Luca Cagnoni Got Two Minutes Forty Seven A Night On San Jose's Power Play And Nothing At All On Its Kill

San Jose has played Luca Cagnoni nine times in the National Hockey League and put him on the power play in both call-ups. Six games in 2024-25, at 2:55 a night. Three games last season, at 2:47. Those are first-unit rates handed to a man with no NHL résumé, twice, on purpose.

Now sort the same three games by the other special team. Hockey Reference's San Jose time-on-ice table gives Cagnoni 0:00 a night shorthanded last season. Sam Dickinson, a year younger and a rookie himself, got 0:54. Dmitry Orlov got 0:46.

Every published projection of Cagnoni's season is an argument about the first of those two columns. His games-played total will be decided by the second.

The one job that is open#

San Jose has six defensemen under contract and $30,373,750 committed to them, by PuckPedia's per-player rows. Darnell Nurse at $9.25 million, Jacob Trouba at $8.25 million, Orlov at $6.5 million, Michael Kesselring at $4.5 million, then Dickinson at $953,750 and Cagnoni at $920,000. Five of those six jobs were bought in advance. The sixth is the one being competed for, and Cagnoni is the reason it is interesting rather than a formality.

He is also the only one of the six the club can move for nothing. PuckPedia lists his waivers status as Exempt, read on August 30. Every veteran ahead of him would have to clear 31 other clubs first. Nolan Allan, the seventh defenseman in two of the four public lineup projections, is Eligible. So in an October roster crunch, on a club carrying an eight-figure blue line it cannot unwind, Cagnoni is the cheapest correction available and it costs the front office one phone call.

The projection everyone agrees on#

Sheng Peng published opening-night power-play units at San Jose Hockey Now on August 7, with Jack Han and the former NHL defenseman Jason Demers, and put Cagnoni at the first-unit point. Professor Hockey reached the same lineup on August 28. Two projections, four voices, one chair.

None of them has addressed what shape the vacancy actually has. John Klingberg played 165.5 power-play minutes across 56 games last season and was on the ice for 16 of San Jose's 54 power-play goals, and he is a right shot. That is what left. Cagnoni shoots left. So does Orlov, who played 203.5 power-play minutes, the most of any San Jose defenseman, and was out there for 32 of those 54 goals. The club has two right shots on the whole blue line, Trouba and Kesselring, and between them they played 55.4 power-play minutes all of last season.

Mike Grier has been more careful than any of the projections. Speaking to Miller in a story published August 14, the general manager said Cagnoni had "two good years in the AHL" and that "if he does make it, the team would probably insulate him a little bit." Read the conditional.

Best case#

He wins the sixth job in camp, holds it through October, and the Barracuda production travels. Cagnoni put up 43 points in 67 games for San Jose's farm club last season, eight goals and 35 assists. Professor Hockey, projecting an 84-game season on August 5, has him at 35 or more points.

That is an unambiguously good year for a 21-year-old defenseman, and it makes the summer's spending look like insurance rather than a wall.

Worst case#

He is on the Barracuda by American Thanksgiving and nobody has to explain why. No waiver cost, no contract to eat, and four veterans whose paychecks argue for playing them. Grant Lombard's open call on this site's ledger, filed July 28, has Cagnoni under 42 regular-season games for San Jose this year.

Those two forecasts do not fit together. Thirty-five points in 41 games is a 0.85 per-game rate, which across 84 games is 71 points, and no 21-year-old defenseman was going to post that. Either the games arrive and the projection is reachable, or they do not and it was never the question.

What to watch early#

The penalty kill, and it is readable off any box score.

Cagnoni had 0:00 of it last season. If he is killing penalties in the first two weeks of October, the coaching staff has decided he is a defenseman rather than a specialist, and a defenseman who kills is a defenseman who dresses 70 times. If he is still at zero in November while running a power play, he is a situational player on a team with four expensive alternatives, and situational players are the ones who get sent down when the roster gets tight.

The opener is the other one. San Jose hosts Florida on October 1, and the official box score publishes power-play time on ice by player the same night. This desk has an open call, filed August 19, that Orlov records more of it than Cagnoni in that game.

The stakes#

San Jose has not made the playoffs in seven seasons. The last berth was 2018-19, and this is the first summer of the rebuild where the club has spent like a team that expects the drought to end.

Cagnoni's contract expires in July 2027 and he becomes a restricted free agent. Sixty or seventy games with real power-play minutes makes that negotiation expensive and the blue line cheaper for three years after it. Twenty games and a shuttle to the Barracuda makes him a depth piece the club argues about again next August. The power play San Jose is deciding whether to hand him finished last season at 21.18 percent on 255 chances, seven hundredths of a point above league average.

Yesterday: Almost half of Dmitry Orlov's points came on a power play he is projected to lose.

Sources: Hockey Reference (San Jose 2025-26 time-on-ice and advanced tables; Cagnoni career page and date of birth). PuckPedia (per-player cap rows, contract terms and waivers status, read August 30 and September 2). Elite Prospects and the San Jose Barracuda season record for the American Hockey League line. Sheng Peng at San Jose Hockey Now, August 7, for the projected power-play units. Professor Hockey, August 5 for the point projection and August 28 for the units. Max Miller at Sharks Hockey Digest, August 14, for the Grier quotes. Curtis Pashelka at the Mercury News, September 1.