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The San Jose Sharks signed defenseman Mario Ferraro to a four-year contract extension last month, which carries a $3.25 million cap hit.

Ferraro has been a regular member of the Sharks’ defense group for the last three seasons and has already taken on an important role. This past season, he averaged 23 minutes per game, while facing a very high quality of competition. Now after Brent Burns’ departure as well, Ferraro will be an even more important member of the blue line. The Sharks have a fairly weak defense group and Ferraro will be counted on in a big way.

The four-year deal makes sense, but the one downside is that Ferraro will be an unrestricted free agent when the contract expires. If the Sharks opted for a short-term deal, they could’ve used a couple more years to determine his long-term value. Ferraro is going to be a key part of their defense group for a long time and signing a longer term extension while he was still a restricted free agent could’ve made sense. With this deal, he’d have the option to test free agency at a time in which the Sharks may just be getting competitive again.

That said, a $3.25 million cap hit is a great price for Ferraro over the next four years. He’s hugely important to the team and at just 24 years old, it’s likely we'll see him continue to develop. He still has some room to improve both offensively and even defensively, so it’ll be exciting to see how high his ceiling may be. Despite their position, the Sharks don’t have a ton of cap space and keeping Ferraro’s price as low as possible was important.

Overall, Ferraro’s four-year contract looks really good for the Sharks and he’s poised to be one of their most important players through the duration of the deal.


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