San Jose Sharks add scoring forward in free agency
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 four-year, $24 million contract with the Sharks has an average annual value of $6 million — per multiple outlets — 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.
The Sharks also wanted to try to provide offensive support to their top young players, center Will Smith and Celebrini, the potential future franchise cornerstone who they took first overall at the NHL Draft on Friday in Las Vegas.
In the 32-year-old Toffoli, the Sharks have someone who had 260 career goals in 812 games, including 33 goals with the Winnipeg Jets this past season, and won the Stanley Cup in 2014 with the Los Angeles Kings.
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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