SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks defenseman Cody Ceci has been around long enough to know that trying to predict what’s going to happen at the NHL trade deadline – particularly five weeks ahead of time – can be a futile endeavor.
That’s why Ceci on Wednesday wasn’t about to project whether he’ll be traded to a contending team by March 7 or sign an extension with the Sharks at some point before he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.
“I think there’s a good chance of (either) thing happening,” said Ceci, who is in the final season of a four-year, $13 million deal he signed with the Edmonton Oilers in July 2021.
“I think it will kind of depend on what’s coming in return, and if (general manager Mike Grier) thinks it’s more valuable than me staying. So that’s up in the air. Not sure what would be coming in return, and I think he’ll just have to weigh his options at that point.”
That’s precisely what Grier said Tuesday, as he tries to navigate the path ahead for the still-rebuilding Sharks (15-32-6), who will enter their road game Friday against the Seattle Kraken in last place in the NHL’s overall standings. Grier said there haven’t been any substantial contracts with any of his pending UFAs or RFAs.
The Sharks have seven pending UFAs on one-way contracts in forwards Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin and Nico Sturm, defensemen Ceci and Jan Rutta and goalies Vitek Vanecek and Alexandar Georgiev. None of those players have any trade protection in their respective contracts.
“I think it’s important for me to have an open mind about where we’re going and what another team might be willing to offer for one of our players,” Grier said in his first meeting with reporters since the fall, “and weigh it against the value of keeping those players around and having them with their group.”
Kunin, on a one-year, $2.75 million deal, said the deadline “doesn’t change what I do. I just go out every day, work hard and help our team.”
Kunin, Ceci and other Sharks players figure to have some suitors as the trade deadline nears.
Kunin, 27, plays a no-nonsense style and has 14 games of playoff experience. He is fifth on the Sharks with 54 blocked shots, is second behind Granlund in average shorthanded time on ice (1:44) and in 53 games so far, has 11 goals and 18 points, matching last season’s totals, which came in 77 games.
The right-shot Ceci, who turned 31 in December, has played on the Sharks’ top defense pair all season, and figures to be a valuable commodity.
Ceci is second among all skaters in average ice time (21:46), is the team’s leading penalty killer and blocked shots (98). Ceci has also played in 88 playoff games in his 12-year NHL career, including playing 24 postseason games last year with the Oilers.
Others like Rutta and Sturm have won Stanley Cups, and Vanecek and Georgiev have some playoff experience.
Ceci said he would love to stay in San Jose, “but there’s also a business side of things where they have to move pieces around and think about the future, so I get that part as well.”
Ceci told Bay Area News Group earlier this season that he’s looking for three to four years of term on his next contract. The Sharks do not have an obvious heir apparent as a right-shot top pair defenseman, so Grier, from all indications, will be keeping an open mind when it comes to keeping the 6-foot-3, 210-pound defenseman around past this season.
Ceci has been traded twice before in his career, but never at the deadline.
“Tough time of year. I’ve seen it from both sides,” he said. “I’ve been on some good teams and some bad teams up at deadline, and there’s different reasons for every move. So it is tough. It is part of the business. You’ve just got to be ready, but at the same time, you’ve just kind of spend as much time as you can together around these times as you never know (when a trade might happen).”
GRANLUND OUT: Granlund missed Wednesday’s practice with an illness. His availability to play Thursday is uncertain, Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said.
HEALTH UPDATES: Forward Ty Dellandrea, on IR with an upper-body injury, is going on the trip but is not an option to play against Seattle. It is unclear when he might be able to return … Warsofsky said others on IR, forwards Sturm (lower body) and Klim Kostin (lower body) and Rutta (lower body) will likely be available to return in late February shortly after the conclusion of the 4 Nations Face-Off event in Montreal and Boston.
VANECEK REASSIGNED: Vanecek was added to the team’s active roster and sent to the Barracuda to begin a conditioning assignment. Vanecek was injured on Dec. 17 when he was struck in the face by a puck as he was sitting on the Sharks bench during the team’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.
Vanecek’s last game with the Sharks was on Dec. 14, and Warsofsky said Vanecek will play either Friday or Saturday at Tech CU Arena as the Barracuda face the Henderson Silver Knights. With the Sharks this season, Vanecek has a 3-8-1 record with the Sharks this season and a .885 save percentage.
To make room for Vanecek on the Sharks’ roster, forward Scott Sabourin was returned to the AHL.
Once Vanecek is fully healthy, and assuming Georgiev and Yaroslav Askarov are also healthy, the Sharks will have to decide whether to keep three goalies on the roster or assign Askarov back to the AHL. Grier said Tuesday that no decision has been made.
Askarov will start against the Kraken, Warsofsky said.
DAD’S TRIP: Several fathers of the Sharks’ players watched practice Wednesday morning before the team left for its dads and mentors’ trip to Seattle. Among them was Rick Celebrini, Macklin’s dad and the Warriors’ director of sports medicine.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com