- Position
- D
- Number
- #65
- Age
- 32
- Pieces here
- 20
Status Signed July 1, 2026 (4yr; full NTC through 2027-28)
On the record
Called Shots →Doing both the Trouba signing and the Nurse trade is an overcommitment whose bill lands around 2029, right as the title window opens.
With the cap jumping to $104M, UFA defensemen get bid up and cap-dump absorption trades dry up. Priced Trouba around three years, $17M total.
Luca Cagnoni plays fewer than 42 regular-season games for the San Jose Sharks in 2026-27. Scored off his official NHL regular-season games-played total for San Jose only: 41 or fewer is a hit, 42 or more is a miss, including if he reaches 42 after being recalled from the Barracuda, and including if he is traded (games for another club do not count).
Dmitry Orlov records more power-play time on ice than Luca Cagnoni in San Jose's regular-season opener against Florida on October 1, 2026.
Jacob Trouba has the highest shorthanded ice time per game of any San Jose defenseman across the club's first 20 games of 2026-27.
San Jose allows fewer than 3.54 goals per game across the first 20 games of 2026-27, an improvement on the 3.54 it allowed across all 82 games of 2025-26.
Eric Pohlkamp plays 10 or more NHL regular-season games for San Jose in 2026-27.
Luca Cagnoni averages under 0:30 a game of shorthanded time on ice across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Keaton Verhoeff does not sign an NHL entry-level contract with San Jose on or before May 31, 2027, and returns to North Dakota for a third college season.
Written about him
Michael Kesselring Went From Seventy Power Play Minutes To Two Seconds In One Season
Michael Kesselring played 69:49 on the power play for Utah in 2024-25 across all 82 games, then two seconds in 34 injury-shortened games for Buffalo. San Jose's blue line gave 82 percent of its power-play minutes to two men last season, Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg, and Klingberg, a right shot, is gone. The club's roster feed lists four right-shot defensemen and two of them have never played an NHL game. Jacob Trouba, the other one who has, owns one power-play point across his last 158 games. That leaves the Utah season as the only evidence San Jose has that anybody on its right side can do the job.
Sort San Jose's Blue Line By Zone Starts And Sam Dickinson Is At The Bottom
Six defensemen are signed for 2026-27. Ranked by last season's even-strength offensive zone start rate, the least sheltered of them is Sam Dickinson, who was 19 and playing his first NHL season. The four men who actually absorbed San Jose's defensive-zone faceoffs are all off the roster.
Mike Grier Bought The House
A blue-line overhaul was mandatory. Paying the top of the market on double the term was not. Comparable defensemen went for $4M that week and the best one available went for two years, while San Jose committed four.
Jacob Trouba and the reputation premium
What $33 million actually bought, what it didn't, and whether he can still kill a penalty.
