Sharks sign former No. 6 overall pick

After completing the contract termination process with the Detroit Red Wings last week, 2018 sixth-overall pick Filip Zadina has quickly found his new home. He’s signed a one-year, $1.1M contract with the San Jose Sharks, as announced by the team today.

The Czech winger registered just seven points in 30 NHL games in 2022-23, the first year of a three-year, $5.475M extension he’d signed in Detroit late last summer. With a lack of any real offensive development occurring in the Motor City, Zadina requested a trade through his agent around the 2023 NHL Draft – which Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said he’d pursued to no avail.

Yzerman then made the decision to waive Zadina early last week, exposing him to every team in the league for free. With a two-year commitment and back-loaded contract, however, there were no takers, leading the two parties to cut ties entirely via mutual termination last Friday.

Zadina now lands in San Jose on an affordable, low-risk contract, helping him recoup some of the money he walked away from via his contract termination with Detroit. He was set to earn $1.83M from Detroit this season, so it’s a pay cut of roughly $700K, but likely more due to taxes.

In the Bay Area, Zadina could garner attention in a top-six role out of training camp, potentially alongside countryman Tomas Hertl. San Jose did some ancillary work to boost their top six by acquiring Anthony Duclair from the Florida Panthers earlier this month, giving the Sharks and head coach David Quinn a lot of combinations for their top two lines. They’ll likely include some mixture of Hertl, Zadina and Duclair, along with Logan Couture, Alexander Barabanov and 2021 seventh-overall pick William Eklund.

During his less-than-illustrious NHL stint thus far, Zadina has played 190 games (all in Detroit) and has accumulated 28 goals, 40 assists, and 68 points. His most productive season was in 2021-22, recording 10 goals, 14 assists, and 24 points in 74 games played. Among Red Wings forwards, he ranked sixth in assists that season.

Zadina has also participated in 82 AHL games, scoring 26 goals and 26 assists for the Grand Rapids Griffins. Of note, his $1.1M cap hit comes in just under this season’s buriable threshold of $1.125M, so he can be assigned to the AHL without any cap penalty to the Sharks.

He’ll be a restricted free agent again next offseason, and he’ll be due a qualifying offer equal to this year’s $1.1M salary.