Entering this season, and amid a long-awaited rebuild, the San Jose Sharks were largely expected to be sellers at this year’s trade deadline. Now with a 6-17-2 record through the first 25 games of the season, the Sharks are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for last place in the NHL and are even more committed to moving out established players to build a new team from the ground up.
Even though the team is bottoming out in a big way, San Jose still holds players with trade value on their team and is open to business on just about every player. Speaking on Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet indicated that a player who is drawing significant interest around the league is defenseman Mario Ferraro.
Much like most of the Sharks roster, Ferraro has had two relatively poor seasons in terms of production, but the underlying metrics indicate that it may largely be a result of the play of the entire organization. In his last 97 games playing for San Jose, Ferraro carries an abysmal -49 rating, however, according to Hockey Reference’s calculations, his expected rating should land around -16 to -17 when factoring in Expected Goals For and Expected Goals Against.
With two years and $6.5MM left on his contract after this season, the fact that Ferraro is signed beyond this season may boost the Sharks’ return if a trade is completed before the deadline. Since taking over as General Manager of the Sharks back in 2022, Mike Grier is no stranger to trading players with team control, moving out Brent Burns, Timo Meier, and Erik Karlsson in a little under two years on the job.
Given his prowess on the defensive side of the puck, and his ability to block shots and lay hits, Ferraro makes sense for a lot of contending teams this season and beyond. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and Buffalo Sabres could all use Ferraro’s skill set on their blue line, but if his contract is factored in, other teams who may look to contend for the playoffs next season may open up more options for San Jose.
As the Sharks are not expected to field a competitive team for the foreseeable future, it would make a lot of sense for the team to field offers for a player like Ferraro, as well as others. However, given that he is still signed for two more seasons, San Jose will likely not be in an hurry to move him, and may wait for the 2024 NHL Draft to get the return they are looking for.
Buffalo needs to do more than hope for Tage Thompson’s and Jack Quinn’s speedy recovery. They’ve just gotten out of the three-goalie fiasco that threw them into misalignment.
They never really found an answer for a 4D that could make everyone on the ice look better. And one that could stop other teams (every other team) from treating the Sabres like softies.
I sense the team is starting to spiral into a self-induced funk. They certainly are at risk for that.
They have probably more means to make decisive moves than almost every team (prospects, draft capital, and salary cap space). Kevyn Adams must learn to be a bit profligate with the bounty he’s acquired.
Is he Ray Ferraros son?
No relation. Ray Ferraro does have a son named Landon Ferraro who did play 77 games from 2014-2018, however.
-16/17 AFTER factoring in expected goals, for a guy whose career high is 17 points and with no measurable power play impact, is someone who MAY be worth a flier for bottom pairing if he was making half of what he was. He’s still young, and he may be the best defenseman San Jose has left, but sheesh. Any team could have Ethan Bear for free. No one needs to be trading for Ferraro.
He’s not an offensive dman, doesn’t mean he isn’t good. He’s like Brendon Dillon or Dylan deMelo. People look at them in isolation and say they are no good because they don’t score 50 points but they are the ones cleaning up the messes Karlsson and Burns make while we praise those guys for their points.
Ferraro is a decent 2nd pair dman on most teams who will enable wannabe forwards to do their business. Far more capable than Ethan ‘can’t get a contract’ Bear.