4 Teams Still Interested In Acquiring Sharks' Ferraro

The San Jose Sharks did some work to their defense this offseason by bringing in Dmitry Orlov, Nick Leddy, and John Klingberg. While this helps the team get to the salary cap floor, it reduces the role for players like Shakir Mukhamadullin and Jack Thompson. This is why someone like Mario Ferraro is assumed to be on the trade block with one year left on his deal at $3.25 million AAV before he becomes a UFA.

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Winnipeg Jets, and Calgary Flames have all been linked to Ferraro.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have over $4 million in cap space to still spend, and while they cleared out some place earlier in the offseason to potentially make some moves, the defensive change came with letting Ryan Lindgren head to free agency and signing Brent Burns for cheaper. While Sam Malinski did pretty well for the Avalanche last season, he didn't have a huge role on the back-end and Ferraro would be a clear upgrade on the left side. It also gives the team more defensive depth for when Josh Manson or someone else likely gets injured and misses games.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning are only in position to add Ferraro if there is retention as they have slightly over $1 million in cap space available. While it isn't a concern that one of the top six defensemen will be pushed down to the seventh spot, everyone except JJ Moser played at least 73 games. But Moser is a top-4 d-man. What the Lightning could be cooking is acquiring a replacement for Ryan McDonagh, who is going into the last year of his deal. Ferraro could absolutely play top-4 minutes in Tampa Bay and be a fix ahead of time for that defensive group.

Winnipeg Jets

There is no concern about cap space for the Jets right now, even after the three RFAs get contracts, but they do have the money to upgrade their defense. They should not be going forward with either Logan Stanley or Haydn Fleury as their sixth d-man. While Ferraro would be a bit underutilized on the third pairing, he could find more ice time elsewhere and would really shore up the back-end. He is only under contract for one year and it seems like it is much easier for the Jets to acquire players through trades than bring in necessary pieces in free agency.

Calgary Flames

There is good reason to believe that the Flames are going to trade Rasmus Andersson before the trade deadline while it would make sense to play Jake Bean or Daniil Miromanov less. They already played 64 and 44 games respectively last season. Kevin Bahl and Mackenzie Weegar are the only d-men locked in long-term right now, and while Ferraro won't be unless the Flames acquire and sign him, it would be a boost to help them get back to the playoffs. They can't just stay stagnant another season while some of their better players are in their mid-30s.