had an up-and-down season, to walk.
San Jose doesn’t have a clear internal option for this role and based on their interest in Hamilton during the summer, probably before they signed Klingberg on July 1, they likely view Hamilton as a better placeholder than Klingberg.
Hamilton has also been very productive since a highly publicized healthy scratch on Jan. 10, with two goals and 11 points in his last 12 games.
“Not really a production question,” Scout No. 1 said. “Lots of holes in his game and his compete.”
Justin Faulk
Faulk, 33, is also a bridge PP1-worthy quarterback, and he’s considered to be a better pure defender than Hamilton.
However, unlike Hamilton, the 2027 UFA’s contract is seen as a relative bargain — he’s got a $6.5 million AAV and is enjoying his first double-digit goal campaign since 2022-23. He does have a 15-team No-Trade List.
Faulk might garner a first-round draft pick at the trade deadline and will certainly return a high pick or a top prospect.
The right-hander, as a player, might be a more suitable fit for the Sharks, but his likely expensive cost in trade makes Hamilton an arguably more appealing target.
Mason Lohrei
Lohrei, 25, is an offensive defenseman who might need a change of scenery.
Inked to a two-year, $3.2 million AAV contract last summer after a breakout 33-point season, Lohrei has seen his ice time cut and a few healthy scratches under new head coach Marco Sturm.
“Needs to mature a bit,” Scout No. 1 said. “Roll of the dice.”
Lohrei is the right age to grow with the Sharks and could provide an immediate puck-moving spark, but does he defend well enough to play in their top four?
If the Boston Bruins were certain of that, the left-hander probably wouldn’t be available in the first place.
Zach Whitecloud
Whitecloud, 29, hasn’t played a regular top-four shift for most of his career, but that appears to be more a consequence of playing most of his youth on a deep Vegas Golden Knights defense.
Since getting traded to the Calgary Flames in the Rasmus Andersson deal, the 6-foot-2 shutdown defender has averaged 23:09 a night, second only to Mackenzie Weegar, a huge uptick from the 17:44 that he averaged in Vegas.
A 2028 UFA, the right-hander is being paid bottom-pairing money at $2.75 million AAV. So he’s on a bargain of a contract, which will make him that much more costly to acquire.
Two NHL scouts told San Jose Hockey Now that they believe Whitecloud’s trade value is in the range of a second-round pick plus a prospect.
If the Sharks believe in Whitecloud, he’d be both an upgrade now and someone who should still be a key contributor in a couple of years.
Logan Stanley
It took the 2016 first-round draft pick nearly a decade, but Stanley appears to have arrived as an NHL player at exactly the right time, heading into unrestricted free agency this summer.
A 6-foot-7 defender with a mean streak, the 27-year-old left-hander also has a bomb of a shot, and has nine goals.
The question is, do you buy on Stanley as a late-blooming top-four defenseman? He still just plays 16:33 a night for the Winnipeg Jets, and before this season, had never netted more than one goal in a year.
Braden Schneider
Like Lohrei, it’s a little suspicious when a young defenseman, capable of munching minutes, is available like Schneider reportedly is.
Just 24, the pending RFA is more of a shutdown defenseman, and on the surface, big and mobile and can kill plays, sounds like a perfect Mike Grier trade target.
Can the right-hander grow into a true-blue top-four defenseman on a Cup contender?
“Top-four potential,” Scout No. 2 said. Another scout agreed with that assessment.
“He skates well, physical, great kid,” an NHL source said. “No idea what the ask would be, but it better be a lot.”
If the Sharks believe that, he would well be worth a first-round draft pick in a trade.
My Thoughts
There are a couple of other interesting trade targets out there in Brandon Carlo and Pavel Mintyukov.
Carlo, 29, is a big shutdown defenseman who has struggled in Toronto but could welcome a move to San Jose. Are the Maple Leafs, six points out of the playoffs, ready to sell? Carlo could be a smart buy-low opportunity.
Mintyukov is a 2022 first-round draft pick, a very gifted puck-mover who reportedly requested a trade from the Anaheim Ducks earlier this season. It’s hard to see the Ducks trading him in-division, and also, the 22-year-old doesn’t necessarily help the Sharks as much right now.
So who would I target if I were the Sharks?
I’d take a flyer on Hamilton at a bargain basement price.
I also think Whitecloud is worth the suggested cost.
Of all the aforementioned options for the Sharks?
“Whitecloud would be [the best] fit,” Scout No. 3 said.
Trading for one or both of these defensemen would require San Jose to jettison at least one of their handful of UFA blueliners, Klingberg, Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren or Vincent Desharnais.
These acquisitions, however, would both improve the Sharks now and in the near future, without breaking the bank in terms of trade assets. This should keep San Jose in position to acquire elite talent to play with Celebrini, which should be the priority this offseason.
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