Sharks Will Buy Out Vlasic

The Marc-Edouard Vlasic era in San Jose is over.

The San Jose Sharks waived Vlasic today, for the purposes of a buyout. If no other team claims Vlasic, he will become a free agent tomorrow.

The 38-year-old defenseman had one season left on an eight-year, $56 million contract, signed in Jul. 2017.

Split over two years, because of the buyout, Vlasic’s AAV is now $4.67 million in 2025-26 and $1.17 million in 2026-27. The cap savings in 2025-26 is just $2.33 million.

Per Puckpedia, the Sharks have over $40 million of cap space, even before the buyout. On the surface, it doesn’t appear that they really need to clear cap space, they already have plenty of it for anything that they might have planned in free agency.

“This was a difficult decision to make today, with how much Marc has meant to the San Jose organization for 19 years,” GM Mike Grier said in a team press release. “I was fortunate enough to be here with Marc for his first season with the Sharks and knew he would become a great defenseman. Over the course of his career in the NHL, Vlasic was one of the premier shutdown defensemen, earning tough defensive assignments on the ice against the best players in the world and doing it with effectiveness.”

A 2005 second-round pick, Vlasic’s San Jose Sharks career ends as the team record-holder in most games played by a defenseman (1,323). That’s the second-most Sharks games played, behind only Patrick Marleau (1,607).

“With over 1,300 games in the NHL, he brought immense expertise and experience to the organization daily, and was selected to represent his country on multiple occasions at the highest level,” Grier said. “He will go down not only as one of the best defensemen in franchise history, but one of the best players.”

Vlasic also won gold medals with Team Canada at the 2014 Olympics and 2016 World Cup.

He was just named to the San Jose Sharks’ Quarter Century First Team this past season, along with Marleau, Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Evgeni Nabokov.

“We want to thank him for his dedication and commitment to the organization, and wish him all the best,” Grier said.