Sharks’ former top rookie joins Pittsburgh Penguins on tryout deal

SAN JOSE – Defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov, considered the San Jose Sharks’ top rookie four years ago, is joining the Pittsburgh Penguins on a professional tryout agreement.

In 81 career games with the Sharks, Knyzhov had 12 points and averaged 16:33 of ice time. That included a breakout year in the pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season, in which he had 10 points, played all 56 games, and was selected as the Sharks’ rookie of the year.

Knyzhov, though, would then miss close to two full seasons with a litany of injuries, most notably a torn right Achilles tendon in August 2022. The Sharks would still sign Knyzhov, listed at 6-foot-3 and 222 pounds, to a two-year, $2.5 million contract extension in March 2023, but he was placed on waivers by December 2023 and spent the majority of last season with the Barracuda in the AHL, where he scored 14 points in 40 games.

This past June, the Sharks placed him on unconditional waivers. Knyzhov and the team agreed to terminate the final year of the deal, making him a free agent.

Knyzhov, 26, has a handful of connections to the Penguins’ organization.

David Quinn, who coached the Sharks for two seasons before being fired in April, is now an assistant on head coach Mike Sullivan’s staff. Defenseman Erik Karlsson is beginning his second season in Pittsburgh after being traded by San Jose to the Penguins last August, and former Sharks general manager Doug Wilson is in his second year as Pittsburgh’s senior advisor of hockey operations.

Knyzhov will compete to be the Penguins’ sixth or seventh defenseman during next month’s training camp. Pittsburgh has six defensemen on one-way contracts, including Karlsson, Kris Letang, Ryan Graves, Marcus Pettersson, Matt Grzelcyk, and Sebastian Aho. Ryan Shea, who played 31 games for the Penguins last season, is on a two-way deal.