Did Mike Grier, Sharks make correct moves on busy Day 1 of NHL free agency? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
- 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 Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
The rebuild is over.
The San Jose Sharks are now, without a doubt, Mike Grier’s team.
On the first day of NHL free agency, the Sharks signed winger Mason Marchment to a five-year, $33.75 million contract ($6.75 million AAV) and defenseman Jacob Trouba to a four-year, $33 million contract ($8.25 million AAV). Then, they acquired defenseman Darnell Nurse from the Edmonton Oilers for young blueliner Shakir Mukhamadullin and prospect Zack Sharp.
But were these the right moves?
On the same day, Grier allowed the last continuous holdover of the Doug Wilson era, defenseman Mario Ferraro, to walk in free agency. Ferraro inked a three-year, $12 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets. This came on the heels of trading 2021 first-round pick William Eklund to the Ottawa Senators last week.
Grier, for better or worse, put his stamp on the Sharks today.
Face it, San Jose had to get better right now.
Grier served the Sharks’ future with what an NHL scout called “an insane haul” at the 2026 NHL draft, highlighted by first-round picks Ivar Stenberg, Keaton Verhoeff, and Ryan Lin.
But the Sharks, just four points out of the Stanley Cup playoffs this past season with a frankly patchwork defense, needed to improve the team around 20-year-old superstar Macklin Celebrini.
With loads of cap space at his disposal, these are the players that Grier chose to help take his team to the postseason.
I’m open-minded to it: Nurse, Trouba and Marchment do improve the Sharks right now.
San Jose Hockey Now reached out to four NHL scouts — none with the Sharks — to determine where Trouba and Nurse, who don’t come without flaws, compare against San Jose’s top two defenders last year, Dmitry Orlov and Ferraro.
Three of the four, without question, took Nurse and Trouba over Orlov and Ferraro. They’re also excellent locker room additions to make up for the loss of the popular Ferraro and Vincent Desharnais.
Another way to put it: the Sharks didn’t add a consensus top-pairing blueliner, à la Zach Werenski or Bo Byram, but they added two top-four defensemen in Nurse and Trouba, on top of Orlov. In addition, Grier acquired defender Michael Kesselring from the Buffalo Sabres two weeks ago, with some reasonable expectation that he’ll be able to take on a top-four role next year.
Of course, Nurse and Trouba are 31 and 32, respectively, and both are on expensive contracts that end in 2030. So, what will these contracts look like in three or four years?
That’s a valid concern, but that’s the price of real improvement in a buyer’s market. What risk-free bargains were there to be had for bona fide top-four defensemen?
Ideally, you could’ve brought in a 30-something top-four defenseman on a two-year contract: 36-year-old John Carlson, for example, would’ve been perfect, but the future Hall of Famer wanted to sign out east.
Ideally, you could’ve brought in 28-year-old superstar Zach Werenski without gutting your farm system. But that’s a moot point, because Werenski reportedly didn’t want to come to San Jose anyway, and you were getting him for a song.
The dream defenseman wasn’t out there for the Sharks this summer.
So Grier pushed out the ideal length of contract and still kept it much shorter than the seven-, eight-year contacts that UFAs Darren Raddysh and Rasmus Andersson commanded from their respective teams.
And Grier preserved the future of his franchise, keeping his No. 2 pick, instead of dealing it for Bo Byram. The Chicago Blackhawks traded their No. 4 pick to the Buffalo Sabres for the 25-year-old Byram before the draft.
Nurse and Trouba, in my mind, were necessary-but-responsible moves to improve the team right now. They make San Jose better without taking anything significant off the table, and their risks aren’t red alert.
Meanwhile, Marchment was a less necessary risk for the Sharks, insofar as they already had a truly promising group of forwards right now. The 31-year-old now makes seven arguable top-nine wingers on the roster — he’ll be competing with Stenberg, Will Smith, Collin Graf, Kiefer Sherwood, Tyler Toffoli and Igor Chernyshov for playing time — but that’s a good problem to have, too.
This is, undoubtedly, the deepest group of Sharks forwards, including Celebrini, Michael Misa and Alex Wennberg up the middle, since the last time they made the playoffs. May the best man win, and also, injuries happen, so San Jose probably will be grateful for the depth.
Power forward Marchment is a Grier signing through and through. He has been said to be a free agency and trade target of the Sharks for years and, at his best, plays that hard-to-play-against style that the GM has been sticking his neck out to acquire for years, à la the Sherwood and Zack Ostapchuk trades.
The Sharks aren’t Stanley Cup contenders yet, and these contracts for 30-something’s could blow up in their faces, but they should make the team better now and shouldn’t cripple them long-term.
