San Jose Sharks Place Mario Ferraro On Injured Reserve
The San Jose Sharks have placed defenseman Mario Ferraro on injured reserve, according to the team’s media relations department. The 24-year-old defenseman is poised to miss at least a week-long stretch of time.
Ferraro registered a shot on goal, four blocks, and a -1 rating in 21:05 of ice time in last night’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings. The team has not commented on the nature of Ferraro’s injury, when he sustained it, or any potential timeline.
San Jose signed Ferraro to a four-year extension last summer, a reward for the heavy minutes he’s logged in the past two seasons. His play has dipped this year, though, with his role less certain and defensive weaknesses more exposed. His -14 rating is the worst on the team.
Nick Cicek will draw into the Sharks lineup for Ferraro, at least in the short term. The 22-year-old undrafted defenseman was recently called up and has two assists in his first five NHL games.
And while Ferraro hasn’t been his best to start the year, his minutes have kept up, playing nearly 23 minutes per game. How the Sharks replace those minutes with a depleted defense core is a fair question to ask. It’s not a realistic expectation to increase the workload of Erik Karlsson, who’s already averaging over 25 minutes per game. They’ll need veteran players like Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Matt Benning to step up unless Cicek is able to surprise.
San Jose Sharks Re-Sign Mario Ferraro
4:35 pm: CapFriendly reports that Ferraro is paid $3.25MM evenly across his contract, except 2022-23 carries a $2.25MM base salary and $1MM signing bonus.
11:35 am: San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier announced today that the team has re-signed defenseman Mario Ferraro to a four-year contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the contract carries a $3.25MM cap hit, which will take him directly to unrestricted free agency in 2027.
Grier gave the following statement with regard to Ferraro’s signing:
Mario has shown that he is a dynamic and reliable defenseman for our club, skating top-level minutes against the best competition every night and delivering solid results. His energy and work ethic are the reason why he has achieved so much in his early part of his career, and we look forward to watching him continue to grow and elevate his role on the team.
Ferraro had a rough season in 2021-22 by most metrics, but the 23-year-old defenseman was deployed against the other team’s top competition on a nightly basis. Ferraro’s offensive output dipped to 14 points in 63 games compared to 17 points in 56 games in 2020-21, and he posted a career-low Corsi for percentage at even strength of 44.8%.
There’s no question that Ferraro still carries legitimate, long-term top-four potential in the Sharks organization, and a four-year term is evidence that the team believes the same. Under a new head coach in David Quinn, look for Ferraro’s two-way game to get back on track to where it was in 2020-21.
For a defenseman who was only drafted five years ago, though, he’s already got a lot of ground covered in terms of NHL games. He ranks third in games played among defensemen from the 2017 draft class, with his 180 games slotting in behind Henri Jokiharju‘s 213 and Miro Heiskanen‘s 275.
San Jose Sharks Activate Mario Ferraro Off Injured Reserve
The San Jose Sharks activated 23-year-old top-pairing defenseman Mario Ferraro off injured reserve today, as the team announced on Twitter.
Prior to the injury, Ferraro was in the midst of a solid follow-up to his pseudo-breakout campaign in 2020-21. San Jose’s 49th-overall selection in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Ferraro had two goals, nine assists, 11 points, a -7 rating, and an average time on ice of 23:19.
Ferraro sustained a leg injury on February 26th that was expected to keep him out of the lineup for six weeks, meaning his return to the lineup comes ahead of schedule. Ferraro played just 13 shifts in that night’s game against Boston before suffering the injury, landing on the injured reserve list two days later.
The Sharks went 6-7-2 with Ferraro out of the lineup, but their goals against per games played average was 3.27 during that timeframe, up from the team’s season-long mark thus far of 3.15. Ferraro has continuously been thrown to the wolves the past two years, commonly playing alongside Brent Burns, but the young defenseman has held his own despite seeing some of the toughest minutes in the league.
Ferraro could return tonight when the Sharks host the Dallas Stars.
Sharks’ Mario Ferraro Out Six To Eight Weeks
The San Jose Sharks have been dealt a major blow to their already dwindling playoff hopes. Promising young defenseman Mario Ferraro underwent surgery on Sunday to repair a fractured left fibula, the team announced. The timeline for recovery is six-to-eight weeks; with less than nine weeks remaining in the season and the Sharks outside the postseason picture, Ferraro will have limited if any impact over the remainder of the year.
The injury occurred on Saturday night as the Sharks faced off with the Boston Bruins. During a battle for the puck in his own end, Ferraro was the recipient of a somewhat questionable check from opposing forward Taylor Hall. Hall shoved Ferraro from behind and he slid into the end wall, with the impact causing immediate and apparent pain. Ferraro was helped off the ice – clearly injured – but a broken leg is one of the worst case scenarios for the team.
Ferraro, 23, has impressed since day one of his young NHL career, but was on pace for his best season to date. The UMass standout has been seeing increased ice time and was on pace for a career high in goals, points, hits, and takeaways, having already set a career mark in blocked shots. A budding top-pair defenseman, if not already there, Ferraro has been a critical part of San Jose’s success this season.
Even with Ferraro’s contributions thus far, the Sharks are just a .500 team. While they have remained at or above that mark all season, doing so moving forward will be a difficult task. Ferraro will join Erik Karlsson, Nikolai Knyzhov, and Jaycob Megna on the injured reserve while Nicolas Meloche also remains sidelined, leaving San Jose with a severely depleted blue line. Nine points behind the Dallas Stars for the final playoff spot in the West and with four other teams between them in the wild card race, the Sharks’ postseason hopes now look like a long shot, especially if Ferraro misses the maximum eight weeks.