
San Jose Sharks · 2026-27
6'1" · 190 lb · Age 24
-4.7
goals above replacement per 82 games
-1.0 over his 17 games. Percentile among 159 league forwards with 200 or more five-on-five minutes. Method v0.1
Goals above replacement over his 17 games, by part.
Difficulty of his minutes (the quality of his opponents and linemates) is not measured: no free public source carries it.
The number over each bar is his percentile among 159 league forwards. No rank yet: under 30 minutes on the unit.
The number over each bar is his percentile among 66 to 159 league forwards. Chances against are inverted, so a tall bar always reads well.
The league's puck and player tracking, through 17 games. Percentiles are the league's own.
2026-27: +6.3 (range -7.2 to +19.8). 2031-32: +4.5 (range -29.9 to +38.9). No dollar line yet: market value waits on a league contract table.
2026-27 regular season: 17 games, 263 minutes. Sources: NHL.com for the roster, the counting line and NHL Edge tracking; MoneyPuck for expected goals, on-ice chances, zone starts, blocks and penalties; PuckPedia and CapWages for the contract. Updated 2026-11-06. The rating and the forecast are this site's own, from public data, with the method published. All cards →
Status RFA, qualified June 30, negotiating; flagged as the odd man out of an overloaded top nine and a plausible trade chip (Professor Hockey, July 1)
Collin Graf signs a short bridge deal in August rather than being traded before camp.
Collin Graf finishes the 2026-27 season with at least 50 points.
Graf's next contract after this one carries a cap hit above $6.5 million.
San Jose signs Will Smith to a new contract of five years or fewer on or before July 1, 2027.
Adam Gaudette dresses for fewer than 60 of San Jose's 84 regular-season games in 2026-27, down from 66 of 82 in 2025-26.
Barclay Goodrow averages less than 1:55 of shorthanded ice time per game across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27, down from 1:55 across all 82 games in 2025-26.
San Jose scores 2.0 or fewer goals per sixty minutes at even strength with Zack Ostapchuk on the ice across the club's first 25 games of 2026-27, no better than the 1.6 he posted across 59 games in 2025-26.
Collin Graf is not among San Jose's top eight forwards in total power-play time on ice across the club's first 20 regular-season games of 2026-27.
Igor Chernyshov averages more than 2.00 shots on goal per game across San Jose's first 20 regular-season games of 2026-27.
Sam Dickinson averages more time on ice per game than Darnell Nurse across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Ivar Stenberg appears in 11 or more of San Jose's first 13 regular-season games in 2026-27.

Will Smith scored twice as San Jose beat Vancouver 3-2 with three goals in 2:50 on shots worth 0.36 expected goals combined.

San Jose practiced on October 12 with four new forward lines: Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith, Stenberg-Misa-Sherwood, Marchment-Wennberg-Toffoli and Ostapchuk between Graf and either Dellandrea or Gaudette, with Barclay Goodrow off the ice with an illness and questionable for Tuesday's game against Boston. The defense pairs did not change. Ivar Stenberg, 19, replaced Chernyshov on the first power-play unit; San Jose is 2 for 13 on the power play and 0 for 7 over its last three games. Warsofsky said the club is not playing in the offensive zone enough to create offense. At five-on-five San Jose has scored 7 goals and allowed 13 through five games, with 34.3 percent of MoneyPuck's expected goals, 31st of 32 clubs; last season's full-year share was 47.6 percent. Boston, 4-2-0, has allowed 7 five-on-five goals in six games.

Collin Graf spent 39 minutes and 38 seconds on the power play across 81 games last season, tenth among San Jose forwards, and 200 minutes killing penalties, which was first. He scored 21 goals anyway and finished with 42 even-strength points, tied with Will Smith for second on the team behind Macklin Celebrini. San Jose then signed him for three years and $12,750,000. The open house row on him says he reaches 50 points, and the entire case for that is usage the club has never given him.

Zack Ostapchuk started 33.8 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone last season, third-lowest of the thirteen San Jose forwards who dressed 40 times, and San Jose allowed 2.7 goals per sixty with him on the ice at even strength, tied with Collin Graf for the lowest rate in that group. The same table has him at 1.6 goals for per sixty, tied third-lowest. The four-year contract signed in June is a bet that the second number moves, and both public line projections put him back with the wingers it did not move with.

Collin Graf signed for three years and $12.75 million, a $4.25 million cap hit. The price is roughly the consensus. The term is a hedge, and it schedules his next negotiation for a summer San Jose already has bills in.

The Sharks qualified Collin Graf and then spent the summer signing forwards. A month later he is the last RFA standing, and the delay says more about the depth chart than about the money.

Collin Graf, and the contract you sign before everyone else does the math

The 2025-26 Sharks ran out a dozen different forward combinations around Michael Misa. Nine games and sixty-seven minutes of one specific configuration produced the best per-minute

An undrafted right wing from Lincoln, Mass., posted the highest 5v5 expected goals per 60 on a Sharks roster that included Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, and Tyler