NHL sets trade deadline date. Will the Sharks have ‘for sale’ sign out?

SAN JOSE — The NHL announced Wednesday that the trade deadline for this season will be March 7 — a key date for all teams but especially for the San Jose Sharks.

The rebuilding Sharks once again figure to be big players around the trade deadline as they enter this season with nine pending unrestricted free agents, including forwards Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, and Nico Sturm, defensemen Jan Rutta and Cody Ceci and goalies Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek.

Forwards Givani Smith, Justin Bailey, and Scott Sabourin can also become UFA’s next summer.

None of the Sharks’ pending UFA’s have any trade protection, per PuckPedia.

The cap hit at the NHL level this season for each pending UFA ranges from $5 million for Granlund, to $800,000 for Smith and Bailey and $775,000 for Sabourin.

Whether Sharks general manager Mike Grier can — or will want to — trade all of them is unclear. The Sharks do not have any salary retention spots available for this season, potentially affecting any deal, and Grier has talked about the need to have veteran leadership around as more of the team’s young players break into the NHL.

Asked about Ceci, an 11-year NHL veteran acquired from the Edmonton Oilers, Grier said flipping him for an asset at the deadline “could be an option. But it also could be where we really enjoy the player and think he fits in well with our group, and he likes it here, and it turns into something where he can end up being a partner for some of our young (defensemen) coming along.

“Everything’s kind of on the table there as well. We’ll just have to see how the season plays out.”

The Sharks made six trades in the 48 hours before the 2023-24 deadline on March 8, including the blockbuster deal that sent Tomas Hertl and two third-round draft picks to the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2025 first-round draft pick and center David Edstrom. Last month, Grier traded Edstrom and that first-round pick to the Nashville Predators for top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov.

Three of those six deadline trades involved pending UFAs: Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, defenseman Radim Simek, and forward Anthony Duclair. In those deals, Grier got Vanecek, forward Klim Kostin, defenseman Jack Thompson, and draft capital back in those trades.

The Sharks will be home this season on the March 7 deadline. They will end a four-game road trip on March 6 in Colorado before beginning a season-long eight-game homestand on March 8 against the New York Islanders.

The NHL announced other key transaction dates on Tuesday: Teams must set their Opening Day rosters by Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. (PT), and the NHL’s holiday roster freeze lasts from Dec. 20-27.

The Sharks begin training camp on Sept. 19 and open the preseason three days later at home against the Golden Knights. Their season-opener is Oct. 10 at home against the St. Louis Blues.