Timo Meier trade packages: What the Devils and Hurricanes could offer the Sharks

June 15, 2024

The San Jose Sharks have made several trades over the past four seasons that would qualify as “selling” moves.

They’ve traded good players, like Barclay Goodrow, Brenden Dillon and Jake Middleton. They’ve traded franchise icons near the end of their careers, like Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns. But the Sharks have not yielded a core player at the peak of his powers.

That might change in the coming days.

The Sharks are going to miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season. They’d never missed the postseason three seasons in a row before last year. First-year general manager Mike Grier made the first significant alteration of this club’s core shortly after assuming office when he traded Burns to the Carolina Hurricanes.

His next big renovation is likely going to be trading Timo Meier, San Jose’s leading goal scorer in each of the past two seasons and one of the NHL’s best power forwards. Meier had a career-high 35 goals and 76 points a season ago. He’s on pace to score 45 goals this season, which would be the second-most in franchise history behind Jonathan Cheechoo’s 56 in 2005-06.

Meier is also a restricted free agent after this season, and he can be unrestricted at the end of 2023-24. His salary cap hit for this season is $6 million, but he’s being paid $10 million. That quirk, negotiated by his agent Claude Lemieux — who was a teammate of Grier’s with the Sharks — means that San Jose, or a team that acquires Meier, must either sign him to a new contract or tender him a $10 million qualifying offer for next season to retain his rights.

That inflection point is the root of why the Sharks are likely to trade Meier between now and the March 3 deadline. Meier will be 27 years old in October, and either in the first year of a massive long-term contract or playing on a one-year, $10 million deal that will lead into a massive long-term pact.

Grier might be able to turn the franchise around in time for Meier to still be in his prime and a key player for a contender in San Jose. But it also might take several years, and the Sharks have plenty of other cap-related issues to sort out between now and then, while also accumulating enough young impact talent to build a new core of a contending team. Having great players play great makes it harder to land the premium draft picks that are more likely to ignite a new era of sustainable Stanley Cup contention.

So Meier has been arguably the most talked about trade chip in this cycle. He could be the best player traded between now and March 3.

What could the Sharks land in return for a standout scorer like Meier? We’ve enlisted the help of The Athletic’s Corey Pronman to find some comparable trades, and try to pin down what the best offers for Meier might look like.

All three of these trades were for a high-scoring winger who was under team control for at least the next season. Montreal landed its future captain and No. 1 center (Nick Suzuki) and then flipped the second to Los Angeles for a third and a fifth at the 2019 draft.

Buffalo used the 2022 first on Jiri Kulich, who has had one of the best draft-plus-one seasons in his class, and Devon Levi is a strong goaltending prospect. Chicago took Kevin Korchinski with the seventh pick in the 2022 draft, and he’s one of the best defense prospects in anyone’s pipeline.

Given that most of these clubs will need to move salary to make a Meier trade work, we were drawn especially to the Max Pacioretty trade as a comparable. With that in mind, here’s what the offers for Meier might look like.

Hurricanes

Potential trade package: RHD Scott Morrow, LW Jordan Martinook, 2023 first-round pick

Pronman: It feels like Carolina is giving up the least of the three teams, but given they have the least amount of salary to move it makes sense to a degree, and feels more analogous to the Sam Reinhart trade. Morrow is a strong defense prospect with a lot of talent, although he’s not having as great a season as his freshman campaign with UMass-Amherst. San Jose gets two quality futures in him and a late first. This may not be the Shark’s favorite deal because there’s no true premium asset in this exchange.

Masisak: The first ask for Grier might have been Russian defenseman Alexander Nikishin, but The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that Carolina has told teams that he is not available. Morrow would instantly be the Sharks’ best defense prospect. Martinook is a capable bottom-six forward who could be flipped for a mid-round draft pick between now and the 2024 deadline. This wouldn’t be the most exciting package, but Grier probably isn’t worried about “winning the news conference” at this point. If Morrow and the pick become key parts of the rebuild, fans will forget if they weren’t applauding the move the day it happened.

Potential trade package: LHD Shakir Mukhamadullin, LW Andreas Johnsson, 2023 first-round pick

Pronman: New Jersey feels like the most natural trade partner for the Sharks. The Devils have a lot of very good young assets they can part with, be it Mukhamadullin, the first-round pick, Alexander Holtz, maybe even Dawson Mercer not to mention several other quality prospects in their system. There are a lot of possibilities to mix and match depending on what the Devils are willing to part with and what the Sharks want. Despite Mukhamadullin playing in the KHL this season, he is already signed to an NHL deal, taking out much of the risk in his profile to go with him being a very strong prospect.

Masisak: When the Devils drafted Mukhamadullin, I wrote that he was going to be the most fascinating prospect in the NHL. The opinions on him were wildly variant, and remained so while I was still covering the team. I also wrote that the Sharks’ ask from the Devils should start with Mercer. Johnsson has a 10-team no-trade clause in his contract, but coming to San Jose would likely get him a better chance to showcase for his next contract. Given that he costs a little more ($3 million, while Martinook is at $1.8 million), I could certainly see the Sharks trying to ask for a fourth asset in the deal, whether it is a lesser prospect or a 2024 mid-round pick. If the Devils want an extension with Meier (as LeBrun also reported), that might give San Jose a little more leverage to ask for more.

Mukhamadullin and Morrow might not profile as potential top-pairing defensemen. People always want the prospect or draft pick to turn into Tage Thompson with Buffalo or Jarome Iginla with Calgary in these types of trades. In hindsight, a lot of fan bases would be happy if one part of the return had turned into a solid second-paring defenseman for half a decade.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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