Free-agent defenseman Jacob Trouba has signed a four-year contract with the San Jose Sharks, the team announced Wednesday.

Trouba’s new contract carries an average annual value of $8.25 million, according to the Sharks. The physical blueliner, who spent parts of the last two seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, finished a seven-year, $8 million AAV contract before hitting the open market.

“That’s kind of a decision for the family more than it is just for hockey and I think hockey-wise, this lined up perfectly for me and also a great place for my family,” Trouba said on a media conference call Wednesday afternoon. “But term-wise, you don’t want to be moving around a whole bunch. As much as you can try to control it or protect it. I think the term and security means a lot to me and my family. Grateful San Jose is where we ended up.”

Trouba, 32, had a rebound year in 2025-26 with the Ducks, who acquired him from the New York Rangers midway through the 2024-25 season following a contentious split. He had 10 goals and 35 points for Anaheim in his best season since 2021-22. The Ducks acquired him for Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round draft pick.

In 13 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, Rangers and Ducks, Trouba has 84 goals, 274 assists and 701 penalty minutes in 901 games.

Trouba’s advanced metrics show a player who had a concerning 46.15 goals for percentage in five-on-five play during the regular season but rebounded nicely in terms of possession numbers (52.06 Corsi for percentage) and high-danger chances (50.32) in Ducks coach Joel Quenneville’s up-tempo system.

According to Trouba, though, Anaheim didn’t make a hard push to re-sign him.

“I didn’t really have an option that, I guess, I would have taken,” Trouba said. “But coming back to San Jose is obviously the place that I’m very happy to end up in a similar situation with the young core. I did enjoy last year. I enjoyed being part of that group and kind of growing with those guys. Hopefully I can grow with these guys for a long time.”

How does Trouba fit in San Jose?

Anyone who has been paying a fraction of attention to how San Jose has constructed its roster could see that a defenseman was necessary, especially on the right side.

The Sharks traded for Michael Kesselring and signed him to a three-year, $4.5 million AAV deal as a hopeful bounce-back candidate, but they were still lacking in experienced righties. Trouba addresses that, albeit at a huge cost with a term he wouldn’t get if he stayed with Anaheim.

Trouba parlayed a rebound season with the Ducks into this contract. The question is whether he’ll be as effective with the Sharks without Jackson LaCombe as his partner. In a way, the Sharks made a calculated bet that Trouba will be a better fit for the blue line moving forward than it would have been to retain Mario Ferraro. Trouba brings another big shot from the point, and he can be an effective defender if he has a mobile partner. Could that be Sam Dickinson?

What does that mean for the Sharks’ younger contingent of right-shot defensemen? They’re well-stocked with prospects on that side after drafting Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin in the first round to go with Eric Pohlkamp, an NCAA Hobey Baker Award finalist at the University of Denver last season. But San Jose is not compelled to rush any of them. With the top four now set on defense, Pohlkamp could still be in line to compete for a third-pairing spot with Luca Cagnoni and Shakir Mukhamadullin if the Sharks let Vincent Desharnais walk.

The view from Anaheim

The Ducks wanted to re-sign Trouba, given how well he meshed with LaCombe as a partner and played a role in LaCombe’s breakout season as Anaheim’s No. 1 defenseman.

Trouba said contract-extension talks “didn’t get very far” at the trade deadline, but Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek kept Trouba for the Ducks’ playoff push with the intention of making another attempt at an extension following the season.

“No matter how this whole thing, I guess, plays out, that’s something I will always be appreciative of. Pat and the organization kind of took a chance on me when I was down, and I was certainly down,” Trouba said. “Finishing out that last year (with the Rangers and Ducks) was tough. Coming back this year, I had a lot to prove to myself, and I thought I did a good job of playing hockey again, and I’m pretty proud of that.”