With training camps now around a month away, there should start to be an uptick in signings relatively soon as veterans look to find places to play for the upcoming season. Veteran blueliner Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a late entrant to the free agent market and indicated to Stephane Cadorette of Le Journal de Quebec that he fully intends to play in the NHL in 2025-26.
The 38-year-old was a core piece on San Jose’s back end for the better part of a decade and a half before his role started to diminish significantly in recent years. Last season, he spent time both on injured reserve and as a healthy scratch, limiting him to just a goal and two assists in 27 games with his average ice time dropping to 14:38, the lowest of his career.
In his prime, Vlasic was one of the top defensive blueliners in the NHL. In particular, he has been quite adept at blocking shots as he’s the all-time league leader in that regard, per QuantHockey although it should be noted that the statistic has only been tracked for around the last two decades.
Vlasic had one year left on his deal before free agency opened up with the Sharks apparently deciding very last minute to execute the buyout. The veteran voiced some frustration about how that came about, noting that in the exit interview back in April that they wanted him to continue to provide the veteran leadership they were seeking. Then, a few days before the end of June, they informed him that they’d be buying out the final year of his deal after 19 seasons.
From the outside, the move could have been reasonably foreseeable given his $7MM AAV and the very limited role he had been filling. Rather than string along a player who was once a franchise pillar with minimal ice time for yet another year, they opted to pay his $2MM signing bonus plus two-thirds of his $3.5MM salary over the next two seasons to move on.
GM Mike Grier wasted little time filling Vlasic’s spot on the roster. He brought in Dmitry Orlov in free agency while claiming fellow lefty Nick Leddy off waivers while John Klingberg adds some depth to their group of right-shot options as well. With what they had planned, there was clearly no room to keep Vlasic around.
As for Vlasic, given how limited his role was last season, it would be surprising to see him land a contract of any significance on the open market as it’s likely teams will envision him as a depth option similar to how he was deployed in San Jose rather than a full-time player. Several of those players will be signing tryout agreement in the weeks to come and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Vlasic need to go that route as well as he looks to extend his NHL career to a 20th season.