Sharks sign former first-round pick Luke Kunin to two-year, $5.5M deal

The San Jose Sharks signed Luke Kunin to a two-year contract, according to PuckPedia. The deal will carry an average annual value of $2.75M. Kunin was eligible for salary arbitration this summer but chose not to file.

Kunin, 24, was acquired from the Nashville Predators this offseason in exchange for John Leonard (who also signed Monday) and a third-round pick. The young forward has changed his game in recent years to lean in to his physicality, and after racking up a whopping 223 hits in 2021-22, he offers something new to the San Jose bottom six.

There’s also a bit of offensive skill in the 2016 first-round pick, who has double-digit goals in each of his last three seasons, all of them coming at even-strength or while short-handed. That kind of scoring upside will come in handy as the Sharks start to tear apart the old core and rebuild it under new general manager Mike Grier.

Notably, it will leave Kunin as a restricted free agent at its expiry, giving the Sharks a chance to reassess whether he can be a long-term solution. He will once again be up for arbitration at that point.