The Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks have completed a trade, sending veteran forward Vladislav Namestnikov to the Bay Area in exchange for Mikey Eyssimont. As part of the deal, Tampa Bay will retain 50% of Namestnikov’s $2.5MM cap hit.
Namestnikov, 30, is a pending unrestricted free agent, while Eyssimont, 26, will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in the summer should the Lightning choose to extend him a qualifying offer. Eyssimont spent right around two months in San Jose, arriving there via a waiver claim from the Winnipeg Jets.
This is a deal that’s not the easiest to rationalize from the Sharks’ point of view. Eyssimont was responding well to a bump up in ice time since his arrival from Winnipeg and had scored eight points in 20 games for the Sharks. Coach David Quinn gave him an opportunity next to Logan Couture, and Eyssimont played pretty well, averaging nearly 15 minutes of ice time with some power play time to boot.
He’s an energetic, speedy forward who might not have an easy time cracking the Lightning’s lineup, but should be capable depth for their bottom six should a winger get injured. The Lightning cleared some cap space through this deal by sending away Namestnikov, who has been a healthy scratch, so that’s also a factor working in Tampa Bay’s favor with this deal.
For the Sharks, this trade exchanges a young player with a little bit of team control remaining for an older, more seasoned veteran. Namestnikov has scored 15 points in 57 games this season and impressed last year as a deadline acquisition of the Dallas Stars. What makes this trade odd, then, is the fact that the Sharks are making a short-term upgrade despite sitting 29th in league standings.
Perhaps Sharks general manager Mike Grier has identified Namestnikov as a player he’d like to keep beyond this season via a contract extension, or maybe Quinn, who coached Namestnikov in New York, wants to see what he can get out of the 610-game veteran. Maybe San Jose plans to offer to retain salary on Namestnikov and shop him to teams interested in acquiring some experienced depth at a cheap price. In any case, it’s not a deal that is likely to be hugely consequential unless the salary cap savings pave the way for a bigger deal to take place.
The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman was first to report this swap.
I pegged Eyssimont as top winger on Sharks next year shows promise but probably will be odd man out in Tampa….
What on earth is the point of this for San Jose
An unqualified Mike Grier spinning his wheels.
The first time you’ve made this comment and it actually wasn’t actually dumb
Don’t care how that comment reads mad props wilf
Just stop, we get it all that hate keeps you warm.
Tbf, Eyssimont cost them nothing and, despite the ethic and fanfare, isn’t great. Namestnikov is a better player but makes no sense on the Sharks. Surely this must be because Grier thinks he can flip him in the next 24 hours or it’s just braindead.
With Namestnikov being Russian could it be to ease Shakir’s transition to US?
Interesting trade…
Wtf. Can Hasso please sell the team to someone else? Maybe someone that actually lives in the US and cares if the team does good. If we are lucky they might know how to hire competent management. If GMMG does not flip this into something better than this quick then it is another horrible trade and as much as I loved MG as a player, the GM position is over his head
JFC! When you wish Doug Wilson is still in charge, you know your team is screwed up