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Ryan Merkley Requests Trade From San Jose Sharks

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The San Jose Sharks have made former top prospect Ryan Merkley available, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, after the young defenseman recently requested a trade.

Merkley, 22, is in the final season of his entry-level contract, is still waiver-exempt, and will be a restricted free agent without arbitration rights this summer.

Selected 21st overall in 2018, the OHL star had a brilliant offensive profile but several question marks surrounding his defensive ability and commitment. There were some who believed that Merkley wasn’t willing to “play the right way” in his own end, a problem that has followed him to the professional level.

Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group points out that Merkley was benched for a part of the San Jose Barracuda game on December 27. The AHL club is where he has spent this entire season, scoring 14 points in 30 games so far.

That follows a 2021-22 campaign that saw Merkley make his NHL debut and play 39 games for the Sharks, averaging a little more than 15 minutes a night. He scored six points, and that’s where his career total sits as he now looks for a fresh start somewhere else.

Make no mistake, Merkley still has some elite playmaking ability from the offensive blueline. The right-shot forward can find passing seams that few others even consider. Unfortunately, many of those lanes are also risky at the professional level, and his play away from the puck still leaves a lot to be desired.

Any acquiring team would need a plan for how to best develop Merkley into an NHL asset, because currently, he is just a fringe player with serious holes in his game. Seravalli does not suggest a price tag for the disgruntled defenseman, but one would have to figure that his value is at an all-time low.

Radim Simek Leaves Game With Injury

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  • San Jose Sharks defenseman Radim Simek left tonight’s game with an undisclosed injury and will not return, reports Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. With his two points this season, Simek isn’t exactly challenging Erik Karlsson, however given that San Jose came into today 31st in the NHL in goals against, they’ll need the shutdown defenseman back in the lineup in order to work on their defensive issues.

Mason Shaw Suspended Two Games

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3:05 PM: The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that Shaw will serve a two-game suspension for kneeing Svechnikov. He will be eligible to return to the Wild’s lineup in St. Louis, when his team takes on the Blues on December 31st.

12:11 PM: After being ejected from last night’s game for kneeing San Jose Sharks forward Evgeny Svechnikov, Mason Shaw of the Minnesota Wild will have a hearing today with the Department of Player Safety.

The incident happened partway through the second period, and resulted in a five-minute major and game misconduct for the Minnesota forward. Shaw finished the game with fewer than eight minutes of ice time and will now likely have to sit at least one more game for his actions.

Shaw now has 49 penalty minutes this season, which is his first as a regular in the Minnesota lineup. The 24-year-old already flirted with the supplementary discipline line earlier this season when he hit Radim Simek up high, causing an injury. Since the league did not punish that hit with a fine or suspension, it should not be taken into account in this decision.

It is rather surprising that Shaw would be involved in an incident like the one last night, given his own history of knee injuries. Still, whether he meant to complete the hit legally or not, the on-ice referees conducted a video review and still gave him the major penalty. The league will likely see it the same way, meaning Shaw is expected to miss at least one game.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: San Jose Sharks

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As we approach the end of the year, PHR continues its look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the San Jose Sharks.

Who are the Sharks thankful for?

Erik Karlsson.

Wait, a team at the bottom of the standings is most thankful for an aging defenseman that makes $11.5MM a season? Well, there isn’t a lot of competition in San Jose these days. The Sharks probably aren’t very happy with the trade that brought him in or the extension that he signed when he arrived. The team would probably be in a much better place without ever getting Karlsson in the first place.

But his play this year has given them a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel. The 32-year-old defenseman has 42 points in 34 games (including an active eight-game point streak) and is playing more than 25 minutes a night for the Sharks. That has potentially opened up the possibility of a trade at some point, allowing them to get out from under the last few years of his contract.

It still will be a complicated move to pull off, but general manager Mike Grier has admitted he would listen to proposals and Karlsson is making sure people don’t forget that there was a time he was considered the best defenseman in the world. In a recent interview on Hockey Night in Canada, he promised that he still has “lots of years left” in his career.

What are the Sharks thankful for?

A rising salary cap ceiling.

Over the last couple of years, there hasn’t been anyone in a worse financial situation than the Sharks. The team was playing poorly, and yet they were locked into a number of long-term expensive contracts for aging players. It looked like they would just have to wait it out, struggling to put a competitive team on the ice for years.

