On Wednesday afternoon, the San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres struck a deal that could affect what the Vancouver Canucks do at the 2026 NHL Draft.

The Sharks announced via social media that they have acquired defenceman Michael Kesselring and the 27th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft from the Buffalo Sabres, in exchange for the 20th overall pick in this year’s draft.

We’ll talk about the trade first, before diving into how the Canucks factor into all of this.

This deal just makes a ton of sense for both sides.

For the Sharks, they essentially move down seven spots for a quality right-shot defenceman. If you just look at his impact last season, it doesn’t paint the full picture of Kesselring’s game.

Two seasons ago, Kesselring played a big role for the Utah Hockey Club, scoring seven goals and 29 points in all 82 games. When the Hockey Club dealt with injuries, Kesselring was capable of playing those extra minutes, oftentimes logging over 20 minutes per night. After that season, he built his value up enough to be a part of the JJ Peterka trade to Buffalo.

However, his year with the Sabres did not go as planned. Kesselring suffered through a pair of injuries, which limited him to 34 games in the regular season and just 4:25 minutes in his lone postseason appearance. There were several reasons it didn’t necessarily work out for the 26-year-old last season: getting the hang of a new team and city, dealing with injuries, and trying to find a role on a crowded blueline. Looking at all of those factors, it’s easy to see why it may not have worked out for Kesselring in Buffalo. Yet, last season is not a reflection of the player that Kesselring projects to be moving forward.

For the Sabres, the writing was already on the wall that they weren’t going to be retaining Kesselring after this season. It just wasn’t a fit. So, being able to move up seven spots in the first round is likely more valuable than taking a pair of mid-round picks for a player they intended on moving anyway. Call it a quality of quantity move, which is more beneficial for a Sabres team that has plenty of prospects in the pipeline.

Okay, now to the Canucks part of this all. We’ve seen some discussion on social media regarding whether this changes the Sharks’ view of selecting a defenceman at second overall – one pick ahead of the Canucks – and taking who is considered the best player available, Ivar Stenberg. We don’t believe it does.

First off, we understand why this would worry those Canucks fans who are hoping the Sharks select a defenceman, leaving top prospect Stenberg to fall to the Canucks at third overall. But even after the acquisition of Kesselring, the Sharks need so much more blueline help. Not only on their nightly lineup, but their prospect pool as well.

Currently, the Sharks have only Dmitry Orlov and Sam Dickinson among defencemen in the system who have played at least 10 NHL games and are under contract for next season. Although, it’s safe to peg Kesselring and Shakir Mukhamadullin on the blueline next season, as they are both restricted free agents and are likely to re-sign. Still, that’s just four of six spots taken. They still need to sign or acquire two more NHL defencemen.

Looking at their defensive prospect pool, there isn’t anybody who’s a shoo-in for a promotion to the NHL. The Sharks have five defencemen on entry-level contracts for next season: Matias Hävelid, Luca Cagnoni, Eric Pohlkamp, Phillip Sinn, and Leo Sahlin Wallenius. However, of that group, Cagnoni is the only one to log NHL games (nine), while Hävelid is the only other one to play professional games (44 in the American League). They have other promising young defencemen in the system, Eric Pohlkamp, Phillip Sinn, Leo Sahlin Wallenius, and Haoxi Wang. But none of those defencemen project to reach the ceiling of what they could draft at second overall.

And it’s not like whichever defenceman they draft at second would be ready to play NHL games next season. According to reports, the Sharks took Chase Reid and Carson Carels to dinner at the NHL Draft Combine, both of whom are committed to play in the NCAA next season.

In saying all of this, if the Sharks want to be competitive next season and take another step toward the playoffs, they will still need to add at least two more NHL-calibre defencemen this offseason, even after the Kesselring addition. So, no. The Sharks trading for Kesselring should not affect their view on drafting a defenceman at second overall.

What may affect the Canucks more is actually the Sabres moving up. They are kind of a question mark as to what they’ll do at 20th overall.

Forward-wise, the Sabres have Josh Doan, Jack Quinn, Konsta Helenius, Noah Östlund, Jiri Kulich, Peyton Krebs, and Zach Benson, all under 25, contributing to the NHL team today. And on the backend, they have a top four of Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson, who are all 26 or under, logging solid minutes for their team.

Prospect-wise, they are a little light on forwards, with just one first- or second-round pick (Anton Wahlberg) in the system who has not played in the NHL yet. However, they have more defensive prospects coming, with Maxim Strbak, Radim Mrtka, Adam Kleber, and Gavin McCarthy. So, for a team on the rise and coming off a season where they advanced to the second round of the playoffs, taking the best player available at 20 – regardless of position – is likely.

Whereas for the Sharks, there’s a world where they double up on defencemen in the first round, and take the likes of Tommy Bleyl, Xavier Villeneuve, William Hakansson, Juho Piiparinen, or Maksim Sokolovskii at 20th overall.

Realistically, the Canucks need everything heading into this rebuild. However, high-impact offensive forwards are what the Canucks truly lack. So if the Sabres leapfrogging the Canucks results in a run of forwards and Vancouver loses out on a forward like Nikita Klepov, Adam Novotny, Elton Hermansson, Alexander Command, or Mathis Preston, that’s the part of this Sharks and Sabres trade that would affect the Canucks, not the worry of the Sharks no longer having interest in selecting a defenceman second overall after acquiring Kesselring.