The San Jose Sharks announced on Sunday afternoon that they acquired defenseman Ryan Ellis and a conditional sixth-round pick from the Philadelphia Flyers.
San Jose sent Philadelphia forward Carl Grundstrom and defenseman Artem Gruyère in return.
Ellis will likely not play a game for the Sharks. He has not played a game since Nov. 2021, when he tore a psoas muscle in his back that, in all likelihood, ended his NHL career.
He sustained the injury in his fourth game with the Flyers after they acquired him in a trade from the Nashville Predators back in 2021.
The 34-year-old defenseman is in the seventh year of an eight year, $50 million deal he signed with Nashville in Aug. 2018. He will carry an annual cap hit of $6.25 million for the next two seasons before his contract expires following the 2026-27 season.
San Jose will have more than enough cap space to accommodate for Ellis’ contract, as they will still have $4.6 million in room under the NHL’s $95.5 million salary cap ceiling after making the trade.
The Flyers, meanwhile, now have $7.24 million in salary cap space after making the move and will no longer need to operate with Ellis’ salary being on long-term injured reserve. This gives them plenty of flexibility to make moves during the season and accrue cap space ahead of the 2026 trade deadline should they find themselves in the playoff hunt.
The condition on the sixth-round pick that San Jose acquires is that it will be the earlier of the Columbus Blue Jackets or Philadelphia Flyers’ picks that the Flyers have. Philadelphia previously acquired Columbus’ sixth-round pick in a previous trade.
Grundstrom, whom the Flyers acquired in the deal, played in 56 games for the Sharks last season. He scored three goals and nine points. He has played in 292 career games with San Jose and the Los Angeles Kings, scoring 43 goals and 76 points.
Guryev spent last season playing in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder. He was selected by the Sharks with the 135th overall pick (fifth round) of the 2021 NHL Draft.
