Sharks Trade Granlund, Ceci to Stars for Picks

The San Jose Sharks have dealt their biggest Trade Deadline chip.

The Sharks have traded leading scorer Mikael Granlund and stalwart defenseman Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars for the Stars’ 2025 first-round pick and a conditional 2025 third-round pick.

San Jose gets Dallas’ third if the Stars advance to the 2025 Stanley Cup Final. If not, the Sharks will receive the Winnipeg Jets’ 2025 fourth instead.

“I call him a Swiss Army knife,” Stars GM Jim Nill said of the versatile Granlund, before joking, “Maybe a Finnish Army knife.”

“Granny and Cec, are two players that did really well for us,” San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said. “We valued and we set our price out, Dallas was ready to meet it. That’s really the main reason why we did it.”

Granlund, 32, led the Sharks last season with 60 points in 69 games and was the media-voted Team MVP. This year, the all-situations center has been just as good, pacing San Jose with 45 points in 52 contests.

He was just named alternate captain for Team Finland at the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off.

The Sharks alternate captain was also a huge locker room influence on San Jose’s young forwards, from Macklin Celebrini to Will Smith to William Eklund to Fabian Zetterlund.

Ceci, 30, was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in the off-season. The stay-at-home defender, averaging 21:46 a night, was the Sharks’ No. 2 defenseman.

Grier called the go-to penalty killer a “stabilizing force” for the youngsters on San Jose’s blueline.

Both Granlund and Ceci, however, were UFAs.

So the San Jose Sharks, in the midst of their rebuild, looked to the future once again with this trade, while Dallas armed themselves for another run to the Cup.