San Jose Sharks sign Evgeny Svechnikov to one-year contract

The 25-year-old was an unrestricted free agent after the Winnipeg Jets didn’t give him a qualifying offer at the end of his one-year league-minimum contract with the team. It’s the second time he’s been a restricted free agent and not been qualified after the same thing happened with the Detroit Red Wings after the 2020-21 season.

Svechnikov had a consistent NHL role for the first time in 2021-22, and as a result, had the best season in his career. In 72 games for the Jets, he had seven goals, 12 assists, and 19 points, all career-highs for him. He’s struggled to live up to his draft status so far in his career, as the 19th overall pick in 2015 played in just 41 games before the 2021-22 season.

While Svechnikov isn’t scoring as much as expected when he was drafted, he has turned into a decent defensive forward, at least based on his first full season in the NHL. He had a 48.55% shot attempt share and 50.26% expected goal share, numbers that jumped up to 51.49% and 52.24% when he was put into a top-six role, and not playing with Dominic Toninato, Adam Lowry, and Jansen Harkins.

After this signing, the Sharks find themselves with under $300,000 in cap space. They haven’t made any big additions this offseason, although they did move on from former Norris trophy winner Brent Burns in a deal that sent him to Carolina. Otherwise, it’s been a lot of tinkering around the edges, including free agent signings like this, Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, and Matt Benning.