The NHL Trade Deadline is March 6th, and San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier might have the hardest decision to make of any NHL GM.

Grier spoke to members of the media following a state-of-the-Sharks season ticket holder event. Grier was honest about what he wants to accomplish at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.

Here is everything Mike Grier said:

How do you approach the deadline, especially on the blue line?

Like I said out there, I’m not going to do anything that’s short-sighted. It’s all about continuing to grow and build the group. It might not be the most glamorous group of defensemen, but they’ve played well. They’ve played hard [and] produced. I think [John Klingberg has] produced. [Dmitry Orlov has] produced. We’re starting to get a little bit from Sam[Dickinson], and Vincent Desharnais has been great on the PK. Iorio, when he got a chance to play, was really good at helping us get pucks out of our end. Then you have Mario [Ferraro] back there blocking shots and playing his tail off every night. Like I said, it’s not a group that probably gets talked about a lot, but, you know, they’re doing their job out there and helping us win hockey games.

Despite the success, there will be hard conversations to be had. How do you assess where to buy and where to sell?

This time of year, there are always tough conversations where you have to figure out what road to go down and what’s best for the organization, short-term, medium-term, and long-term. These are not easy times for players or management.

When you’re doing well and playing well, then you’ve got the other side of it, where you’re maybe moving players that have been a big part of things. And even when you’re not playing well, it’s, you’re taking someone like [Mackenzie Blackwood] out of your team or [Mikael Granlund] out of your team. Those aren’t easy conversations. It’s just a difficult time of year for everyone, but you know, we’ll try and make the best decisions we can.

Grier on the deadline plan: “It’s not being too short sighted and not doing something that maybe sets us back two or three years. So trying to be a targeted acquisition.” #SJSharks

— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) January 23, 2026

Are you taking calls on the San Jose Sharks UFAs? Would it be tough to replace them if a deal does come along?

It’s a little bit of a balancing act. It’s the time of year where teams are definitely kind of kicking tires and seeing what’s out there, what’s possibly available. So yeah, teams have called on guys. Whenever someone calls, I listen. Doesn’t matter who the player is, I’ll always listen to what they have to say. But it’s, yeah, it’s kind of a delicate balance right now.

If you fall out of the playoff race or feel like an extension with Kiefer Sherwood can’t be done, could you flip him?

Like I said, if someone calls, maybe I’ll listen and see what they have to say or what they want to make an offer. His acquisition was a targeted acquisition. He’s what this team needs, as far as someone who plays with some sandpaper, some grit, some speed, some physicality. He fits the identity of what we want to be as a team. It’s someone we’ve gone after with the idea of him not being a rental.

Why was now the right time to move draft picks?

The picks are something the markets spoke a little bit about with the Marchment and Chinakhov, what it would take to get a player like Kiefer. For us, it’s a little bit getting out ahead of free agency. He’s someone who would have been high on our list if he had made it to free agency. We’ve made a lot of picks the last couple of years. We got a lot of prospects. We still have a lot of picks this year. We’ve kind of felt like we’d be okay to move a little bit of draft capital to get a player that we think can help us, not only now, but into the future as well.

Are you interested in moving a first-round pick?

I don’t see us moving our first-rounder for a rental-type player.

Why was Kiefer a targeted acquisition? What do you look for when approaching San Jose Sharks trade interests?

He fits right now, but it’s just something, like I said from day one when I got this job, he’s the type of player I was speaking about that we need to have in here to be hard to play against. It’s similar when we got [Zack Ostapchuk] last year at the deadline. People were kind of wondering why we would trade and established scorer like [Fabian Zetterlund] who had scored for us.

But you have to build a team. It takes all different types of parts, and all different parts of character, and not just kind of fantasy football, where you’re just accumulating stats. You need guys who can be physical, can skate, who can be hard to play against, because, at the end of the day, that’s what wins in the playoffs. And that’s the goal for us, to get into the playoffs and win the whole thing. You need players, like Kiefer, players like Chucky, you need those style of players to help supplement your group.

On defense, what does a targeted trade acquisition look like for the San Jose Sharks?

I think everyone’s looking for a D that can defend hard and defend the rush, be hard around the net. If you talk to every team in the league, I think that’s what they’re looking for because you have to defend, you have to be hard on around your net, and then you have to be able to exit your zone. Those are things we’re looking at. That’s probably no different than anyone else.

How do you view when the time is right to go for it and when not to?

I got to try and be honest with myself, and honest with what I’m seeing and evaluating every day with the team, is how they’re doing, how they’re growing, how they’re getting along. But you know, for me, the goal isn’t just to sneak into the playoffs. The goal is to win the Stanley Cup here. So when we get to a point where I feel like we have a group that can do that and can go on a long playoff run and try and compete for the cup, then that’s probably when you guys see it fast forward it a little bit.

Are you okay with just standing pat and running out the rest of the contracts as UFAs, with no trades?

That’s probably the toughest decision I’ll probably have to make in the next, whenever we got to the deadline, is trying to figure that out. Where the group is at, where the team’s at, and what’s the best decision for the group, short term, but also long term.

If there’s a deal out there that gets presented to me that makes sense, then it’s something that our group up top is going to have to really think about and consider. If we’re going well and things are good, and we decide that, you know, we just kind of roll through it and see what happens. It’s something we’re prepared to do.