SAN JOSE — Depending on how active the San Jose Sharks are in NHL free agency and the trade market this summer, one or two spots on the 2026-27 roster could be available for defensemen who played mainly with the AHL’s Barracuda this past season.

The Barracuda’s forwards, though, might need to bide their time.

Unless a trade happens, the Sharks’ forward group looks pretty much set for next season with three centermen and eight wingers all under contract.

That group doesn’t include Collin Graf and Zack Ostapchuk, pending restricted free agents who will almost certainly be brought back, or popular winger Ryan Reaves, a pending unrestricted free agent who wants to return to San Jose.

That would be 14 forwards, meaning no room at the inn for Barracuda players like Filip Bystedt, Quentin Musty, Kasper Halttunen, and Cam Lund, four recent Sharks draft picks who all had solid AHL seasons.

Bystedt, a 2022 first-round pick, had his best season as a professional as he led the Barracuda with 60 points in 65 games. Musty, a 2023 first-rounder, was tied for third on the team with 21 goals despite missing 11 games.

Lund had an impressive year going, with 25 points in 37 games, before sustaining a season-ending upper body injury in February, and the improving Halttunen had 16 goals and 19 assists in 69 games in his first full pro season.

The Sharks organization sees Bystedt as a center long-term. So if the 22-year-old Swede wants to crack the Sharks roster in camp as he goes into the final year of his entry-level contract, he might have to beat out Michael Misa for a job.

Misa, 19, had a strong finish to the Sharks’ season but could be eligible to play with the Barracuda, assuming the NHL, CHL, and AHL can finalize an agreement to allow 19-year-olds who have been selected in the first round to play in the AHL. Misa was the second overall pick last year.

For Musty, Halttunen, and Lund, they might have to beat out Igor Chernyshov for an NHL job. But how likely is that, given how well Chernyshov played in the NHL this season with 19 points in 28 games?

Maybe the best the Barracuda forwards can do is be outstanding during rookie and training camps and show Sharks managers and coaches that they’re ready for the NHL and be the first player recalled when there’s an injury.

Or, force general manager Mike Grier to make room on the 23-man roster by trading another forward. If a player shows he’s ready, the Sharks will be more inclined to make room.

More likely, though, is that Bystedt, Musty, Halttunen, and Lund get more seasoning in the AHL. There’s also a chance that Grier uses at least one of those players in a trade to bolster their defense corps.

BLUEPRINT FOR CELEBRINI?

Macklin Celebrini said on April 18 that he’s open to finalizing a contract extension with the Sharks this summer, with July 1 being the first day he’s eligible to do so. Earlier this month, too, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said he expects the Sharks to be aggressive in trying to get a deal done with Celebrini.

If so, that would certainly follow the pattern Grier showed last season when he and William Eklund’s camp signed a three-year, $16.8 million contract extension on July 1, 2025.

Eklund was heading into the final year of his entry-level deal, like Celebrini is now, and after hammering out the details beforehand, the Sharks announced at 9:30 a.m. that the new contract with the Swedish winger had been finalized.

Grier said on April 18 that there is no rush to get something done with Celebrini, but waiting a year carries some risks. If the Sharks make the playoffs next season and Celebrini betters his 115-point total from this season, wouldn’t his next deal become that much more expensive?

Whenever an extension with Celebrini is signed – this summer or next year – we know it’s going to be a big number. Would it surprise anyone if Celebrini’s extension was also three years, one year short of when he would become an unrestricted free agent?

SUMMER OF SPENDING

Finalizing a contract extension with Celebrini isn’t the only item on Grier’s to-do list. Will Smith, the Sharks’ second-leading scorer, is also eligible for a new deal. Collin Graf, coming off a 21-goal season, is a pending restricted free agent and will not be cheap to re-sign.

AFP Analytics projects Graf’s next deal to be three years in length with roughly a $3.2 million average annual value against next season’s projected salary cap of $104 million. We’re guessing that Grier would like to get a deal done along those lines.

For two other Sharks pending RFAs, AFP Analytics also projects a two-year deal with a $1.9 million AAV for defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin, and a one-year, $874,000 deal for Ostapchuk.

THE PLAYOFF DROUGHT

It’s unclear whether the Sharks can make the playoffs for the first time since 2019 next season, as they intend. But if they do advance, the team they’re most likely to replace in the tournament is the Los Angeles Kings.

After the Kings were swept by the Colorado Avalanche last weekend, marking the fifth straight year they’ve been bounced in the first round, plenty of questions arose as to what would happen next. A rebuild, a reset, or make changes with the playoffs still in mind, given that they just traded for and extended Artemi Panarin?

The Kings are in purgatory: not bottoming out, but not dangerous enough to challenge for the Stanley Cup. Seems like they’re ripe to be overtaken.

MONEY TALKS

The Sharks would understandably have interest in Darren Raddysh of the Tampa Bay Lightning or Rasmus Andersson of the Vegas Golden Knights should either right-shot defenseman reach free agency on July 1.

But the state tax situation is real, and a team like the Sharks might be forced to offer a higher AAV to Raddysh or Andersson just to be competitive.

For instance, using PuckPedia’s state tax calculator, if Andersson signs a contract with an $8 million AAV in Nevada or Florida, his take-home pay would be just under $5.1 million. To reach $5.1 million in California, the Sharks would have to offer a deal with an AAV of around $10.3 million. And everyone who lives here knows all about the cost of living, too.