San Jose Sharks
Sharks Qualify 3, Don’t Qualify Kovalenko & 7 Others
The San Jose Sharks are giving just three restricted free agents qualifying offers.
They’ve passed on eight RFAs, making them unrestricted free agents.
Thomas Bordeleau, Danil Gushchin, and Jack Thompson were qualified.
Winger Gushchin and defenseman Thompson aren’t a surprise.
Right-handed Thompson provided puck-moving depth for the San Jose Sharks as a rookie last year, putting up four goals and 10 points in 31 games. Just 23, he’s got some upside.
Gushchin suited up for just 12 games last year, notching just one assist. The 23-year-old winger has clear offensive talent though and is hopefully scratching the surface of his potential.
Same goes for Bordeleau, though like Gushchin, he also is a candidate for a fresh start. The 23-year-old center-winger just got into one game for the Sharks this past season.
Both Gushchin and Bordeleau are examples of retaining rights on talented players, even if they don’t project to be San Jose Sharks regulars in 2025-26. They’re at least intriguing depth and could always surprise.
That’s why cutting Kovalenko loose comes as something of a shock.
Kovalenko was one of the key elements of the MacKenzie Blackwood trade in December, along with the Colorado Avalanche’s 2026 second-round pick.
“We really like the Kovalenko kid. We had talks about him with Colorado last year. He’s going to come in and play for us right away,” San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said after the trade. “Give us something a little bit different than what we have, he’s a competitive, north-south player. He’s someone we’re hoping we can grow with.”
In fairness to Grier, NHL scouts outside of the Sharks also liked Kovalenko the player.
“Useful middle-of-the-lineup guy, above-average skill and speed,” one scout said about Nikolai Kovalenko. “Can play with pace.”
The 25-year-old winger showed promise on the ice, scoring seven goals and 20 points in 57 games last season, but his and his father’s public grousing about head coach Ryan Warsofsky appeared to come out of nowhere.
But even if he wasn’t going to be a part of the Sharks, it’s still surprising to see San Jose completely wash their hands of him. While the trade market for the malcontent was likely soft, there were ways for him to increase his value next season.
Instead, the San Jose Sharks just walked away from an asset with more value than the other players that they didn’t give qualifying offers to.
But it looks like San Jose didn’t want Kovalenko around in any capacity.
The Sharks also didn’t issue QO’s to Carl Berglund, Nolan Burke, Brandon Coe, Noah Gregor, Klim Kostin, Georgi Romanov, and Mitchell Russell.
Not giving Romanov a QO is a mild surprise. But I guess in 2 years he didn’t make enough progress.
For Kovalenko, I think it’s a culture move. If you don’t appreciate being here, you don’t have to be here, and don’t sour the vibes.
In any employment situation, one negative shit talker can negatively impact the mindset of many good employees. Great move not to bring him back I think although I do think maybe we could have gotten something for him and losing him for nothing hurts. Maybe he is just going back to the KHL.
Scratched my head on that one, too. I get the pipeline is looking better, but having a goalie or two ‘extra’ between the AHL and NHL squads is almost a necessity. Thought he acquitted himself well enough.
I have to agree with Alex, this is a culture setting move. Boundaries around what is acceptable and what is not. If you publicly shit talk your boss and end up jobless it’s not a surprise and shouldn’t be to anyone.
For the record, I tried to +1 both of your comments, but got an error message from the website.
Was referring to Romanov as the headscratcher, not Kovalenko
He won’t end up jobless, that’s for sure. While I can’t comment on the actual situation, management obviously took a disliking to him and didn’t give him the playing time he deserved. It’s not like the Sharks have an overabundance of talent that they couldn’t play him. He’ll wind up somewhere in the NHL, for sure.
It was abundantly clear to me from his verbiage “having a goalie or two ‘extra’ between the AHL and NHL squads is almost a necessity” that Zeke was referring to Romanov and not Kovalenko situation. Nowhere did he even remotely refer to Kovalenko. Did you just want argue about nothing or you just can’t resist the equivalent of hearing yourself talk, seeing yourself make comments for the easy thumbs up that you always seem to go for from the lemmings on this site. You’re insufferable.
I didn’t read his post carefully enough, it wasn’t malicious.
You’d still think they could get SOMETHING for Kovalenko, so maybe he already decided on KHL like you suggest.
One thing I am wondering is that MG is never this quiet. What I mean is: few moves up and down the board during the draft. No trades, even ones where he nibbles around the edges. Very quiet. The only big news is Vlasic and Kovalenko. Clearing roster space….for…???? 🙂 very suspenseful.
I am on a plane, bored, so I apologize for so many comments, but another thought just occurred to me. There are no great FA defensemen options..or at least very few. MG mentioned he is open to taking on bad contracts closer towards the start of the season. I wonder which teams might get desperate and who might be cap dumps for picks. This next year is possibly the last one where we accumulate picks, so might as well go big 🙂 I am excited for that.
Always grateful for a boring flight. Never want too much excitement at 37,000 feet. GMMG has got to be glancing at that Carey Price deal and considering taking it on, even if the return is paltry. There might be a bidding war, going in the wrong direction, for that one. Also, wouldn’t hurt, since he’d be under contract, to maybe have him around with the young netminders in the org. Sharks had 9 picks this year, 7 on the books in 2026 (including 2 1sts and 2 2nds). Just 4 in 2027. Things will change between now and upcoming drafts,… Read more »
I think 10+ teams will have cap problems. Good topic for research after about July 4 🙂
Dragging Carey Price to San Jose just to hang around our young netminders when he will never play again isn’t how you show vets that this is a place to come for the twilight of their careers!
Marner, Ekblad, Provorov and Marchand all off the market the day before free agency opens…what a nightmare scenario for the talking heads that’ll be on air all day tomorrow.
Shit…
Get bored more often, the more reasonable people commenting the better.
Regarding Kovalenko, Glad GMMG took the swing. These sorts of swings are usually long shots, and you hope a few pan out. He had the talent, but that wasn’t enough. At this point, the only swing of that sort which comes to mind that looks like he has a future here is Giles. Really liked his game. Surprised Bords got the QO, Hopefully there’s positives still to come. Good that GMMG making offers for players he didn’t draft or trade for, and letting go off some that he did bring in. My guess is there’s some trade inquiries for both… Read more »
I agree that there must be some value for those two. But your comment about MG was spot on and why I wanted to reply. He acts very differently than a lot of GMs in that he seems very pragmatic, not as stubborn, and appears to have much more of a growth mindset with his approach to the job than most of his peers. It is so refreshing to see. It gives me confidence that even when he makes a mistake, or more likely, even when a move of his doesn’t pan out he isn’t going to just double down… Read more »
I am officially worried that the Sharks will do nothing in Free Agency or a meaningful trade. The idea that high calibre players don’t want to come here is scary. Not sure if Grier has the personality to ‘sell’ the rebuild to established players. You’ve got to be aggressive and personable to get players interested in us. I guess we’ll see……….