Luca Cagnoni’s highly successful first pro season — he was one of the top-scoring defensemen in the American Hockey League — earned him a promotion to the San Jose Sharks. Five games with them showed just how much of a leap it can be to establish oneself in the NHL.
“There’s a lot you can learn,” Cagnoni said, speaking after a one-sided 8-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in March. “Losing sucks but when you lose, you obviously learn a lot. It’s just all about playing hard. Making hard plays. These guys are like obviously really, really skilled. Every one of them. They all got really good sticks. They’re all really smart players. Just got to learn how to play kind of around them.”
Cagnoni, a fourth-round pick of the Sharks in 2023, was returned to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda after that game; Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said he thought Cagnoni was getting overwhelmed. “I think once the game slows down for him and he has a good summer of conditioning and getting stronger and quicker, he’s going to be a good player. Because he sees the game well. He can make plays. He’s offensive. He can run a power play, which we’ve seen,” Warsofsky said.
“The next step is now he knows what to expect going into next training camp.”
The plan for Cagnoni is to be part of the Barracuda’s Calder Cup playoff experience. Lund has played his first six NHL games after leaving Northeastern and has two goals. The Sharks giving players such as Cagnoni and Cam Lund an audition could be a window into their plans for next season. That’s where they’re at as they head toward another last-place league finish.
What could the Sharks’ roster look like next season? A lot can and will change before September, but it never hurts to take an early look.
Forwards
This is more of a guideline for the offseason and not a game-to-game assessment, as forward lines can always change. And while we shouldn’t forget about captain Logan Couture, we also can’t count on him being fit to play since he hasn’t appeared in a game in more than 14 months.
Celebrini won’t turn 19 until the middle of June, but the No. 1 pick of the 2024 draft has proven to be the Sharks’ centerpiece. Smith, who turned 20 last month, has had an up-and-down rookie season but his second-half performance was proof that he can flourish as a playmaker and scorer once he adds more strength. There’s no question that Eklund is the team’s top left wing. The 22-year-old could finish as San Jose’s leading scorer. He’ll still be working on his rookie deal after two productive full seasons.
The forward mix drops off significantly after that, and those are areas general manager Mike Grier can target in the offseason. Toffoli has done his part with a team-leading 28 goals. The 32-year-old has hit that total in each of the last three seasons and five times in his career, proving some guys are born to put the puck in the net. Graf, 22, is showing to be a middle-six winger with the skill to be a secondary scoring option and earn additional minutes by killing penalties.
Trading away Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund leaves the Sharks some gaping holes to fill. Wennberg, who has another year on his contract, might be filling in as a second-line center now, but the veteran is better suited to the third line. No other forward has the kind of offensive upside to fill the second-line center role, and that’s where some of the $44.5 million in cap space will come into play. Do you overpay for Sam Bennett? Bring back Granlund? Take another shot with a much-improved Ryan Donato?
The options for wingers are somewhat more plentiful. Mitch Marner would be a monster catch, of course, but even making him the NHL’s highest-paid forward (until Connor McDavid signs his next deal) might not be enough to get him to join a rebuilding effort. Nikolaj Ehlers is a more realistic target as he wouldn’t throw their pay scale out of whack when it comes time to lock up Celebrini. Brock Boeser could welcome a fresh start after an up-and-down run in Vancouver.
Lower-level wingers are often available each summer and the Sharks could fill a gap or two with shorter-term bets who could provide some depth scoring. A bigger play would be targeting a younger forward through trade or plucking one that’s an impending RFA off a team that might be vulnerable to an offer sheet. Toronto’s Matthew Knies and Buffalo’s JJ Peterka have often been mentioned as offer sheet candidates. Minnesota’s Marco Rossi and Anaheim’s Mason McTavish are two RFA centers due for big raises, though those teams could easily match.
The Sharks have plenty of draft capital, with extra first-round and second-round picks in 2025 and 2026. There’s one catch: they don’t have a 2026 third-round pick, which they would need as part of the return if they offer-sheeted a player at an average salary between $4.58 million and $11.45 million. The Sharks do have their 2026 second-round pick, which would be the return for a player making between $2.29 million and $4.58 million. Grier doesn’t have that third-round pick now, but he could re-acquire one to better position himself for an offer sheet.
Perhaps Grier sees Buffalo’s Jack Quinn, a former No. 8 pick who hasn’t realized his full potential with the Sabres, as a player who could take a leap similar to what happened with Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway in St. Louis. Toronto’s Nick Robertson has requested a trade from the Maple Leafs before and so could be acquired; he continues to be scratched at times.
