Jeff Skinners new contract reveals Sharks plans for the future.

The San Jose Sharks have been making some very interesting offseason acquisitions over the course of the last several days and there seems to be a clear pattern to the moves being made by Sharks general manager Mike Grier.

After acquiring former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves in a trade with the Maple Leafs earlier this week, Grier went out and added another veteran forward to his lineup when he made the decision to sign former Edmonton Oilers forward Jeff Skinner to a new contract on Friday.

They were moves that left some scratching their heads given that the Sharks are a relatively young team and you would be hard pressed to argue that either Reaves or Skinner are the kind of veterans that will get you to the next level of contention, but what I believe Grier has been doing is stockpiling what he views as future assets. Puck Pedia has recently released the full details of Skinner's new contract and, once you've seen them, I think you'll agree that the Sharks are gearing up for a scenario in which they hope to be sellers at the 2026 National Hockey League trade deadline.

Skinner signed a 1 year deal worth $3 million but despite only playing in 72 regular season games last season, games in which he had 16 goals and 13 assists for a total of 29 points, Skinner's new deal with the Sharks comes with a no movement clause. That would probably only cause more confusion except for the fact that his no movement clause only last for a few months. On January 30th of 2026 that clause in Skinner's new deal will expire and shift to a 6 team trade list, a clause that would allow Skinner to choose a select number of teams to which he could be dealt in a trade.

The clause makes it very obvious that this is the plan coming into the season for both Skinner and the Sharks, and a quick look at the moves made by Grier in recent days suggest to me that the Sharks are using their current cap space in the hopes of securing assets in the future.

The Sharks brought in Reaves, an NHL enforcer who only appeared in 35 games last season but who is beloved in locker rooms across the league and one with a relatively manageable cap hit at just $1.35 million per season. Although Reaves is on a 3 year contract, he will be playing out the final year of his contract and could become a rental at the trade deadline as a result.

The Sharks also signed veteran defensemen John Klingberg to a one year deal at a cost of $4 million, and also claimed defenseman Nick Leddy, who is entering the final year of a 4 year deal at a cap hit of $4 million per season, off of waivers after he was waived by the Blues.

While the Sharks are likely hoping to recoup assets for all of the players mentioned I think it is unlikely that there will be a tremendous amount of demand at the deadline, but the Sharks will be able to make at least one of these contracts more palatable for a potential contender. Although the Sharks are currently retaining salary on both Erik Karlsson ($1.5 million over the next two seasons) and Tomas Hertl (1.38 million over the next 5 seasons) they can still make one more salary retained transaction before reaching the limit that the NHL allows under its current rules.

Even in the worst case scenario where these gambles don't pay off for Grier and the Sharks the team is still left with over $20 million in available cap space. That makes this an extremely low risk type of gamble on the part of Grier and one that could pay off for the Sharks sometime next season.