On the day after a legendary Stanley Cup Final Game 7, the Sharks acquired defenseman Jake Walman and the 53rd overall selection in the second round of this year's NHL Draft from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations.
This is purely a cap dump move on behalf of the Red Wings, and the Sharks add a two-way defenseman in his prime to get them closer to the cap floor and help build around their future core of star players. This past season with the Red Wings, Walman recorded 12 goals and nine assists for 21 points in 63 games, finishing fourth among Red Wings defensemen and setting career-highs in goals and points. He also ranked second on the Red Wings last season in shorthanded ice time (154:15), third in average time on ice (19:46/game), and third in blocked shots among team blue liners with 151. In total, Jake Walman has 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points in 202 career NHL games with the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings.
In addition, the 53rd overall pick in this year's draft originally belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning and now becomes the third second-round selection (33, 42, 53) and fifth selection in the first two rounds (1, 14, 33, 42, 53) that the Sharks own in this year's NHL Draft.
In other news, the Sharks recently announced the hiring of Mike Potenza as their director of high performance, who returns to the Sharks after spending the past two years with the Golden State Warriors as their performance director. He was previously with the Sharks from 2016 to 2022 as a strength and conditioning coach, so the name definitely sounds familiar and reputable.
Overall, I like this trade for the Sharks and feel that they greatly benefited from taking advantage of the Red Wings' cap crunch scenario. Team Teal added one of the Red Wings' best defensemen from the past few seasons and stockpiled another draft pick in the first two rounds to their arsenal of picks this year. I remember seeing two highlight clips from the past two seasons of Jake Walman scoring two overtime game-winning goals for the Red Wings and hitting the griddy after scoring both of these huge goals, which was one of my favorite celebrations I have ever seen a hockey player perform after scoring a big goal. I am certainly hoping to see more of that from Jake Walman in teal as soon as next season. I have nothing but positive thoughts on the Sharks' moves made this offseason to further progress their rebuild so far and am looking forward to everything else they have in store coming soon.
Source: Sharks + SAP Center App
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