In the final episode of the 24-25 season of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman suggests the San Jose Sharks might need to trade a defenseman.
It is no secret that the Sharks now have too many defensemen on their roster. After adding Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy, someone will have to sit.
“They got a lot of D now, a lot of D,” Friedman said. “Whether it’s Thrun, Thompson, Liljegren, or Ferraro, something is going to have to give here.”
The NHL Insider isn’t wrong. Even after the Sharks bought out Marc-Edouard Vlasic, they have too many defensemen. San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier was pressed about what needs to happen if Sam Dickinson proves he’s ready for the NHL.
“If the young guys are ready, I don’t think we’ll block them. We just have to make sure they’re ready,” Grier said. “It’s going to be on them to show us that they belong here and they can play at this level. And if [Dickinson] does, we’ll figure out. We’ll make room for him.”
Sharks Director of Player Development Todd Marchant echoed the same thought as Grier.
The other aspect of moving a defenseman that Friedman references is that the Sharks want to add another forward. Grier told reporters that he’s in the market for a top-nine winger. Friedman suggests the Sharks could leverage one of the defensemen as part of a trade for a forward.
“If they want to add another forward, I could see them saying, ‘Look, we got a lot of defensemen here, and we got to find a spot for one of them,” Friedman said. “A couple guys here aren’t going to play. They just got too many bodies.”
As it stands, Orlov is the only defenseman the San Jose Sharks have signed for the 2026-2027 season. Five of the eight D-men on the roster will be UFAs after 25-26. Thrun and Shakir Mukhamadullin will be RFAs. Thompson is currently an RFA and hasn’t signed an extension.
Friedman also says he doesn’t think Mukhamadullin will be one of the defensemen traded, if they do end up moving one.
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