The San Jose Sharks addressed their blue line considerably over the summer, but they do have some holes in the long-term future. With the news that Detroit Red Wings defenseman, and pending restricted free agent, Simon Edvinsson would prefer a trade, he would have been the perfect target a little over three months ago. Would it be feasible now that the Sharks have already committed a considerable amount of money toward their defense and what would they have to give up?
It's probably easier to begin with the second half of that question. There's one player in particular that would almost certainly be included in any trade negotiation: Sam Dickinson. He immediately replaces the hole left on the Red Wings' blue line and he's three years younger than Edvinsson with high upside. Edvinsson is currently the better player though, by a significant margin. As a result, Dickinson alone wouldn't be enough.
The Sharks would likely have to include another former first-round pick in the deal. As a result, it would likely be someone like Filip Bystedt, Quentin Musty, or even Ryan Lin. While it's already a lot to give up, it's likely still not enough to convince the Red Wings to pull the trigger. Edvinsson is a legitimate first-pairing defenseman at just 23 years of age.
While the Sharks could place Logan Couture on the long-term injured reserve and sign Edvinsson to a deal with an average annual value around $10 million right now, they'd likely want to move out some cap space as well for additions later in the season if necessary. Given how much Ryan Warsofsky and Mike Grier like Barclay Goodrow, I doubt he'd be the one involved but someone like Adam Gaudette or Ty Dellandrea could be included to create a little wiggle room. On top of that, the Sharks would likely need to include some draft capital.
Now that we've discussed what the Sharks would have to give up, we can go back to the first part of the initial question: is this a feasible move? The answer is simply that it could be. The Sharks do need to save some money to sign Will Smith, Yaroslav Askarov, Michael Misa and quite a few others to big extensions in the near future. While the cap is expected to rise significantly, it may not be enough with the way salaries are rapidly rising. Adding Edvinsson would cause some difficult decisions down the road, but that's part of being a contending team.
Simon Edvinsson would make the Sharks a better team both in the short-term and in the long-run, but acquiring him would mean sending significant assets the other way and putting the team in a cap crunch that heavily relies on the salary cap rising as expected. As a result, it's impossible to even begin considering what Mike Grier would be thinking about this situation. So now we just wait and see.
