Sometimes teams draft a young player in the first round and hope to build a team around him. However, sometimes this doesn’t always work out. Sometimes the player simply leaves the organization, but other times he gets traded. In the case of Timo Meier, his trade was a win-win situation for both parties.
The Sharks initially drafted Meier ninth overall back in 2015 where he spent six seasons before his blockbuster trade in 2023. Drafted for his rare combination of size and speed, a lot of hype surrounded Meier. After struggling in his first season, where he played 34 games and notched only 6 points (3G, 3A), he came back the next season determined to show why he was drafted so high in the first round. While he managed to improve his record to 36 points (21G, 15A), Meier struggled throughout the years to maintain consistency.
When the 2022-2023 season came along, with Meier reaching the end of his contract at the close of the season, the Sharks had some decisions to make. At the time it had become clear the club was in for a major rebuild, one Meier didn’t fit into. The rebuild called for younger and cheaper players, with Meier’s projected contract being too expensive to fit in. Thus came one of the first big moves made by current General Manager, Mike Grier.
While the overall trade had many elements, the most important to current Sharks fans are as follows: the club retained 50% of Meier’s salary in exchange for Fabian Zetterlund, Shakir Mukhamadullin, and a conditional first-round pick in 2023 from the New Jersey Devils. Fabian Zetterlund wound up being spectacular for the confidence of William Eklund, whose increased trade value led to him being traded to the Ottawa Senators (and reunited with Zetterlund) along with Kasper Halttunen and the rights to Brandon Svoboda for the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft (used on Keaton Verhoeff). Mukhamadullin, relatively questionably, was traded to Edmonton this off-season for Darnell Nurse. The first-round pick in 2023 was used on Quentin Musty, who is now seemingly ready to make the jump to the NHL this upcoming season.
All in all, trading Timo Meier was in the best interest of both the Sharks and Meier himself. Meier has been thriving with the Devils, steadily scoring 20+ goals a season, and the fruits of his trade have been beneficial for the Sharks’ future development, which was the primary goal behind the trade in the first place.
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