But there is a chance that won’t be the case. Not only has Karlsson’s play created a chance (however small) of trading his deal, but the team has found other ways to shed salary as well. Evander Kane’s contract was terminated, Martin Jones was bought out, and they moved most of Brent Burns’ deal in an offseason trade.

They’re still not out of the woods. Tomas Hertl just re-signed, Timo Meier has a huge qualifying offer due, and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic still has three more seasons on his deal at $7MM. But there is at least a little breathing room, and a cap increase would only help matters.

What would the Sharks be even more thankful for?

A concrete front office direction.

The biggest problem is that for years now, the Sharks have avoided the idea of a rebuild entirely. They are stuck somewhere in the middle of buying and selling, all to the detriment of the on-ice product. Take two of the biggest moves the team has done in the past year, for instance.

In March, after deciding to hold onto him through the trade deadline, they signed Tomas Hertl to an eight-year, $65.1MM contract that keeps him in town until 2030 – essentially the rest of his career. But then a few months later they trade Burns, and retain 34% of his contract, in exchange for future assets.

Those two moves seem completely at odds with each other. One is made by a team that believes it can compete, and another is by a rebuilding club that wants to move on from older players and start collecting draft picks.

They now have another chance to point out a direction for their franchise with Meier. The 26-year-old is in the final season of a four-year bridge deal he signed in 2019 and is due a $10MM qualifying offer in the summer. Any long-term extension would be expensive because of that leverage, but he would still be a very attractive asset for contenders at the deadline looking to upgrade their top six. Does San Jose trade him, move on and start the rebuild? Or still believe they can compete with this core, and bring Meier back as they did with Hertl last year?

Whatever it is, Sharks fans are dying for some consistent direction. A plan.

What should be on the Sharks holiday wishlist?

A young defenseman.

If they are able to make some trades at the deadline, the Sharks should be targeting draft picks and young defensemen. They already have a number of interesting young forward prospects, led by William Eklund, Thomas Bordeleau, and Filip Bystedt. But it’s been a while since they had a real star defensive prospect to build around. Mario Ferraro is young enough that he can be part of the solution, but no other defenseman on the roster is under the age of 28.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Mario Ferraro Activated Off IR

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  • Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro confirmed to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link) that he’ll return to the lineup tonight against Calgary after missing close to four weeks with a foot injury. The 24-year-old is second on the team in ice time per game at a little under 23 minutes a night while he has chipped in with five points and 47 blocked shots in 23 games.  San Jose had an open roster spot to activate him off injured reserve so no corresponding roster move needed to be made.

Luke Kunin Undergoes ACL Surgery

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The San Jose Sharks will be without Luke Kunin for the rest of the 2022-23 season after he underwent successful ACL repair surgery today. The injury happened a week ago against the Arizona Coyotes. In a statement, the Sharks included an estimated recovery timeline of six to eight months.

San Jose has recalled C.J. Suess from the AHL ahead of tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames.

Kunin, 25, had been good for the Sharks this year, scoring five goals and 13 points while continuing the physical style that he embraced last season.

Signed to a new two-year, $5.5MM contract in the summer, Kunin will at least have some financial security to fall back on now that he heads into a long recovery period. He’ll make $3MM next season and be due an equal qualifying offer in the summer of 2024 as an RFA.

Interestingly, Kunin might actually have been a potential deadline target for clubs looking to add some depth to their lineup. Given his relatively low cap hit of $2.75MM and the fact that the Sharks are going to have to eventually accept a rebuild, he would have been an attractive option. That story will have to wait for next year’s deadline now – if it is told at all.

Tomas Hertl Suspended Two Games

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5:09 pm: Hertl has been handed a two-game suspension for high-sticking by the Department of Player Safety this afternoon. In explaining their rationale for the decision, DoPS gave the following statement in their explanatory video:

It is important to note that this is not a reckless or careless use of the stick. Rather, this is a directed, retaliatory stick swing that strikes an opponent at a dangerous height. 

10:51 am: The Department of Player Safety has some more work to do, as San Jose Sharks forward Tomas Hertl will have a hearing today. The potential supplementary discipline stems from a high-sticking incident in last night’s game against the Calgary Flames, when Hertl retaliated against Elias Lindholm. He was penalized on the play, and took responsibility after the game:

I got cross-checked three times to the shoulder. I tried to slash him on the stick, but the stick slid a little high. It’s a terrible penalty…it’s a mistake by me, I can’t do that. You never try to hit a guy high, but it happened. 

