The San Jose Sharks trade their longtime right-handed blueliner Justin Braun to the Flyers in exchange for a 2019 2nd and 2020 3rd round pick.
The off-season hockey news hot stove continues to heat up for the San Jose Sharks. Just a day after maxing out all world blueliner Erik Karlsson, Team Teal trades away lifelong Shark Justin Braun to make cap room for some other key expiring contracts.
Justin Braun was yet another gem drafted in the 7th round by the Sharks. Selected in 2007 Braun didn’t make his way onto the big club until the 2011 – 2012 campaign. However Over time he built tremendous chemistry with Marc-Edouard Vlasic becoming the San Jose Sharks go to shut down pairing for nearly half a decade.
He’s compiled 154 points over the course of his 9 year NHL career with 20 of them being goals. Those are decent numbers but Braun is more well-known for his prowess in the defensive zone and on special teams killing penalties. His stoic tenacity and disciplined skating have been the backbone of Team Teal for countless seasons and the Sharks will likely miss the Minnesota native.
Nevertheless the 32-year-old has seen a drop in production over the past few seasons and doesn’t have the same skate speed to keep up with much of the elite competition MEV faces on a nightly basis. The Sharks desperately needed cap relief heading into free agency so this deal with the Flyers makes perfect sense.
With this trade the Sharks now have approx 16.3 million to work with instead of the previous 12.5 million (assuming the cap is 83M!).
Trading D Justin Braun to the Flyers has increased San Jose #Sharks projected cap space by $3.8M to $16.3M [This assumes the upper limit is $83M] with a roster of 15 (7F 6D 2G)https://t.co/dEGsEG2xOO pic.twitter.com/hpXBnwOXSh
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 18, 2019
On top of this the Sharks added two draft picks to their very thin bank of selections in future upcoming drafts. This trade works out great for both clubs. The Sharks are balancing their books and the Flyers are getting a serviceable defenseman in return. He might be missing a step, but he is still extremely competitive and would make an excellent mentor for any of the young blossoming Flyers defenders.
This swap makes things a little more comfortable for General Manager Doug Wilson and the Sharks front office. They need all the room they can get if they want to be able to convince the remainder of their expiring contracts to stick around in San Jose. With how things are going so far it seems that Sharks fans are going to be in for a wild next couple of weeks.