The San Jose Sharks’ selloff began in earnest Wednesday night as they traded forward Matt Nieto and Barracuda defenseman Ryan Merkley to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Jacob MacDonald and forward Martin Kaut. In 364 career games with San Jose, Nieto, a Long Beach native, had 109 points. The deal, which comes a little more than five weeks ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline on March 3, also closes the book on Merkley’s sometimes tumultuous tenure in San Jose. But feeling that he had plummeted on the Sharks’ organizational depth chart this season, Merkley requested a trade earlier this month. In the NHL, he played 27 NHL games with the Avs and averaged 9:08 of ice time per game.
Continue reading...
