Free agency is now two weeks away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Sharks.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Nikolai Kovalenko – Kovalenko split a rocky rookie season between the Avalanche and the Sharks. San Jose acquired him in December in the Mackenzie Blackwood trade. The Colorado 2018 sixth-rounder had been an increasingly highly-touted prospect in recent years amid an emergence as a top-line winger in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, and he was even thrust into NHL minutes with the Avs in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, he only had eight points in 28 games with Colorado before the trade, making him expendable for a win-now team. The 25-year-old fared better with the Sharks, putting up a 3-9–12 scoring line in 29 contests, but only averaged 12:40 per game – not as much playing time as he hoped nor expected on a team with as thin of a forward group as San Jose was dealing with this year. That led to reports shortly after the season ended that he was eyeing a KHL return. He hasn’t signed there yet, though, indicating he remains open to returning to the Sharks. Considering his backup options overseas, Kovalenko will likely be San Jose’s most well-compensated RFA if he stays with them despite only 57 games of NHL experience, potentially a two-year deal around $2MM per season.
D Jack Thompson – A 2020 third-round pick by the Lightning, Thompson made his NHL debut with Tampa Bay one season ago before being sent to the Sharks as the principal piece of the deal that sent Anthony Duclair to the Bolts as a deadline rental. The puck-moving righty has bounced between the Sharks and the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda ever since, but has looked good in the NHL minutes he’s received. While he only averaged 15:47 of ice time per game in his 31 NHL appearances in 2024-25, he managed a 4-6–10 scoring line with a respectable minus-nine rating on a club with a -105 goal differential. His possession impacts in limited even-strength deployment, a -0.5 relative CF% and a 50.4 xGF%, were impressive. He got a handful of power-play reps, too. The 23-year-old also posted a 3-11–14 line in 27 minor-league games. He won’t necessarily command a seven-figure cap hit on a deal for 2025-26 since he’s not quite established as a full-timer, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him land it anyway if the Sharks have him penciled into their opening-night lineup.
F Noah Gregor – Gregor returned for his second stint in the Bay Area as a result of the deadline deal that sent Fabian Zetterlund to the Senators. A fourth-round pick of the club back in 2016, the speedy depth forward hasn’t found the 10-goal/20-point production he had his first time around in San Jose. He totaled a 4-3–7 scoring line in 52 games on the year and only had one assist in 12 games with the Sharks after the move. He’s a potential non-tender candidate as they look to create flexibility for names like Thomas Bordeleau and Daniil Gushchin to compete for NHL jobs in training camp while leaving the door open for potential free-agent signings and potentially making a spot for a forward they select No. 2 overall in this year’s draft.
F Klim Kostin – Put Kostin in the potential non-tender camp as well. The 2017 first-rounder looked like he was finally getting his feet under him in San Jose last year after they acquired him from the Red Wings at the trade deadline, finishing 2023-24 with 10 points in 19 games while climbing his way into top-nine minutes. The Russian grinder didn’t receive that kind of deployment from the get-go this year, though, and spent much of the year injured or in the press box. He was limited to seven points in 35 games as a result. Now 26, the Sharks will look to replace his role with either a more established NHL option or a younger winger with more upside.
Other RFAs: F Carl Berglund, F Thomas Bordeleau, F Nolan Burke, F Brandon Coe, F Daniil Gushchin, F Mitchell Russell, G Gabriel Carriere, G Georgi Romanov
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
G Alexandar Georgiev – The Sharks already have clarity in the net next season. Top prospect Yaroslav Askarov is expected to take the reins as their starter or at least a 1A option in a tandem with a free-agent or trade acquisition. It won’t be Georgiev in the No. 2/1B role, though. The Sharks told him at the end of the regular season that they wouldn’t be offering him a new contract. Included for salary-matching/roster management purposes in the Blackwood deal, Georgiev logged a highly underwhelming .875 SV% and 3.88 GAA in 31 appearances with San Jose after the trade – “good” for -17.9 goals saved above expected on the season, including his time in Colorado, per MoneyPuck. A thin goalie market and his top-10 finish in Vezina Trophy voting two years ago could mean he gets an NHL opportunity elsewhere, but the 29-year-old Bulgarian native won’t be back in San Jose.
D Jan Rutta – The 34-year-old righty was brought in simply to serve as an NHL-experienced body on a paper-thin blue line when San Jose acquired him from the Penguins in 2023’s three-team Erik Karlsson trade. He’s historically been an above-average third-pairing option and has done well in sheltered top-four minutes as a grounding piece for a high-end partner. Neither of those situations met him in San Jose, where he had to serve as a top-four defender out of necessity. He averaged 18:38 per game over his two seasons with the Sharks and posted 28 points with a -24 rating in 123 games. The shutdown defender could still have a fit in San Jose, considering their lack of organizational depth on the right side, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him pursue a more conservative role on a more competitive team in free agency.
Other UFAs: F Walker Duehr, F Pavol Regenda (Group VI), F Scott Sabourin, F Colin White, D Jimmy Schuldt
Projected Cap Space
This number still doesn’t mean a whole lot to the Sharks, who will have a ton of players on entry-level deals and aren’t expected to be huge players in free agency as they proceed past the nexus of their rebuild. They’ll still look to add some supporting cast pieces to the roster, though, and will have plenty of room to do so in addition to re-upping any free agents they choose. Their $41.76MM in flexibility is the most in the league, per PuckPedia.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images (Kovalenko) and D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images (Georgiev).