SAN JOSE – There will come a time when general manager Mike Grier and the San Jose Sharks trade a young player or a future asset to acquire an established veteran they hope can help them win a Stanley Cup in the short term.
But now is not that time.
Two of the Sharks’ Western Conference rivals, the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild, executed a blockbuster deal Friday, with the Wild acquiring Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes for forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren, defenseman Zeev Buium, and a 2026 first-round draft pick.
The deal works for both teams, especially considering Hughes, whose contract ends after the 2026-27 season, reportedly had little interest in signing an extension with the sometimes dysfunctional Canucks.
The Canucks get a 20-year-old defenseman in Buium, a 20-goal scoring centerman in Rossi, who is just 24 and signed through 2027-28, a 21-year-old winger in Öhgren, and another first-round pick next year.
Buium, Rossi, and Öhgren were all first-round selections.
Buium, who was taken 12th overall in 2024 — one spot behind Sharks pick Sam Dickinson –– has tremendous offensive upside, and Rossi is starting to establish himself as a top-six centerman. The two have combined for 27 points in 48 games this season, although it’s fair to say their best days lie ahead.
The Wild get an elite defenseman in Hughes, who had 267 points in just the last three-plus seasons, second only to Colorado Avalanche star and fellow Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar (285) in that time.
Hughes will also log huge minutes for the Wild and help level the playing field against the Avalanche and Dallas Stars, the first- and second-place teams, respectively, in the NHL.
There’s no guarantee Hughes signs an extension with the Wild, who entered Friday in third place in the Central Division, right behind the Avalanche.
But that was a risk Wild general manager and former Sharks forward Bill Guerin felt was worth taking, especially considering Minnesota hasn’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2015, and past the second round since 2003. They’re in a position to win right now.
The Sharks are not, and that’s why taking a big swing probably wasn’t a risk worth taking for Grier.
The Sharks had assets to dangle in front of the Canucks if they really wanted Hughes, who turned 26 in October. Chances are those conversations between Grier and Jim Rutherford, the Canucks’ president of hockey operations, would have involved center Michael Misa, 18, (remember, Vancouver wanted a center, not a winger), Shakir Mukhamadullin, 23, if not Dickinson, 19, and likely the conditional first-round pick the Sharks acquired from the Edmonton Oilers last season for defenseman Jake Walman.
Before anyone balks at the hypothetical price tag, a question: What would you ask for if you were Rutherford and you were trading arguably the second-best defenseman in the NHL, and had multiple suitors?
But Grier and the Sharks are trying to build their team for the long haul, and there’s no guarantee, even with Hughes, that they would be able to make a deep playoff run this year or next, especially considering they are barely in a postseason position right now.
By making such a deal, the Sharks would be left without a big part of their future, and the possibility that Hughes will be elsewhere for the 2027-28 season.
The Sharks had a win-now approach in the second half of the last decade, trading first-round draft picks in 2016 and 2019, respectively, to acquire goalie Martin Jones in 2015 and winger Evander Kane in 2018. They also included 2017 first-rounder Josh Norris and a 2020 conditional first-round draft pick that turned into Tim Stützle in the blockbuster trade to acquire Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators.
Those deals could then be justified, as the Sharks were in the back half of their window to win, with Joe Thornton nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career.
But not now, as Grier has been steadfast in saying he doesn’t want to rush the process, although owner Hasso Plattner expects the Sharks to take a substantial step forward this season and make the playoffs in 2026.
“We don’t want to push too hard, because the idea is to make this sustainable,” Sharks president Jonathan Becher told NHL.com at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in Colorado Springs this week. “Sadly, we never got the ultimate prize, but we want to be sustainably great again.”
To that end, Grier will likely have other decisions to make before the NHL trade deadline in March.
If the Sharks are still in the playoff hunt, Grier will have to determine whether it makes sense to sell off one or more of his several pending unrestricted free agents or keep them for a playoff push, which could be a valuable experience for the Sharks’ younger players.
That decision might just come down to how good the trade offers are.
For now, the Sharks are biding their time, knowing that a deal like Friday’s could be in their own future soon enough.