The Sharks still have bottom-six types like Dellandrea, Goodrow, Grundstrom and Ostapchuk (whom they acquired from Ottawa in the Zetterlund deal) under contract for 2025-26. They also acquired Patrick Giles from Florida for former goalie Vitek Vanecek. Kovalenko, Noah Gregor and Klim Kostin will be RFAs. And forwards such as Ethan Cardwell, Danil Gushchin and Thomas Bordeleau await in the AHL.
This doesn’t account for their best prospects looking to make a bid in the fall. Quentin Musty and Igor Chernyshov could be joining the Barracuda shortly as their Ontario Hockey League teams lost in the first round of the playoffs. Kasper Halttunen and Filip Bystedt will add to the competition level in camp. Another youngster making the team could push out a veteran.
Defensemen
The Sharks need a No. 1 defenseman in the worst way. Ferraro can soak up minutes, but his best work this season came when Jake Walman was ahead of him and he was properly slotted down the lineup. Sam Dickinson might be that one day; the 18-year-old is having a monster season in the OHL, with only Zayne Parekh topping him for points among defensemen. But to have Dickinson jump past the AHL straight to the top of an NHL defense corps is quite an ask for a young blueliner.
Trading Walman was a fine piece of asset management by Grier. The GM turned a few months of career-high point production from the veteran into a top 12-protected 2026 first-round pick after getting him from Detroit in a salary dump that also netted the Sharks defense prospect Leo Sahlin Wallenius. But that move created a giant hole Warsofsky is dealing with now.
Is it incumbent upon Grier to try signing someone like impending UFAs Aaron Ekblad or Neal Pionk? Or possibly target Noah Dobson, Bowen Byram or K’Andre Miller in a trade for a younger, more proven defender who still has upside? Or search for another castoff like Walman and maximize his value for a year to give Dickinson time to develop at a higher level?
If the Sharks get the No. 1 pick, there certainly could be the temptation to select Matthew Schaefer and see if he can jump straight to the NHL. A broken collarbone suffered while playing for Canada at the world juniors has not knocked Schaefer off the perch of potentially going No. 1; many scouts project him as a future No. 1 defenseman. It would be an embarrassment of riches for the Sharks to have Schaefer and Dickinson, with more blueline prospects behind them like Sahlin Wallenius, Jake Furlong, Eric Pohlkamp and Mattias Havelid.
There are the youngsters already leaving an impression on the Sharks. While it’s possible Mukhamadullin won’t return for the final games after getting injured Tuesday in Anaheim, the 23-year-old was regularly logging 20 minutes or more for the past month. What will aid Cagnoni this fall is that he’s one of the few with some NHL experience and proven puck-moving and power-play skills at the AHL level. As of now, the Sharks don’t have a lot of that on the roster.
In the meantime, the Sharks have several defenders under contract for next season. Ferraro is the most notable who can become a UFA and figures to be trade bait. Liljegren, Desharnais and Thrun are also potential returnees. Vlasic’s eight-year contract is also expiring, and the 38-year-old could be around for one final season in a part-time role. San Jose’s defense could look very similar to the one that ends this season or quite different — which wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering how it transformed and performed in 2024-25.
Goaltenders
Askarov returned to action with a 31-save effort for the Barracuda on Saturday against the AHL’s Colorado Eagles after not playing since Feb. 19 because of a lower-body injury. That ailment threw a wrench into his path toward becoming the Sharks’ No. 1 goalie, something that’s still very possible given the flashes of talent we saw in some impressive performances with the Sharks earlier in the season.
Some rough nights were mixed in as well, but with Mackenzie Blackwood now in Colorado and Alexandar Georgiev on an expiring deal and probably not a candidate to return, Askarov can build toward being with the Sharks full-time next season. Assuming they don’t re-sign Georgiev, the Sharks would be wise to pair the 22-year-old Askarov with another veteran who can provide stability, whether in a tandem or as a backup who’ll play 30-35 games.
There are netminders the Sharks can shoot for, and The Athletic’s Jesse Granger looked at the potential market. Finding one who flourishes behind a shaky defense might be best; San Jose won’t become airtight in its own zone overnight. The 25-year-old Romanov is gaining some experience with the Sharks now but he’ll be an RFA at season’s end, so they will have to decide whether to retain him.
(Photo of Luca Cagnoni: Stan Szeto / Imagn Images)