The San Jose Sharks are certainly going to be sellers at the trade deadline this year, and as our Alex Hutton discussed earlier this week, veterans will play a key role in helping the team get through a turbulent time of the year. With that being said, some of those veterans may also be on the move, but given the play of their pending unrestricted free agents this season, the Sharks may get either very low returns for their trade chips or even nothing at all.
The state of the salary cap around the NHL is well known, most teams are nearly maxed out and have limited room to make any moves involving players with a high cap hit. If a player is performing at a high level and the selling team has plenty of opportunities to retain salary, then it becomes a non-issue. The Sharks have neither of those luxuries, as many of their trade chips are their pending free agents, none of whom are playing up to expectations. Meanwhile, they can only retain salary on one player since they still have Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson on the books with salary retention. While teams may be willing to take a flyer on a struggling player with a successful past who has somewhat of a high cap hit under most circumstances, that’s not the case in the modern NHL with its flat salary cap.
Closing “Labanc” in San Jose
Kevin Labanc has the highest cap hit of the pending unrestricted free agents, and it’s clear that his time in San Jose is coming to an end. With that being said, he likely won’t be departing the organization until the summer based on his performance. Labanc would be a decent bottom-six addition for some teams if he had a cap hit around the $1 million range. With his current cap hit of $4.75 million though, there likely won’t be much of a market for a player with his level of production. He has seven points through 34 games this season and regularly finds himself as a healthy scratch on a bottom-feeding team. He doesn’t have an elite level of defensive play or physicality to make up for his lack of production either.
It could simply be a case of a player who needs a change of scenery, but it’s difficult to see a team with Stanley Cup hopes seeing Labanc as their solution. He may get an opportunity to bounce back as a bottom-six forward with another team next season, but it’s unlikely we see him moved this season.
Mike Hoffman’s Contract Hinders Value
The Sharks acquired Mike Hoffman as part of the return for Karlsson when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins during the summer in a three-team trade that also included the Montreal Canadiens. He’s yet to record a point in the month of February, and although he’s had moments where he’s played well, he’s been inconsistent when it comes to getting on the scoresheet. He hasn’t scored a goal since Dec. 10 against the Vegas Golden Knights when he scored two. While nobody expected him to return to the level of play we saw from him in his prime with the Ottawa Senators, expecting him to occasionally chip one in shouldn’t be asking too much.
Scoring eight goals in the first month and a half or so put Hoffman on a solid pace, however, he’s nearly gone two calendar months without finding the back of the net. He’s setting his teammates up somewhat consistently, with 10 assists this season, but he’s now gone five games without a point in general. Consistency is key for playoff teams, they need to know what they’re getting. With Hoffman, there’s a chance he will find the form we saw from him early in the season, but there’s also a chance that he continues his slump. Considering his cap hit is $4.5 million as well, it’s a gamble that won’t be worthwhile for most teams at this point. At 34 years of age, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be back with the Sharks next season. While they’ll undoubtedly try to move him, he may stay in the Bay Area past the trade deadline and similar to Labanc, depart during the summer.
One thing is for certain though, Hoffman is still an NHL-caliber player and he can certainly look to sign with a contender in July to chase a Stanley Cup with a more team-friendly contract.
Alexander Barabanov’s Struggles
Compared to Labanc and Hoffman, Alexander Barabanov is certainly easier to move with his contract. He currently carries a $2.5 million cap hit, but he has been invisible for most of the 2023-24 season. Prior to the season, he was seen as the Sharks’ most valuable asset for this year’s trade deadline. Coming off of 47 points in 68 games last season, there were high expectations for him to pick up the pace considering he’d be relied on heavily for offense with Karlsson and Timo Meier both out of the organization. Instead, injuries kept him sidelined early in the season and he never really found his footing. He currently has nine points in 34 games and hasn’t made a noticeable impact on most nights.
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There’s certainly a team that would be willing to trade for Barabanov, but his value is going to be much, much lower than the Sharks had hoped for. Depending on what type of assets they can get for him, it may be better for general manager Mike Grier to try to sign the Russian forward to a one-year extension if possible to raise his value, as this season is certainly an outlier. Of course, as a pending unrestricted free agent, the choice ultimately falls to the player, so re-signing him may not be a possibility.
The Sharks aren’t going to get nearly as much value as they had hoped out of these three players at the trade deadline if they’re able to find suitors for them at all. While they may help a contender if they find the level of play we’ve seen from each of them in the past, it’s far from guaranteed, and general managers of contending teams may not feel they’re worth the gamble. One way or another, Grier certainly has his work cut out for him at this year’s trade deadline.
