The San Jose Sharks have traded defenseman Jake Walman to the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional 2026 first-round pick and forward Carl Berglund.

The Oilers receive:

Walman, who has leveraged an opportunity on a rebuilding Sharks team into a career season (32 PTS in 50 GP). At the time of the trade, he also led the Sharks in icetime per game (23:11) and was also on their top power play.

The Sharks receive:

Another first-round pick to add to the rebuild.

Berglund, a 25-year-old center who has 11 points in 45 games for the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL.

Fantasy impact:

Walman moves to a much deeper Oilers defense, where he is more likely to slot in on the second or third pair behind Mattias Ekholm and possibly Darnell Nurse on the left side. Walman won't likely play on the top power play either, since the top unit with Evan Bouchard is already set in stone. All in all, Walman's shares take a serious hit, although in a small victory he could improve on his minus-1. Another silver lining is that only seven of Walman's 32 points have come with the man advantage, so he wasn't scoring as much as he could on the power play anyway. The Oilers simply don't need to lean on Walman as much as the Sharks did.

Timothy Liljegren seems the most likely player to take over on the Sharks' top power play in the short term. Henry Thrun, Jack Thompson, and/or Shakir Mukhamadullin could also contest for power-play minutes. The longer-term play could be Sam Dickinson, who is lighting up the OHL with 76 points in just 47 games with the London Knights. However, Dickinson is only 18 years old and still could be a year or two away. Luca Cagnoni (41 PTS in 51 GP in his first AHL season) is another name to watch here.  

Players this helps, in order:

Liljegren

Thrun/Thompson/Mukhamadullin

Players this hurts, in order:

Walman

John Klingberg

Troy Stecher

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Discuss the trade in this thread on the Forum.