Sharks Have Shown Interest In Braden Schneider

The Sharks’ forward progress this season means they’ve fully exited the teardown portion of their rebuild. They’re expected to ship out a couple of names from their bevy of pending UFA veteran defenders, but that won’t preclude them from adding pieces too. They already swung to pick up winger Kiefer Sherwood from the Canucks earlier this year and made a play to snag Artemi Panarin from the Rangers. Their talks with New York didn’t stop with Panarin, though. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports San Jose is among the teams to show interest in Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider.

The 24-year-old Schneider certainly doesn’t qualify as adding star power to the mix, but he fills a huge organizational need for a Sharks club whose only long-term weakness is a relative lack of promising right-shot defenders in the system. He’s more of a shutdown threat than a puck-mover but did hit the 20-point plateau last season, now with a 2-9–11 scoring line and a -15 rating in 57 games in 2025-26. That’s come while the physical 6’3″ righty is averaging a career-high 20:19 of ice time per game, in large part due to his elevation into top-pair minutes for long stretches this season while Adam Fox has been dealing with injuries.

Schneider’s underlying numbers aren’t particularly strong. He’s never had a positive relative Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5 and has remained underwater in expected goals for the duration of his career as well. He fits a familiar mold of first-round picks struggling to find their way in New York – but with five seasons and nearly 350 NHL games under his belt, he’s almost a finished product. His toolbox is solid, but it’s fair to wonder if his lack of success in the possession department is a good fit for a Sharks team that already ranks last in the league with a 45.2% Corsi share at even strength.

Still, the Sharks don’t have much of a choice to add young right-shot depth, and Schneider is one of the few names who’s realistically available as New York embarks on a retool of its own. All three of their righties on their active roster, John Klingberg, Vincent Desharnais, and Timothy Liljegren, will be UFAs this summer. They do have 23-year-old Jack Thompson in the minors as a capable call-up option, and 2022 second-rounder Mattias Havelid is tracking to make an impact within the next couple of years, but neither has the size nor skillset Schneider brings. University of Denver standout Eric Pohlkamp is also in their system, but is also on the wrong side of 6’0″.

The Rangers were receiving calls on Schneider as far back as October. Just how long the Sharks have been in the mix remains to be seen, but their search for rights-controlled right-shot defenders operates independently of their immediate likelihood of playoff contention.