The San Jose Sharks won the Kiefer Sherwood Sweepstakes, landing the breakout physical, two-way forward in a trade from the Vancouver Canucks this past week. They beat out a slew of other teams that were trying to acquire him as well.
But Sherwood is a pending unrestricted free agent, and his demands on a new contract are extensive — insider Chris Johnston says the player feels he can finagle a $30 million deal (speculatively in the range of a $5M AAV). So is it a fait accompli that the Sharks can get that extension done? Johnston assessed the situation on TSN’s Insider Trading:
They gave up two second-round picks, and for a team where the Sharks are in their retool/rebuild, obvioulsy that’s not the kind of outlay they’re going to make if they expect him to walk away in free agency.
But what I can tell you is that the initial conversations didn’t bear much fruit. There’s still a pretty big gap between where the Sharks see Kiefer Sherwood’s next contract going and what he and his agent think is fair. So, there’s still a fair bit of work to be done there… But initially, there wasn’t much progress on the contract front.
Sherwood, 30, is having a career year (pretty good timing on his part), with 17 goals and 23 points in 44 games in this time with the Canucks, along with 210 hits, while averaging a career-high 17:42 of ice time per night. He set an all-time NHL record with 462 hits last year.Â
He’s been out for the last 10 days with an apparent hand injury (based on the fact he was shaking hands with his left hand upon arriving in San Jose). He said his injury might keep him out until after the Olympic Break in February.Â
The Sharks are actually visiting the Canucks in Vancouver on Jan. 27, but at just over a week away, it’s doubtful that Sherwood will be out there drilling his ex-teammates in that one.Â
Photo: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images