The Edmonton Oilers added defenseman Jake Walman to their blueline in a deal with the San Jose Sharks ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline.
The Sharks get AHL forward Carl Berglund and a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick in the deal with Edmonton.
The pick is top-12 protected. If the selection is in the top 12, Edmonton might choose to transfer its 2027 first-round selection to San Jose instead. Should the Oilers do so before the 2026 NHL trade deadline, their 2026 first-round selection will transfer to San Jose, unconditionally.
Walman is having the most productive season of his six-year NHL career. The defenseman has 6 goals and 26 assists in 50 games for the Sharks, skating to only a minus-1 on the NHL's worst defensive team. He skated a career-high 23 minutes, 11 seconds per game.
Walman is signed through the 2025-26 season with a $3.4 million cap hit.
The trade was a stellar bit of asset management by Sharks general manager Mike Grier. He acquired Walman and a second-round pick from the Detroit Red Wings in 2024 for yet to be defined "future considerations." He has now turned Walman into a first-round pick.
Berglund, a UMass-Lowell product, has played with Bakersfield for the past three seasons. He has 12 points in 45 games this season.
The Sharks have been busy ahead of the deadline, trading goalie Vitek Vanecek and forward Nico Sturm to the Florida Panthers in separate transactions.
The Oilers made a splash this week when they acquired center Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins, adding another key role player to a team trying to make the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season.