The 2026-27 blue line, built: draft the right shot, rent the right shots, free the kids
The Sharks do not have a talent problem on the back end. They have a handedness problem and a timeline problem, and the good news is both get solved by the same plan. So here is the whole thing: who plays, who you sign, who you trade, and why it competes this year without mortgaging the next five.
The diagnosis
Strip it down. Under contract for 2026-27, the Sharks have three NHL defensemen: Orlov, Dickinson, Cagnoni. Every one of them shoots left. Liljegren, the one young right shot, was shipped to Washington in March. So San Jose walks into the summer with zero established top-four right shots returning and a left side stacked five deep. You are not shopping for the best player available. You are shopping for a specific hand.
The one idea that governs everything: Reid
You are about to draft Chase Reid second overall, a right-shot top-pair defenseman who lands in the NHL in 2027-28 at the earliest (he is off to Michigan State first). He is the top-pair right shot this franchise has not had since the Karlsson trade. That one fact is the planning constraint: every right shot you add this summer is a bridge to Reid, not a replacement for him. Two and three-year deals only. The first long-term right-shot contract you sign should be Reid's second one, not a 34-year-old's first one in teal.
The cap wants you to behave this way anyway. The Celebrini extension (around $15M) plus the Misa, Smith, Dickinson, and Chernyshov raises all hit starting in 2027-28. Whatever you spend in the next two years has to be gone by then. So spend it on bridges.
The top 7 and the pairings
| Pair | Left | Right | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dmitry Orlov | John Carlson | Tough minutes, PP1, the 2018 reunion |
| 2 | Sam Dickinson | Michael Kesselring | The step-up pair, real competition, PP2 |
| 3 | Luca Cagnoni | Vincent Desharnais | Young puck-mover behind a physical shield |
| 7th | - | Eric Pohlkamp | First callup; Leddy as veteran insurance |
Three right, three left, clean down the middle. And notice what it is built to do: the veterans absorb the hard defensive water and run the power play, which frees the staff to push Dickinson up, not down. His rookie year was sheltered on competition and handed zero power-play time. Year two on a real second pair against middle-to-tough lines, with actual man-advantage reps, is the exact progression his numbers earned. Cagnoni gets the genuinely sheltered third-pair role a 21-year-old should get, with Desharnais cleaning up behind him.
The moves, in order
1. Draft Chase Reid, No. 2 overall (RHD). The future top-pair right shot, and the reason everything else stays short. Not a 2026-27 roster piece, and that is the point.
2. Sign John Carlson (UFA, RHD): 2 years, about $9.5M to $10M. The bridge top-pair right shot and a PP1 quarterback, the single biggest on-ice upgrade on the market. The two-year term is the whole pitch: at 36 he cannot command the deals that scare you, the money is in the budget right now, and the contract is gone before the extensions bite. He played with Orlov on the 2018 Cup team, so the top pair has a built-in history. A straight upgrade on Klingberg at both ends.
3. Re-sign Vincent Desharnais (UFA, RHD): 2 years, about $3.5M. Low cost, real right-shot depth, physical, mentors the young left side, paired well with Dickinson. The cheapest way to keep the right side one injury away from a callup instead of a crisis.
4. Trade Shakir Mukhamadullin to Buffalo for Michael Kesselring (RHD). The elegant one, because it fixes two problems at once. Mukhamadullin is a blocked, frustrated left shot other teams covet. Kesselring is a 25-year-old right shot Buffalo discarded into the press box, the perfect-fit buy-low. A one-for-one change of scenery where each side bets the other's environment was the problem, and the Sharks win on fit because they are drowning in lefties and starving for righties. Fallback: if Buffalo balks, Mukhamadullin plus a mid pick for Ristolainen, or keep Mukhamadullin as an off-side-flex seventh. Do not give him away for nothing.
5. Promote Luca Cagnoni (LHD) to a full-time bottom-pair role. He has knocked on the door for two years and posted a 50-point AHL season. He needs October and November games, not just end-of-season eliminated-team minutes. Stop stacking veteran roadblocks in front of him.
6. Elevate Sam Dickinson (LHD): tougher competition, real power-play reps. Not a transaction, a deployment instruction, and it matters. He was the best even-strength driver of any young Sharks defenseman last year while sheltered on competition and muzzled on the power play. Year two is when the training wheels come off.
Why it competes, and why it does not cost the future
It competes: Orlov-Carlson is a legitimate top pair for one year, Dickinson takes the step his numbers say he is ready for, Kesselring is a cheap swing with second-pair upside, Cagnoni adds mobility on an entry-level hit, Desharnais stabilizes. That is a playoff-fringe blue line, which is the correct ambition for this team, not Cup-or-bust. Put it behind Celebrini, Misa, Smith, Eklund, and Sherwood with Askarov in net and you are pushing for a wild-card spot.
It does not cost the future: nothing runs past two years except the entry-level deals, so Carlson, Desharnais, and Kesselring all expire before the 2027-28 extension wave. The only asset you move is Mukhamadullin, who had no path here, and he comes back as the position you actually need. The No. 20 pick, Bystedt, and Musty all stay in the chamber for a forward swing. The left side is set for years. And Reid is the long-term right side every one of these bridges is clearing the runway for.
What NOT to do
The summary line
Reid is the future, Carlson and Kesselring and Desharnais are the two-year bridge, and Dickinson and Cagnoni are the present nobody is talking about. The whole thing costs you one blocked prospect and a pile of cap space you were going to lose anyway. Patience with the term, aggression with the deployment.
Contracts and handedness verified against state/cap.md (PuckPedia/CapWages). Full plan filed at docs/2026-offseason/2026-06-05_blue-line-plan_top7-and-transactions.md. Free-agent and trade targets per the Professor Hockey June 4 trade-market and May 31 free-agency videos; Reid per the No. 2 decision memo and the Pronman scout panel.
