- Jacob Trouba’s four-year, $34 million Sharks contract is drawing heat a month after free agency
- The Athletic’s model pegs his market value at $3.1 million against an $8.25 million cap hit
- Read below for the full terms, the term risk and what Trouba said about picking San Jose
Jacob Trouba’s contract is still getting picked apart a month after he signed it.
The Sharks gave the defenseman four years and $34 million on July 1, an $8.25 million cap hit that critics now call one of the biggest overpays of the summer. AFP Analytics had projected four years at $6.4 million annually. San Jose went nearly $2 million past that.
PuckPedia laid out the full structure:
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic ran the deal through his model within minutes of the news. The card put Trouba’s market value at $3.1 million against the $8.3 million cap hit, with a 1 percent chance the contract ever produces positive value.
Take a look at the card that had everyone wincing:
The projected net rating slides from minus-2.0 this coming season to minus-4.8 by 2029-30, the year Trouba turns 36.
Three weeks later he turned up at No. 5 on Luszczyszyn’s annual worst contracts list, one spot behind Leo Carlsson and four behind Jonathan Huberdeau, who took the top spot for a third straight year.
Josh Cybulski of Pro Hockey Rumors revisited the signing Thursday and landed in the same spot. The cap hit is hard to justify, but the term is the riskier piece, because defensemen who play on the edge the way Trouba does rarely age well.
His actual production in Anaheim was not the problem. Trouba put up 10 goals and 25 assists in 81 games, his best offensive year since 2021-22, while logging close to 23 minutes a night and throwing 143 hits for a Ducks team that made the playoffs.
Whether San Jose is buying that version or the one the Rangers were stuck with is the whole argument.
Trouba was asked on signing day why he chose the Sharks. He told reporters San Jose was not the only team offering four years, and that the fit came down to comfort for him and his family:
San Jose has cap room right now, so none of this stings yet. That flexibility shrinks fast once Macklin Celebrini’s new extension kicks in and Will Smith gets his deal.
