Should the Sharks buy out defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic?

Once a premier shutdown defenseman, Vlasic’s skills have eroded as he’s aged, and the decline of his on-ice value has mirrored the decline in his on-ice role. Vlasic himself has seemingly not been thrilled about his declining usage under Boughner and spoke on it in his end-of-season press conference. After noting that he finished third among defensemen in points and was “more physical” than the year before, Vlasic asked the assembled media to “imagine if [he] played more,” a clear indication that he believes his play is worthy of a greater role than he received in 2021-22.

On one hand, Vlasic is correct to note that his role has declined in recent years. Vlasic used to regularly play 22-23 minutes per game, anchoring the Sharks’ defense and being routinely relied upon in the most high-leverage defensive situations. This year, Vlasic averaged a career-low 15:13 time-on-ice per game, ranking seventh on the team among defensemen with at least 40 games played. Vlasic is also correct that he did rank third on the team in points by a defenseman, although his 14 points in 75 games is certainly not an offensive breakout and still a steep decline from the offensive form he showed earlier in his career when he played in a Pete DeBoer-coached system that prioritized generating offense from the point.

On the other hand, Vlasic is clearly not worth the $7M cap hit he earns. The work by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn and Shayna Goldman assigns Vlasic a market value of just $600k, noting a clear negative impact on his team’s offensive play.

Perhaps most damningly, Vlasic is no longer a factor on the Sharks’ penalty kill. Vlasic averaged only 49 seconds of shorthanded ice time per game, which ranked seventh among Sharks defensemen. Vlasic is an extremely accomplished player who means a lot to the Sharks franchise. That much is not arguable. But if he’s a defense-first blueliner who has become a non-factor on the penalty kill and has little to no offensive value, can the Sharks afford to keep him on their books at a $7M cap hit and realistically be able to return to playoff contention?

That’s the question the Sharks’ next general manager will need to grapple with. For what it’s worth, Vlasic seemed completely unconcerned by the possibility of a buyout, answering with a simple “no” when asked if he was concerned about being bought out this summer. But even if Vlasic does not believe the possibility is likely, the cap benefits would definitely look appealing to any GM planning on making immediate moves in free agency.

Under a Vlasic buyout, the Sharks would save $3.3M against the cap in 2022-23, $5.5M in 2023-24, $2.8M in 2024-25, and $1.8M in 2025-26, at the cost of a $1.68M dead cap charge from 2026-27 to 2029-30. If the Sharks are certain that they want to return to the playoffs as early as next season, saving nearly $9M over the next two seasons could be huge in helping the team secure the necessary upgrades to their roster in order to do so.

If the Sharks’ next coach is intent on utilizing Vlasic in a similar fashion to how Boughner deployed him in 2021-22, then a Vlasic buyout wouldn’t be too disruptive to the Sharks’ ability to construct a defense. So, with the potential to save several million dollars against the cap in the next two years, with moderate savings in the two years after that, the possibility of a Vlasic buyout cannot be ruled out for a Sharks organization desperate to return to the playoffs.