The Flames already got some revenge, as Lindholm would score on the ensuing powerplay and again 20 seconds after that, before Dillon Dube put the game out of reach a few minutes later. Hertl would eventually score a powerplay goal of his own partway through the third, but the penalty had put the game out of reach for the Sharks.

He now faces a potential suspension, and there have been several already this season that suggest one will be coming. Jeff Skinner, Matthew Tkachuk, Pierre Engvall, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Michael Rasmussen have all received punishment for high-sticking incidents, though they have varied in force and situation. Skinner’s three-game ban was the longest of the bunch, handed out earlier this month.

For those wondering if some other discipline would be coming down from the league, namely for a hit from Sam Lafferty on Filip Chytil, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports there will not.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Novak, Sharks

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Alex Ovechkin taking the top spot. The legendary Washington Capitals forward became just the third player in NHL history to score 800 goals, and the third to record 18 consecutive 20+ goal seasons. Gordie Howe, ahead of him on both of those lists, is the target now, as Ovechkin’s next goal will tie him with Mr. Hockey at 801.

Second and third place went to Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres and Mats Zuccarello of the Minnesota Wild, who both had eight points on the week. Thompson, 25, continues what has become one of the most impressive breakouts in recent memory, with 25 goals and 49 points this season. Through his first six seasons of professional hockey, Thompson scored 44 goals at all levels combined (including playoffs). Since the start of 2021-22, he now has 63. Zuccarello meanwhile just continues to impress in Minnesota. The undrafted, 5’8″, 35-year-old playmaker now has 36 points in 31 games and is well on his way to another outstanding campaign.

  • The Nashville Predators have recalled Tommy Novak from the AHL, and he’ll get quite the opportunity. Team reporter Emma Lingan tweets that Novak will center Filip Forsberg and Mikael Granlund while also getting a chance on the powerplay. The 25-year-old has 26 points in 25 games for the Milwaukee Admirals this season after getting his first chance in the NHL during 2021-22.
  • The San Jose Sharks, off today after a 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames last night, have sent Nick Cicek and C.J. Suess to the minor leagues. With Tomas Hertl likely facing a suspension, it wouldn’t be surprising to see additional moves tomorrow ahead of the rematch in this odd two-game, no-travel series with the Flames.

San Jose Sharks Activate Matt Nieto, Place Luke Kunin On IR

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Just ahead of their game tonight at home against the Calgary Flames, the San Jose Sharks announced they have activated forward Matt Nieto off of IR. To create space for Nieto, the team has also placed forward Luke Kunin on IR.

Nieto has been out nearly two week dealing with an undisclosed injury, last playing on December 4th. It’s unclear exactly how Nieto sustined the injury, the winger playing a not-out-of-the-ordinary 15:51 that game. A longtime member of the Sharks and Colorado Avalanche, Nieto is having himself another solid season with six goals and five assists through 28 games while chipping in on the penalty kill.

Kunin, 25, had been off to a solid start in his first season in San Jose, putting up 13 points in 31 games to date, but suffered a lower-body injury that forced him out of the game early back on December 13th. Kunin hasn’t played since and as of right now, a timetable is unclear. San Jose has three games at home this week, starting tonight, before the Christmas break.

San Jose Sharks Activate James Reimer, Reassign Eetu Mäkiniemi

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The San Jose Sharks have activated goaltender James Reimer from injured reserve and reassigned Eetu Mäkiniemi to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda; the team announced Monday evening.

Reimer landed on injured reserve back on November 28 after playing through a lower-body injury. The injury caused him to miss eight games, dating back to a pre-Thanksgiving contest against the Seattle Kraken on November 23.

A free agent acquisition a year and a half ago, Reimer’s numbers flattened out after a strong October. Still, his .903 save percentage and 3.00 goals-against average are much better than his counterpart Kaapo Kähkönen, and he’ll undoubtedly return to the starter’s role now that he’s healthy.

Mäkiniemi got into two games during his callup, the first of his NHL career. Acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes this past offseason in the Brent Burns trade, the 2017 fourth-round pick got the win in his only start against the Anaheim Ducks on December 9, making 23 saves on 24 shots. With a strong AHL track record so far (.920 save percentage across the last year and a half), expect Mäkiniemi to continue to get callups when injuries strike and even potentially unseat Kähkönen if his poor play continues.

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