SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks reportedly bolstered their forward group on the first day of NHL free agency Monday — and possibly gave Macklin Celebrini his first NHL linemate — signing veteran Tyler Toffoli to a multi-year contract.
Toffoli’s reported four-year, $24 million deal with the Sharks has an average annual value of $6 million and a full no-movement clause.
The deal also makes Toffoli the Sharks’ second-highest-paid forward behind captain Logan Couture, who has three years left on his eight-year, $64 million deal. Toffoli and Couture were teammates for one season with the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League in 2008-09.
The Sharks were looking to add some scoring up front after they had just one winger, Fabian Zetterlund, break the 20-goal plateau last season. As a team, the Sharks scored just 181 goals, the second-lowest total in the NHL.
Sharks general manager Mike Grier said last week that he might have to pay a premium to get the player they want, and Toffoli has scored at least 20 goals in a season six times in his 12-year NHL career. He had a career-high 34 goals with the Calgary Flames two years ago.
The Sharks also wanted to try to provide offensive support to their top young players, center Will Smith and Celebrini, the potential future franchise cornerstones. The 19-year-old Smith, who was drafted fourth overall last year, signed his entry-level contract in May, and Celebrini, 18, was taken first overall by the Sharks at the NHL Draft on Friday in Las Vegas.
Celebrini, last season’s Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top player, has yet to declare whether he’ll sign with the Sharks or return to Boston University for his sophomore season.
There is little question, though, that his dad, Rick Celebrini, wants to see his son have the best chance at success in the NHL. That meant the Sharks had to try to surround Macklin, and by extension, Smith, with the right types of players to help them adjust to pro hockey — on and off the ice. Smith turned pro after one season at Boston College.
In the 32-year-old Toffoli, the Sharks have a player who has 260 career goals and 521 points in 812 games, including 33 goals with the New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets this past season. He won the Stanley Cup in 2014 with the Los Angeles Kings.
“Knowing the leaders within the Sharks organization, I know they’re thinking along the same lines,” Rick Celebrini said Friday night in Las Vegasin terms of adding veterans. “I think it has to be a win-win, and what’s best for the Sharks is going to ultimately be the best for Macklin, and that’s just to make sure that it’s the right environment for him to succeed.”
The Sharks’ leadership group includes captain Logan Couture and fellow veterans Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, and Mario Ferraro. Earlier this offseason, the Sharks, in an effort to become a harder team to play against, have also brought in forwards Barclay Goodrow, Ty Dellandrea, and Carl Grundstrom. San Jose finished last season with the worst record in the NHL at 19-54-9.
The Sharks are Toffoli’s seventh NHL team. A second-round draft pick by the Kings in 2010, Toffoli spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NHL career in Los Angeles before he was traded to Vancouver in Feb. 2020.
He signed a four-year, $17 million deal with the Montreal Canadiens as a free agent in Oct. 2020, but has been traded three times in the last two-plus years, most recently going from New Jersey to Winnipeg in March.
Toffoli joined the Jets for the stretch run and had nine goals in 27 games, including two in five playoff games as the Jets lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs.
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