This afternoon, the Sharks locked up pending free agent center Alexander Wennberg, as first reported by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now. The team officially announced that the deal is for three years at a $6MM AAV.
Signed to a two-year deal worth $5MM per season in 2024, Wennberg has enjoyed playing a larger role on a lesser team of late. An eventual deal to a top contender was likely in mind, but today’s news indicates that San Jose sees Wennberg as much more than merely a veteran placeholder. In a thin trade market for centers, GM Mike Grier could have added even more futures to his loaded cupboard. Yet, especially given their step forward this season, the Swede will stay with the Sharks for the foreseeable future and help them blossom into a serious contender in the late 2020s. After so much turnaround in recent years, the core is starting to solidify.
At a $6MM price tag through his age-34 season, the figure for Wennberg is indicative of a limited free agent market, especially down the middle. With another forward now erased from the board, Utah’s Nick Schmaltz remains the likely top center available. The 29-year-old is peaking at the right time, with 36 points in 42 games, and would be wise to hit the market with another counterpart now out of the picture.
As for Wennberg, AFP Analytics predicted that he’d be due for a four-year extension worth $4.8MM per season. Therefore, the more favorable three-year term came with an added cost, enough to sway Wennberg away from the open market, and San Jose comfortably has the cap room to do so. Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith remain on their entry-level deals for one more season, and the Sharks will also have Jeff Skinner‘s $3MM coming off the books this summer, along with over $15 million across practically their entire defense core.
Once a high-end prospect for Columbus, Wennberg broke out in 2016-17 with 56 points, seemingly on his path to becoming a high-end offensive top-six driver. Since then, he’s had no more than 38 points in a season, becoming a more defensive center with playmaking ability. He made stops in Florida, Seattle, and New York before coming to San Jose on a generous deal, which helped the rebuilding club fill the void of Logan Couture while reaching the cap floor.
Wennberg posted 35 points in 77 contests last season, but especially with the team playing much better overall, he’s taken a step forward with 26 in 41 games. On most contenders, Wennberg would be a true third-line center, but clearly, he enjoys playing a key role on a dynamic young team, earning more salary to do so. He posts strong defensive and playmaking metrics, proving to be a highly valued supporting piece.
Above the .500 mark at the midway point, San Jose sneaking into the playoffs still seems unlikely, but considering their progress under Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky, the team will be a threat for the duration of Wennberg’s deal. With an abundance of assets and the unique opportunity to overhaul their back end this summer, Grier checks a big box today, with his forward corps mostly sorted out.
Today’s news is a nice morale boost for the group as they return to action on Tuesday, aiming to maintain their playoff push and cap off the rebuild ahead of schedule.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron – Imagn Images.
Meh, guess we have the cap space. He could end up being the highest paid 4th liner in the league by contracts end. The term is right.
Yikes!! 😬
I mean, good player, but I’d say it’s an overpay. Gotta spend wisely, but this contract doesn’t do that if he doesn’t score 15 goals at least twice during this deal.
If it is an overpay then you must think that they could have signed him for less. Please explain how much they could have paid him and why they did not. Thanks.
3×4.5 is what I would’ve signed him to. They probably didn’t to ensure that they got him back with 100% certainty, so they felt the need to pay him more than his true value. With a low payroll, it doesn’t matter as much.
What? I didn’t ask what you would pay in fantasy hockey land. You don’t determine player value. The NHL is a business. If the Sharks could have paid him less the Sharks would have paid him less. Please explain why they chose to not do so.
I did… Did you read with your eyes closed? I said they wanted to be 100% sure he would come back, so they signed him slightly more than his true worth.
But he hasnt hit the market yet. So at this point in time they are bidding against themselves. Also With the increase of cap this is not an overpay, He is at a lower % of the cap with this deal than he was previously so technically its a paycut.
They had to pay a bit more than you expected to ensure his return, thus this was his market value and not an overpay. Simple economics.
I’ve liked Wennberg since his kraken days. Really thought they should’ve kept him to mentor Matty back when those first rotations started to run through the team. There was some fallout with the team for trying to market him as a sex symbol too that likely played a role, but he never brought negative energy to the team or the games. He’s good on the PK and clearly SJ values his leadership, so seems like a pretty great fit for 3×6 to me. It would be foolish to have him on the 4th line in 3 years time. 2-3C for the playmaking, defensive chops and leadership is good spending I think. Plus he can score when you really need one.
Yeah sure, PuT WiLl SmItH oN tHe 4th lInE iNsTeaD of WenNbeRg… Look at the depth chart and you’ll see why he isn’t going to be 2C or 3C by 2029; it’s not a statement on Wennberg’s ability.
Pretty sure multiple people have said that Wennberg has one of the top hockey IQs in the league. He does more than put up points.
“He posts strong defensive … metrics”.
His oiSV% of 86.9 is the 5th worst (out of 27) on the team.
His PDO of 97.3 is the 8th worst (out of 27).
His -12 is the 3rd worst, despite being 11th in oZS%.
The writer obviously hasn’t bothered to look at these numbers before writing. And neither has Greer before giving him $6M.
$5M would be a fair deal. But the term is just right.
that would be a fair statement if oiSV% or PDO were defensive metrics lmfao
try these. 5v5 ranks among Sharks forwards
CA/60: 58.3 (4th out of 16)
FA/60: 40.5 (3rd out of 16)
SA/60: 25.7 (1st out of 16)
xGA/60: 2.34 (1st out of 16)
SCA/60: 25.38 (1st out of 16)
HDCA/60: 10.28 (2nd out of 16)
he is the best defensive forward on the team full stop. an informed observation would be that is results are being dragged down by goaltending not the other way around
Your metrics are flawed. For example, Eklund is above Wennberg in CA% and FA%, yet he is by far the worst on the team with a -19. Is he, along with Wennberg, the best defensive forward?
“results are being dragged down by goaltending”
Are you saying that the Sharks goalies deliberately concede goals when Wennberg and Eklund are on the ice in order to drag down their ratings?
those are not real stats. even if you are referring to cf%/ff% those are not defensive stats. those are two-way stats. players who have great individual defense but don’t generate much offensively will not grade out well in them. you are talking about defense, not two-way. use defensive stats
Use them yourself. Possession stats you quoted are useless. Both Corsi and Fenwick are irrelevant until they are situationally adjusted. At the very least, for the oZS%. Ditto the scoring chances.
On the other hand, the oiSV% doesn’t need to be situationally adjusted. How can you explain a player consistently posting a bad oiSV% other than him making plays that result in his team conceding a goal more often than his teammates?
You may say that maybe this year he is playing with other guys who are defensive liabilities. But if you look at Wennberg’s oiSV% throughout his career, he has posted a bad oiSV% in every single year. Even in the year where he played for 2 teams, he managed to post a bad oiSV% for both of them. All in all, that’s 13 bad oiSV% and none even close to being good.
And this is backed up by what I observed watching the Sharks games this year. I’ve seen quite a few goals they conceded after a bad play by Wennberg.