Pacific Primer: The San Jose Sharks add high-end talent and veteran presence heading into 2024–25

It’s time to preview the Pacific Division with Pacific Primer. As usual, the Flames will be playing these teams four times in 2024–25—with the exception of the Oilers, who they’ll only play three times. In Pacific Primer, we are going to take a look at the moves made by each team this offseason. Then, we’ll take a look at how they stack up against the Flames.

This Pacific Primer will be focused on the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks had a fantastic offseason. Macklin Celebrini is a huge add for the future. Making the trade for Yaroslav Askarov gives them a great goaltending prospect for the future. Getting Jake Walman and a second-round pick for nothing was one of if not the biggest steals of the summer.

Things are starting to fall into place here for the Sharks. They’ve got a ton of young talent up front. By adding some veteran presence, they should be more competitive compared to 2023–24.

Offseason moves:

Trades

• Acquired C/RW Ty Dellandrea from the Dallas Stars in exchange for a 2025 fourth-round draft pick.
• Acquired LD/RD Jake Walman and a 2024 second-round draft pick from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations.
• Acquired LW Carl Grundstrom from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for RD Kyle Burroughs.
• Acquired RD Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round draft pick from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for RD Ty Emberson.
• Acquired G Yaroslav Askarov and a 2025 third-round draft pick from the Nashville Predators in exchange for C David Edstrom and a 2025 1st-round draft pick (VGK).

RFAs

• Signed LW Carl Grundstrom to a two-year, 1.8M AAV deal.
• Signed C/RW Ty Dellandrea to a two-year, 1.3M AAV deal.
• Re-signed LD Henry Thrun to a two-year, 1M AAV deal.

UFAs

• Signed RW/LW Tyler Toffoli to a four-year, 6M AAV deal.
• Signed C/LW Alex Wennberg to a two-year, 5M AAV deal.
• Re-signed RW Luke Kunin to a one-year, 2.75M AAV deal.

Waivers

• Claimed Barclay Goodrow (3-years, 3.64M AAV) off waivers from the New York Rangers.

Mock Lineup

Up front, the Sharks have a lot of young additions and some solid added veterans to help out. The health of Logan Couture is the biggest question mark. If their captain is healthy, that’s a big boost for them. The Sharks have a good mix up-front. Goal scoring may be a bit of an issue, though.

The Flames have a lot more proven players up front, so it’s easy to give them the win at forward. However, if Celebrini and Smith fit in well and Eklund and Zetterlund take another step, the Sharks could win out.

Defensively, the Flames beat out the Sharks by quite a bit. Walman is a nice add to their blueline. But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done here. Especially on the right side. The Sharks might have the worst blueline in the league.

Goaltending is pretty close between the two sides. Askarov, like Dustin Wolf, is a wild card who could steal the reigns and run with it. But I think Wolf has a better opportunity. Mackenzie Blackwood was pretty solid last year. Vitek Vanecek has been a solid goaltender for a number of seasons before last year. There is injury concern there, though. I’m going to give this to the Sharks, but it’s pretty close.