October 16, 2025 | 1:58pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

SHARKS LOOKING TO ADD YOUNG BLUELINE TALENT

Mario Ferraro, defenceman

The San Jose Sharks have a lot of good, young talent up front and one area management wants to focus on improving appears to be the backend moving forward.

With five veteran defencemen on expiring contracts – Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren, John Klingberg, Vincent Desharnais and Nick Leddy – Sharks GM Mike Grier is expected to be active in the second half of the season and could potentially move each of them ahead of the trade deadline.

As Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund and Michael Misa take the spotlight up front, Grier seems to be interested in adding more talent on the blueline to join the likes of Shakir Mukhamadullin and Sam Dickinson.

During Wednesday’s “DFO Rundown Insider Edition” episode with TFP’s David Pagnotta and Irfaan Gaffar, Pagnotta reported the Sharks are on the lookout for pieces to add to their defensive corps moving forward.

“They’ve got (young goalie Yaroslav Askarov), they’ve got a ton of young talent up front, with Misa included, but this is gonna be a team that is going to continue to look to really solidify their backend,” Pagnotta said. “And they’ve got some kids in the system, obviously, but I think this is a scenario where they really wanna strengthen their blueline.

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“And this goes back to the summer, this goes back to probably even last season, where they’ve been looking to bring in young defencemen that are going to fit this team moving forward and kind of like what they’ve got obviously up front.”

Pagnotta noted that while Ferraro has not asked for a trade, “he’s open to” a change of scenery.

“This goes back to last season, too, from what I’ve been told,” he said. “He hasn’t asked for a trade or demanded anything like that, but with everything that’s going on there, I think he’s (not against a move).”