Entering the season, it looked like the Sharks would be selling off multiple pieces from an already weak blue line. Four of their seven active names are pending unrestricted free agents, and for a team primed for another losing season, it looked prudent to cut bait on most, if not all of them, for futures.<\/p>\n
Past the halfway point of the year, though, San Jose has exceeded all expectations and finds themselves in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race. While they may still look to flip some veteran names that don\u2019t have a long-term future,\u00a0Mario Ferraro<\/a>\u00a0is becoming less likely to be one of them. They\u2019re still listening to calls on him but are \u201cbelieved to have some interest in retaining Ferraro on a short-term deal,\u201d David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a> wrote last week.<\/p>\n That interest is mutual. The Sharks\u2019 improvement in the standings has boosted his interest in sticking around \u2013 something Ferraro already said during training camp he was interested in doing<\/a>, but Pagnotta wonders if he\u2019d be open to a short-term offer with this summer being the 27-year-old\u2019s best shot at a lucrative long-term contract.<\/p>\n Whether those offers would even be there for Ferraro if he hits the open market this summer remains to be seen. He\u2019s been San Jose\u2019s top minute-muncher throughout the rebuild \u2013 at least until this season, when their free-agent signing of\u00a0Dmitry Orlov<\/a>\u00a0has bumped Ferraro down to a more comfortable role as their No. 2 lefty.<\/p>\n His results haven\u2019t been great. Per 82 games for his career, the 5\u201911\u201d rearguard averages 18 points and a -22 rating. Whether that\u2019s a product of his game or his environment is the million-dollar question for teams entering the summer.<\/p>\n AFP Analytics<\/a> projects Ferraro\u2019s extension at $5.9MM annually for five years. That\u2019s likely longer than the Sharks are willing to go, but they\u2019re in a position to outcompete that AAV by a significant margin. They\u2019ve shown a willingness to go for high-dollar, short-term deals recently, although with\u00a0Macklin Celebrini<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Will Smith<\/a>\u00a0needing new deals in the 2027 offseason, that\u2019s likely to fade fast.<\/p>\n Even if both sides were willing to go for a high-dollar, shorter-term deal in the $6-7MM range, it\u2019s fair to question how much that makes sense for San Jose\u2019s depth chart as soon as next season. Orlov will remain in the picture, Pagnotta relays, and youngsters\u00a0Sam Dickinson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Shakir Mukhamadullin<\/a>\u00a0are solid locks for the other two spots on San Jose\u2019s left side. Unless they\u2019re willing to shift Mukhamadullin to his offside longer-term, there isn\u2019t a pressing need to retain Ferraro past this year.<\/p>\n As for what Ferraro\u2019s brought to the table this season, it\u2019s more of the same. His -2 rating is greatly improved, but his possession numbers remain middle-of-the-pack in defensive-minded usage, controlling 43.7% of shot attempts at even strength. He\u2019s also chipped in four goals and 12 points in 50 games while averaging 20:50 of ice time per game, his lowest workload since his rookie season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering the season, it looked like the Sharks would be selling off multiple pieces from an already weak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,814,168],"class_list":{"0":"post-428154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mario-ferraro","10":"tag-san-jose-sharks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115958608990506982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}