Should San Jose Sharks leverage cap space to help bail out Ottawa Senators?

SAN JOSE – General manager Mike Grier is hoping the San Jose Sharks can leverage some of their ample salary cap space this season, particularly when the NHL trade deadline approaches.

Perhaps, though, there’s an opportunity for the Sharks to do something with that space right now.

The Ottawa Senators are trying to sign restricted free agent center Shane Pinto to an extension but do not have the needed cap space at the moment to get a deal done. There have been reports that Pinto’s next contract might come in with an average annual value of just over $2 million, and the Senators, per CapFriendly, have less than $1 million at their disposal.

To free up space, it’s been speculated that Ottawa might need to trade someone like forward Mathieu Joseph, who is in the second year of a four-year, $11.8 million deal. To consummate a trade, the Senators might need to throw in a good prospect or a high draft pick as a sweetener to make it work.

Does it make sense for the Sharks to make such a move, if it came with said sweetener?

Right now, with Joseph signed for three more years, bringing him in would likely block the pathway to the NHL for at least one young forward this season, something that Grier has said he necessarily doesn’t want to do. At the same time, the rebuilding Sharks could use all the draft picks and young assets they can get.

The Sharks also have only six forwards not on entry-level contracts signed past this season, and Joseph, 26, is a third-line forward who is regarded as a good penalty-killer.

Joseph has 100 points in 288 NHL games, including 70 in 221 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2018 to 2022 before he and a 2024 fourth-round draft pick were traded to Ottawa for Nick Paul.

The Sharks right now have about $4 million in cap space, per CapFriendly, and that number is projected to grow to over $18 million by March’s trade deadline.

Whether he leverages his cap space now or closer to the deadline, Grier knows he has an asset to play with.

“We definitely have some flexibility,” Grier said last week. “Part of the deal was … to have the ability to maybe take advantage of a situation if it arises, where teams have cap trouble and they need to maybe move a player to free up some cap space. Now we can be one of those teams that that club will reach out to and see if we can help them out, and by doing that, maybe we can get a prospect or a young player or pick back in return.”

The Sharks have previously been third parties in trades involving a cap-strapped team looking to add a pricey player for the homestretch and any playoff run. At the end of the pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season, the Sharks had cap space and turned that into a pair of draft picks.

The Sharks were a third party in a trade between Columbus and Toronto that saw Nick Foligno go from the Blue Jackets to the Maple Leafs. The Sharks retained some of Foligno’s salary and for their efforts, received a 2021 fourth-round draft that was used on forward Ethan Cardwell, named the Sharks prospect of the year last season by the organization.

The Sharks also retained some of Mattias Janmark’s salary when the forward was shipped from Chicago to Las Vegas, and after a subsequent trade, used that pick on defenseman Eric Pohlkamp in June.

“It’s nice to just to have that that option available to us,” Grier said.

NOTABLE: Sharks coach David Quinn said forward Fabian Zetterlund is day to day with a lower-body injury he incurred in Tuesday’s preseason game with the Anaheim Ducks. Zetterlund did not play the majority of the third period. … Quinn said center Mikael Granlund felt much better Wednesday after he was a late scratch from Tuesday’s game.

GOALIE CAROUSEL: Rookie goalie Georgi Romanov is slated to start Wednesday’s game with Anaheim. From there, it appears Magnus Chrona will start Saturday’s home game with Los Angeles before Kaapo Kahkonen and Mackenzie Blackwood split the final two preseason games next month when the Sharks play in Vegas on Oct. 3 and in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5 against the Kings.