{"id":469519,"date":"2026-09-20T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469519\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:20:10","slug":"san-jose-sharks-could-have-new-power-play-qb-in-luca-cagnoni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469519\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks could have new power play QB in Luca Cagnoni"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks coaches had one main message for Luca Cagnoni<\/a> during their exit meeting at the end of last season: How hard was he willing to work over the summer to give himself the best chance of becoming a full-time NHL player?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s really given in life. You\u2019ve got to go and earn it,\u201d Cagnoni said Saturday. \u201cMy mentality was just if I show up to camp ready, then there\u2019s always a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little doubt that Cagnoni, among the shortest Sharks defensemen in camp <\/a>at 5-foot-9, is giving himself that chance.<\/p>\n

Through the first three days of camp, Cagnoni, the Barracuda\u2019s top-scoring defenseman for the past two seasons, has impressed not only with his offensive skill but with the improvements he\u2019s made in the defensive zone.<\/p>\n

With spots available on the Sharks\u2019 blue line right now \u2014 and a shortened camp \u2014 it\u2019s getting easier to envision Cagnoni on the team\u2019s 23-man roster to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cCags has come a long way,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cHis skill and being able to make plays and run a power play is obviously unique, but he\u2019s come a long way defending and understanding what\u2019s coming at him throughout the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that\u2019s off the rush, whether that\u2019s in D-zone coverage, whether that\u2019s off a faceoff and a box out, or you\u2019re fronting, his details have come a long way in understanding what situation he\u2019s in to put him \u2014 as a smaller defenseman \u2014 in the right spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of late Saturday afternoon, it was unclear whether Cagnoni would be in the lineup for today\u2019s preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> at Honda Center. But the Sharks want to give him and other younger players a chance to stand out before more NHL veterans start getting into the lineup over the final three exhibition games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely going to show what I can do out there,\u201d Cagnoni said about the opportunities he\u2019ll get in the preseason. \u201cI\u2019m not really going to be holding back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks made massive offseason changes to their defense corps, allowing Mario Ferraro, Vincent Desharnais, Nick Leddy and John Klingberg to walk as free agents. Ferraro is now with the Winnipeg Jets, Desharnais signed with the Washington Capitals, Leddy remains unsigned, and Klingberg recently announced his retirement.<\/p>\n

In their place are Jacob Trouba,<\/a> Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring, with Dmitry Orlov and Sam Dickinson the two main holdovers on the blue line.<\/p>\n

All three new Sharks defensemen bring size and experience, but none is a true power-play quarterback. Orlov filled that role last season with mixed success, as the Sharks\u2019 power play ranked 16th in the NHL at 21.2%.<\/p>\n

The role seems to be tailor-made for Cagnoni, the Western Hockey League\u2019s top-scoring defenseman in 2023-24, who racked up 95 points in 131 AHL regular-season games over two seasons with the Barracuda.<\/p>\n

Cagnoni worked on the Sharks\u2019 top power play unit for three games at the end of last season, almost serving as an audition for this year. Now it\u2019s a matter of whether the smaller Cagnoni, who turns 22 in December, can make that skill set work in the NHL full-time. Cagnoni also played six games with the Sharks in 2024-25, and has two assists in nine NHL games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s getting more mature every year,\u201d winger Ethan Cardwell said of Cagnoni, his Barracuda teammate the last two seasons. \u201cYou can tell on the ice and off the ice, he\u2019s taken big strides. He\u2019s got himself into great shape this year. He looks fast out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we all know he can run a power play, and he\u2019s got the most skill in the world. For him, it\u2019s just that defending side, and I\u2019m not getting around him too easily out there, so he\u2019s doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending will be the biggest question mark about Cagnoni until he proves he can do it consistently against the world\u2019s top players.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Cagnoni\u2019s) not going to be a guy that\u2019s going to box out Tom Wilson in front of the net,\u201d Warsofsky said of the 6-4, 225-pound Capitals winger. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got to use some different tactics to help him have success around our net, defending, using his body, using his stick and getting in front of pucks and fronting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks stressed to Cagnoni that he needed to improve his conditioning to stay in the NHL. For example, if Cagnoni has to spend the first 30 seconds of a shift in the defensive zone against bigger players, does he have enough left in the tank to join the forwards if the Sharks can break out?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motor that you have to play with to defend big, fast, physical guys, you only get that maybe on one line in the American League,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cThe NHL, you\u2019re getting it with four lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that one thing I focused on conditioning this year was just being able to get that extra 20 seconds out of me and jump in the rush that final play,\u201d Cagnoni said. \u201cSo I put a lot of effort in the summer to get that length going a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks coaches had one main message for Luca Cagnoni during their exit meeting at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":["post-469519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-hockey","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-social-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469519","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=469519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}