Surprise division rival has been linked to Vancouver Canucks' Kiefer Sherwood
If the Vancouver Canucks trade Kiefer Sherwood, could they deal him within the Pacific Division?
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin has made six of his 34 NHL trades with Pacific Division teams. Two of those were minor transactions, while three of them were to ‘buy’ players like Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, and Evander Kane.
One of those trades was a ‘selling’ type of move. That was when he dealt Vasily Podkolzin to the Edmonton Oilers.
Allvin hasn’t made any trades with California-based teams yet, including the San Jose Sharks.
Perhaps that could change, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman recently linked Kiefer Sherwood to San Jose as a potential landing spot.
āSan Jose is going to be a really interesting one,” Friedman said on Sportsnet 590’s The Fan Hockey Show.
“They just got some business done. They just got [Alex] Wennberg extended. And I think they were looking at Sherwood… I wonder if they’re trying to see if there’s something they can do to keep themselves in the race here.ā
Friedman also mentioned that he thinks the Sharks looked at Oilers’ forward Andrew Mangiapane, too.”
The Sharks have been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises this season. As of Friday, they hold down the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. They’re two points up on the first teams outside the playoff bar, the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks, with a game in hand.
However, they have largely been carried by an MVP-worthy season from Vancouver-born teenager Macklin Celebrini. The 19-year-old has 67 points in 43 games. No other Sharks player has more than 30 points.
Sherwood’s 17 goals this season would currently rank second among Sharks players. He’s also at a point in the season where his shooting percentage of 15.3 per cent isn’t unreasonable. At five-on-five, his 10.9 per cent shooting efficiency is actually below last season, where he shot 13.1 per cent.
San Jose certainly has the assets and cap space to take on Sherwood’s paltry $1.5 million cap hit. And, with a plethora of pending unrestricted free agents on their roster, they would have the ability to re-sign Sherwood if he fits with the team.
The Canucks now have less than two months until the NHL trade deadline on Friday, March 6. There’s also a roster freeze in place during the Olympics between Feb. 4 and Feb. 22.