What’s Sharks’ Cap Situation After Re-Signing Ferraro?

Re-signing Mario Ferraro answers one big San Jose Sharks’ cap question.

This is what their cap situation looks like after bringing back RFA Ferraro with a four-year, $13 million dollar contract.

You’ll notice 12 forwards, eight defensemen, and three goalies to form an unusual, but just cap-compliant 23-man roster. The cap is $82.5 million for the 2022-23 season. You can also exchange waiver-exempt blueliner Nikolai Knyzhov for a forward. Knyzhov has been away from hockey for a year because of a groin injury and a post-surgery infection, so starting the season in the AHL isn’t an outlandish way for him to regain his timing.

Teams, of course, can go 10 percent over the salary cap during the off-season.

The San Jose Sharks still have to re-sign RFAs Noah Gregor and Jonah Gadjovich, but don’t expect either young forward to command much over the veteran’s minimum of $750,000.

I obviously wouldn’t expect the Sharks to go into the season with eight defensemen and three goalies. So what happens if they manage to trade a Radim Simek and a James Reimer? That should open up a forward spot for a Gregor, Gadjovich, Thomas Bordeleau, Jasper Weatherby, Jeffrey Viel, Max Veronneau, or Scott Reedy in my projection:

That’s a more normal 13 forwards-seven defensemen-two goalies roster construction.

For cap purposes, by the way, you should consider Reimer and Adin Hill interchangeable. Reimer has one year left on his contract at $2.25 million, Hill has one year left at $2.175 million. For this exercise, I’ve sent Reimer away because his trade value is higher than Hill’s right now, but it could very well be Hill that goes.

So sans Simek and a goalie, and adding a 13th forward to the mix, the Sharks have about $3.5 million dollars of cap space to play with, if they so choose.

That said, the UFA market is pretty sparse now, and roster spots on the Sharks, for better or worse, are more or less accounted for. So this $3.5 million space could also go toward burying Simek’s contract in the AHL – the Sharks can save $1.125 million of cap space off Simek’s $2.25 million in that scenario – and of course, looming over everything, is the unresolved Evander Kane grievance.

It’s still impossible to say if the Sharks will get away scot-free from Kane’s terminated contract or if they’ll be saddled with some cap charge in the end.

But it looks like the San Jose Sharks have banked some cap space to handle most any situation from now to the beginning of training camp.