Editor's note: Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
I’m not a big fan of the Sharks' Mikael Granlund trade.
San Jose sent Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars on Saturday for the Stars’ 2025 first-round draft pick and a conditional 2025 third-round pick.
The Sharks receive the Star's third-rounder if the Stars make the Stanley Cup Final, and the Winnipeg Jets’ fourth-rounder if they don’t.
Granlund, 32, is a pending unrestricted free agent. As the Sharks' leading scorer, Granlund was the their go-to guy in all situations and the only player besides Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights to lead his team’s forwards in Overall, Power Play, and Short-Handed Time on Ice Per Game.
Ceci, 30, also is a pending UFA. The stay-at-home defenseman has emerged as San Jose’s No. 2 blueliner, pairing with the more offensive Jake Walman.
Sharks general manager Mike Grier spoke Saturday after the trade, and here are my four takeaways.
San Jose Sharks
Fair Return?
I actually think the Sharks received a fair return for Granlund and Ceci, and so did Grier.
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“We valued and we set our price out; Dallas was ready to meet it,” Grier said. “That's really the main reason why we did it.”
The top rental centers last NHL trade deadline, Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan and Adam Henrique, each netted first-round picks as centerpieces in their trades, though Lindholm also garnered a solid prospect on top of it.
But for what Granlund meant to the Sharks, I wanted an overpayment.
Special Kind of Leader?
There’s an assumption that all leaders lead the same.
You trade alternate captain Granlund, you still have Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg and Barclay Goodrow signed past this season.
But that’s really underestimating the hands-on approach Granlund took with the Sharks' youngsters, and his impact on the likes of Macklin Celebrini, William Eklund and company.
“Granny has been a big part of us here, since he's gotten here. Not only his on-ice play, but what he's done off ice. He's really helped mentor some of our young players,” Grier said. “He practiced hard, played hard all the time and tried to share his knowledge of the game.”
None of the aforementioned leaders were exactly like Granlund, in terms of Granlund’s work ethic, working directly with the youngsters on skills and taking them aside to talk.
That’s not a knock on the other leaders -- different leaders lead differently.
Granlund, also, as the much-hyped ninth-overall pick of the 2010 NHL Draft, could relate to the expectations placed on the shoulders of 2024 first-overall pick Celebrini, 2023 fourth-overall pick Will Smith and 2021 seventh-overall pick Eklund.
This is where Granlund was most essential to the Sharks -- you can replace the points, but you can’t replace this human element.
Grier knows as much.
“I don't know if we can replace [Granlund’s leadership] for the rest of the season,” Grier said. “You got to hope that some of the lessons and the things in how he carried himself and how hard he played and practiced kind of rubbed off on these guys, and they can continue to move forward with it.”
Granlund Wanted To Stay
Credit to Grier, he’s the one that got Granlund back as a cap dump in the Erik Karlsson trade in the summer of 2023.
At that time, the Sharks still had top centers Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl to help lead the way, both on and off the ice.
Couture, however, has played just six games over the last two years because of a deep groin issue, and there’s no sense that at 35 he’s ever going to play again.
Hertl signed an eight-year contract extension in March 2022, but I believe it came under the impression the Sharks would try harder to be competitive sooner, which pretty much went out the door when Grier became GM that summer. So, Hertl was looking out the door pretty much since the extension, because the Sharks basically went into a rebuild with the regime change.
In Granlund, the Sharks lucked into a credible leader at center, both on and off the ice, in Couture and Hertl’s steads.
I understand that Granlund is 32 and a pending UFA.
I also understand where the Sharks are in their rebuild. You have to be careful about contract length, especially for 30-somethings.
But I’ve also heard, too, that Granlund wasn’t insisting on a new contract that would have tied up Grier’s cap flexibility in the years to come. So, I think you could’ve signed Granlund to a shorter-term, higher-AAV deal, perfect to continue his mentorship of the kids, while still setting himself up for one more big contract down the line.
Granlund wanted to stay in San Jose, unlike Hertl or Karlsson or Brent Burns.
“I talked to them. I had an idea what they were looking for,” Grier said about what UFAs Granlund and Ceci wanted in new contracts. “I don't know if it was a huge factor in this; it played maybe a little bit of a role.”
This is unlike recently traded Mackenzie Blackwood’s five-year extension with the Colorado Avalanche, which would’ve butted up against the expiration of star prospect Yaroslav Askarov’s bridge deal in 2026-27.
It’s also worth noting there’s only one net to share, whereas top centermen and defensemen are the most difficult players to find in the NHL.
Of course, Granlund could re-sign with the Sharks this summer, but that doesn’t usually happen, so I wouldn’t count on it.
Stars GM Jim Nill already has come out and said there could be interest in retaining the potential UFA. Maybe once Granlund gets a taste of winning again, he won’t want to stop.
First-Round Pick?
So what projects to be a late first-round pick from Cup-contending Dallas is not an overpayment for Granlund.
Two NHL amateur scouts also opined that it’s going to be a weak to average 2025 draft.
“It's your average draft, late first is no sure thing,” one scout said.
“This draft doesn’t have a lot of depth. Could see teams trading up or out to next season,” another noted.
This, of course, assumes the Sharks actually use the pick.
Maybe they turn it into something that can help Celebrini and company sooner than later, and at a better age and price point than Granlund.
There’s no doubt, turning a pending UFA like Granlund into a premium asset, even in a not-so-great draft, is nothing to scoff at.
But neither was Granlund’s value to the Sharks.