{"id":200982,"date":"2026-03-02T19:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200982\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:59:07","slug":"san-jose-sharks-winger-kiefer-sherwood-still-unsigned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200982\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks winger Kiefer Sherwood still unsigned"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Kiefer Sherwood has been with the San Jose Sharks for over a month,<\/a> and there\u2019s little question he likes where the team is headed.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things that are trending in the right direction, a lot of young players here that have bright futures,\u201d Sherwood told Bay Area News Group<\/a> late last month. \u201cI love the energy and the joy and the fun that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, with just a few days left before Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline, it\u2019s just a matter of how much longer Sherwood and some other pending unrestricted free agents<\/a> will be in San Jose.<\/p>\n

Sherwood was acquired by the Sharks<\/a> on Jan. 19 from the Vancouver Canucks for two second-round draft picks, including one this year. Since then, he\u2019s gotten to know the city and the organization, and appears open to staying with the team long-term.<\/p>\n

But Sherwood\u2019s camp and the Sharks still have not come to terms on a contract extension<\/a>, leaving open the possibility that general manager Mike Grier will seek to flip the Ohio-born winger before the deadline rather than risk losing him for nothing this offseason.<\/p>\n

Sherwood, before being acquired by the Sharks, was reportedly seeking a longer-term contract worth more than $5 million<\/a> per season. A hard-nosed, elite forechecker not shy about getting under the skin of his opponents, with a scoring touch to boot, Sherwood checks a lot of boxes for the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kind of fits the identity of what we want to be as a team,\u201d Grier said in January<\/a> of Sherwood. \u201cHe\u2019s what this team needs, as far as someone who plays with some sandpaper, some grit, some speed, some physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if Grier and the Sharks were amenable to Sherwood\u2019s contract wishes, one would think that by this point \u2014 with a bit of give-and-take \u2013 that a deal would be done or at least near the finish line.<\/p>\n

Instead, a report last week<\/a> by Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic noted that the Sharks \u201care open to the possibility of flipping Sherwood,\u201d if they are unable to get him signed before Friday\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this should not come as major news.<\/p>\n

Asked in January about the possibility of flipping Sherwood in the event of a contract impasse, Grier didn\u2019t totally dismiss the idea, saying, \u201cIf someone calls, maybe I\u2019ll listen and see what they have to say or if they want to make an offer. But his acquisition was a targeted acquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, as long as Sherwood remains unsigned, when does Grier start taking those calls on Sherwood and listening, if he hasn\u2019t already?<\/p>\n

The way this season has unfolded, with the Sharks being just three points<\/a> out of a playoff spot in early March, has been a bit of a surprise to the team\u2019s upper management. Improvement over back-to-back last-place finishes was expected in 2025-26, but the belief was that a playoff spot was more realistic for 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Basically, San Jose is ahead of schedule by a year.<\/p>\n

With that said, does it make sense for the Sharks to hang onto Sherwood for the final six weeks of the season if no extension is in place? The Sharks are still building and not in a \u2018go for it\u2019 type window.<\/p>\n

It might be a challenge for Grier to recoup the value of the two second-round picks he spent to get Sherwood, but trading him might be the more practical option rather than keeping him for one playoff push.<\/p>\n

Grier also has to consider whether spending the cap space allocated to Sherwood, who will turn 31 at the end of March, can be better used elsewhere, particularly on the back end with only two defensemen signed past this season.<\/a> If the Sharks part ways with Sherwood, they could then pivot to finding a forward with similar attributes.<\/p>\n

For his part, Sherwood isn\u2019t delving too deeply into his contract status.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just focused on playing here,\u201d Sherwood said, adding that his agent, Judd Moldaver, \u201cwill give me an update when he gets an update, and I trust him. I\u2019m just focused on playing the game. More than anything, I\u2019m just excited to get in with the group and continue building towards our identity and pushing here in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus here is just taking care of our home ice here and giving us a sniff to get in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherwood has only been able to play four games<\/a> with the Sharks after he missed over three weeks with an upper-body injury. In those games, Sherwood has played on the Sharks\u2019 top line \u2013 with varying degrees of success \u2013 but he does not have a point, as he\u2019s taken four minor penalties, to go with 23 hits and 14 shots on goal.<\/p>\n

In the second period of the Sharks\u2019 2-1 overtime win<\/a> over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, coach Ryan Warsofsky moved Sherwood off the line with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith to one with Alex Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev. The Graf-Celebrini-Smith line connected for the tying goal early in the third period.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear where Sherwood will line up for Tuesday\u2019s game against the Montreal Canadiens, but the coaching staff remains enthusiastic about what the forward brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s playing pretty good hockey for us,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cHe\u2019s given us what we\u2019ve asked him to do: get into people and be around the net. I think he probably wants to score a little bit, he has a knack to score, and then they\u2019ll start going in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime there\u2019s an adjustment, when you get traded in the middle of the season to a new team, you want to perform. He\u2019s just trying to adjust, and we\u2019ll help him along the way. He\u2019s playing really well. We really like the player a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feeling is mutual. But will business get in the way of a long-term relationship?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Kiefer Sherwood has been with the San Jose Sharks for over a month, and there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,198,403,200,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-200982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-santa-clara-county","19":"tag-sharks-alert","20":"tag-south-bay","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}