San Jose Sharks defenseman Jake Walman is congratulated after scoring a goal against the Nashville Predators during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
The San Jose Sharks’ extreme roster makeover continued Thursday night with another major trade, as they sent top-pair defenseman Jake Walman to the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick and minor league forward Carl Berglund.
The trade, widely reported earlier Thursday, became official more than an hour after the Sharks’ game against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena. Without Walman and others, the Sharks lost 7-3 to the Avalanche in the final game of a seven-game road trip.
The conditions on the 2026 first-round draft selection are as follows: The selection is top-12 protected; if it is in the top-12, Edmonton may choose to transfer its 2027 first-round selection to San Jose instead.
Should Edmonton choose to trade its 2027 first-round pick before the 2026 NHL trade deadline, its 2026 first-round selection will transfer to San Jose, unconditionally.
Berglund, 25, is in his second full season in the minor leagues. With the Bakersfield Condors this season, the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Swedish-born center has 12 points in 45 games. He also played at UMass-Lowell from 2019 to 2023 before turning pro.
However, the first-round draft pick was the key to the deal from the Sharks’ perspective. If that selection does land in 2026, the Sharks will have seven picks that year, including four in the first two rounds. Right now, the Sharks have four picks for 2027.
The Sharks could also use that first-rounder from the Oilers in a trade that would bring more immediate help.
At the 2024 NHL trade deadline, the Sharks traded Tomas Hertl to the Vegas Golden Knights and received center prospect David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round selection. The Sharks then dealt that first-round pick and Edstrom last August to the Nashville Predators for highly touted goalie Yaroslav Askarov, who is now in the AHL but has played well in 13 NHL games this season.
Walman, 29, was with the Sharks in Denver earlier Thursday, taking part in the team’s morning skate hours before its game against the Avalanche. Walman, though, was reportedly informed of the trade shortly before the game.
Both Walman and Luke Kunin were held out of the Sharks’ lineup against the Avalanche. Kunin, a pending unrestricted free agent, could be on the move before the NHL trade deadline on Friday at noon (PST).
Mario Ferraro, another defenseman signed through next season, has also been the subject of trade rumors.
Considering Walman’s value, Thursday’s move was perhaps the Sharks’ most surprising of this NHL trade deadline season.
The Sharks acquired Walman and a 2024 second round draft pick from the Detroit Red Wings last June for future considerations. Walman had been San Jose’s top offensive defenseman this season with 32 points in 50 games.
As a member of the Sharks’ top defense pair, Walman, who played in all situations, also led the team’s skaters with an average of 23:11 in ice time per game.
Walman is in the second year of a three-year, $10.2 million contract he signed with Detroit in Feb. 2023.
Before Thursday night’s game, the Sharks had already traded goalie Vitek Vanecek and center Nico Sturm to the Florida Panthers in separate deals. In February, San Jose sent forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars, and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood to the Avalanche in December.
Walman, though, saw himself as a Shark long-term, and was eager to be a part of things when he felt the team, now in 32nd and last place, would be able to turn it around.
“I’m extremely excited to be here,” Walman told Bay Area News Group in January. “(The adversity) is going to make it so much better when we’re a good team. In the coming years, we’re going to look back on this and think about where we were and where we are now.
“Just seeing the building blocks, I want to be somebody that grows with these growing pains.”
Ultimately, the Sharks turned the initial Walman trade with the Red Wings, in which they gave up nothing, into prospect defenseman Leo Sahlin Wallenius, who they used with the second-rounder they received from Detroit and a conditional first-round pick next year.
That doesn’t make it easier on the Sharks who remain. Six veteran players who were with the team in early December — Blackwood, Granlund, Ceci, Vanecek, Sturm and Walman — are no longer around, making the final 18 games of the season all that more challenging.
“it’s expected. It’s the position that we’re in as a team,” Sharks forward Tyler Toffoli said after Thursday’s game. “It’s one of those things that it obviously (stinks), but it’s part of the business.
“The guys who are here, we have to perform. We can’t just wait around and sit on our butts for 18 games and get our butts kicked every night.”
Please check back for updates to this developing story.
Originally published at Curtis Pashelka