San Jose Sharks Catch Their Breath After a Roster Overhaul — Now Comes the Celebrini Question

The quietest week of the San Jose Sharks' offseason was quiet for the best possible reason: the heavy lifting is done. After a June and early July that brought a shock trade of William Eklund, two top-ten draft picks, and the biggest free-agent spending spree of the Mike Grier era, the stretch from July 19 to 26 was about digestion — and about the two contract files that will define the franchise's next decade, the ones marked Celebrini and Smith. If you stepped away from San Jose Sharks news for the summer, buckle up. The roster you remember doesn't exist anymore.

The Blue Line Got a Full Renovation

Start with the defense, because Grier clearly did. On July 1, the Sharks signed Jacob Trouba to a four-year, $33 million contract — an $8.25 million cap hit for a veteran right shot who instantly becomes the loudest voice in the room. Days earlier, they had acquired Darnell Nurse from Edmonton, taking on the four years remaining at $9.25 million per on his deal and sending Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp the other way. Add Michael Kesselring, signed for three years and $13.5 million ($4.5 million a season), and San Jose committed north of $20 million in annual cap space to three defensemen in about a week.

The exits were just as notable. Mario Ferraro, the longest-tenured Shark on the back end, signed a three-year, $12 million deal in Winnipeg. Vincent Desharnais got four years and $16.8 million from Washington. John Klingberg and Nick Leddy remain unsigned free agents. It amounts to a wholesale identity change: bigger, meaner, more expensive, and — Grier hopes — much harder to play against in front of a young forward group that spent last season learning hard lessons.

Grier didn't hide the intent, telling reporters the moves give the Sharks "a little bit of continuity back there now with Trouba and Darnell added," and calling the opening stretch of free agency "a good week for the organization." Owner Hasso Plattner, notably, backed every dollar of it.

Marchment In, Eklund Out: The Forward Shake-Up

Up front, the marquee addition was Mason Marchment on a five-year, $33.75 million contract — $6.75 million a year for a heavy, net-front winger who gives the Sharks something they haven't had around Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. Goaltender Eric Comrie also signed on to share the crease, while Laurent Brossoit moved on to Anaheim. It continues a build that started before the summer: Kiefer Sherwood, acquired from Vancouver in January for Cole Clayton and a pair of second-round picks, was extended in March on a five-year, $28.75 million deal, and the hit-leading winger immediately set the physical tone Grier wants. Depth re-signings for Nolan Allan and Ethan Cardwell round out an organization that suddenly has real competition for bottom-six jobs. Philipp Kurashev and Colin White, meanwhile, went unqualified or unsigned and remain free agents — reminders that the roster churn cut in both directions.

"We were looking to improve our team," Grier said of the flurry, and it's hard to argue with the volume. The question the beat kept circling this week is subtler: after adding this much veteran weight, can San Jose still give its kids the minutes that matter? The answer will define the season more than any single signing.

But the move nobody saw coming happened June 23, when Grier traded William Eklund — along with prospects Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda — to Ottawa for the ninth overall pick in the 2026 draft. San Jose Hockey Now ran it under a one-word headline: shocker. Eklund was supposed to be part of the core. Instead, Grier converted him into a third first-round pick, betting that what the Sharks needed was not another good young forward but another swing at a great one.

The Draft Haul: Stenberg and Verhoeff

That bet shaped a draft class Sharks fans will be tracking for years:

• Ivar Stenberg, No. 2 overall — the Swedish winger went second and has already signed his three-year entry-level contract. Celebrini has publicly talked up the prospect of playing alongside him.
• Keaton Verhoeff, No. 9 overall — the pick acquired in the Eklund trade became a right-shot defenseman from the University of North Dakota who turned 18 a week before the draft and put up 20 points in 33 games as one of the youngest players in college hockey.

Between Stenberg, Verhoeff and the rest of the class, San Jose added high-end talent to a pipeline that already produced Celebrini, Smith and Collin Graf. The talent-acquisition phase of this rebuild looks complete; the results phase starts in October.

The Celebrini Question — and the Carlsson Effect

Here is the file humming beneath every piece of San Jose Sharks news this summer. Celebrini and Smith both became extension-eligible on July 1, and both can be restricted free agents next summer. Grier said the sides agreed to wait out the free-agency wave before talking, adding, "I'm sure we'll start to have some conversations here shortly." That was three weeks ago. The clock is polite, but it is running.

And the market just moved violently. On July 9, Anaheim matched Philadelphia's five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Leo Carlsson — an $18 million average annual value, the richest in league history. Utah likewise matched a New Jersey offer sheet on Barrett Hayton earlier in the month. The lesson for San Jose is blunt: elite young centers now command staggering numbers, and rival teams have shown they will weaponize restricted free agency to get them. Every week Celebrini goes unsigned is a week some cap-rich team gets ideas. Meanwhile, Graf — coming off a 21-goal season — remains the club's lone unsigned restricted free agent. He isn't arbitration-eligible, but Grier has said the two sides "aren't too far apart."

Schedule Notes: October Comes Fast

The NHL released its first 84-game schedule since the early 1990s on July 16, and the Sharks drew a home start: Florida visits SAP Center on October 1, with the Kings following on October 3. Pacific Division rivals now appear four times each under the new format, there's a New Year's Day date with the Flyers, and a seven-game homestand stretches from January 18 into mid-February. The bill comes due in the form of two six-game road trips, one in mid-October and another in March, with the All-Star break landing in early February.

The stakes attached to all those dates are not abstract. San Jose missed the playoffs by four points last season — the closest call since the franchise's last postseason appearance in 2018-19 — and then spent the summer acting like a team that took the near-miss personally. The schedule narrative writes itself: this is supposed to be the year the drought ends, and the front office has removed most of the available excuses.

What's Next in San Jose

Watch for three things between now and camp: extension news on Celebrini and Smith, a resolution on Graf, and how a suddenly crowded blue line sorts itself once bodies hit the ice in September. The quiet weeks are the calm between two very different kinds of noise — the offseason spending spree behind them, and an October 1 home opener against the Panthers ahead. For the first time in the better part of a decade, San Jose Sharks hockey enters a season with genuine expectations attached. That was the whole point of the summer.