Michael Kesselring
San Jose Sharks · 2026-27
6'5" · 215 lb · Age 26
+1.5
goals above replacement per 82 games
+0.3 over his 17 games. Percentile among 146 league defensemen 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 146 league defensemen. No rank yet: under 30 minutes on the unit.
The number over each bar is his percentile among 78 to 146 league defensemen. 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: +0.5 (range -15.1 to +16.0). 2031-32: -2.6 (range -39.3 to +34.1). No dollar line yet: market value waits on a league contract table.
2026-27 regular season: 17 games, 326 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 →
On the record
Called Shots →Luca Cagnoni plays fewer than 42 regular-season games for the San Jose Sharks in 2026-27. Scored off his official NHL regular-season games-played total for San Jose only: 41 or fewer is a hit, 42 or more is a miss, including if he reaches 42 after being recalled from the Barracuda, and including if he is traded (games for another club do not count).
Dmitry Orlov records more power-play time on ice than Luca Cagnoni in San Jose's regular-season opener against Florida on October 1, 2026.
Jacob Trouba has the highest shorthanded ice time per game of any San Jose defenseman across the club's first 20 games of 2026-27.
San Jose allows fewer than 3.54 goals per game across the first 20 games of 2026-27, an improvement on the 3.54 it allowed across all 82 games of 2025-26.
Eric Pohlkamp plays 10 or more NHL regular-season games for San Jose in 2026-27.
Luca Cagnoni averages under 0:30 a game of shorthanded time on ice across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Keaton Verhoeff does not sign an NHL entry-level contract with San Jose on or before May 31, 2027, and returns to North Dakota for a third college season.
Michael Kesselring averages more than 0:51 a game of power-play time on ice across San Jose's first 20 regular-season games of 2026-27.
San Jose's penalty kill finishes the 2026-27 regular season ranked higher among the 32 NHL clubs than San Jose's power play.
Sam Dickinson averages 1:00 or more of power-play time per game across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Written about him
San Jose's busiest pair gives up chances at its third pair's rate
San Jose's busiest defense pair is conceding chances at its third pair's rate, with goaltending covering much of the damage.
Michael Kesselring Went From Seventy Power Play Minutes To Two Seconds In One Season
Michael Kesselring played 69:49 on the power play for Utah in 2024-25 across all 82 games, then two seconds in 34 injury-shortened games for Buffalo. San Jose's blue line gave 82 percent of its power-play minutes to two men last season, Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg, and Klingberg, a right shot, is gone. The club's roster feed lists four right-shot defensemen and two of them have never played an NHL game. Jacob Trouba, the other one who has, owns one power-play point across his last 158 games. That leaves the Utah season as the only evidence San Jose has that anybody on its right side can do the job.
Kesselring deep dive, the NHL Edge layer: elite tools confirmed, and one correction
The tracking data: the tools are elite, and they travel
Kesselring's power-play efficiency in Utah: a functional PP2 with a PP1 weapon attached
What he actually did on the man advantage in Utah
The Michael Kesselring deep dive: the 0-2-2 that lies, and the top-four defenseman underneath it
Michael Kesselring, in full