Flyers acquire veteran forward from Sharks

If the Flyers indeed believe their younger forwards who they may have expected to claim NHL jobs aren’t quite ready yet, it is understandable that they would seek outside reinforcement. The 27-year-old Grundstrom is a winger with nearly 300 games of NHL regular-season experience, who also brings 17 games of playoff experience. He was a steady bottom-six winger for the Los Angeles Kings from late 2020 through early 2024, before he was traded to the Sharks in June of that year.

Grundstrom’s season in San Jose was one he’d like to forget, though, as he scored just nine points in 56 games and averaged just 9:35 time-on-ice per game. He did not reach the standard of performance in San Jose that he set in Los Angeles, and as a result the Sharks have moved on. It’s an extremely important season for Grundstrom, whose two-year, $1.85MM AAV is set to expire in June. He’ll now look to carve out a role in the Flyers’ bottom-six to maintain his status as a full-time NHL player.

The other player the Flyers acquired in this trade is Guryev, a big 6-foot-4 Russian blueliner. Guryev was a fifth-round pick of the Sharks at the 2021 draft and has spent the last two seasons with the Sharks’ minor-league affiliates. He played in 31 AHL games in his debut professional campaign in 2023-24 but spent all of 2024-25 in the ECHL. His entry-level contract expires after this season.

From the Sharks’ perspective, this deal accomplishes multiple things. Firstly, the team has cleared $1.85M off its books by trading away Grundstrom, and while the winger is an experienced veteran, he never earned head coach Ryan Warsofsky’s trust, and the team has other players it can utilize in Grundstrom’s vacated fourth-line role.

The deal also adds another draft pick for San Jose, and those two goals come at a relatively limited cost. While the actual cash cost of Ellis’ contract is somewhat steep, there have been some (unconfirmed) reports that Ellis’ contract is insured, in which case the actual expenditure on the part of the Sharks’ organization would be limited.

From a cap hit perspective, this is more a matter of the Sharks trying to maximize the position they have found themselves in, rather than an attempt to materially alter their salary cap circumstances. Because of Logan Couture’s early retirement due to injury, the Sharks were already expected to utilize LTIR for the next two seasons. That the team acquired Carey Price’s contract from the Montreal Canadiens was reflective of their reality — they expect to be in LTIR, and as a result have sought opportunities to maximize their position.

This trade is another effort by the Sharks to do so, and while the return is somewhat limited, it’s still Grier executing on an opportunity to add assets to the organization. And with the Sharks still rebuilding (and prized young centers Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith still two years away from RFA status) the Sharks won’t be pressed to accumulate cap space and walk the salary cap tightrope the way other clubs have had to.

While this is hardly an Earth-shattering trade for either club, it is an example of each team working to maximize its respective positions. In a world where fans seek to assign a “winner” and “loser” to every transaction, this trade looks unlikely to have either, it’s simply two teams working together to make a deal that is likely to pay (likely marginal) dividends to each side.