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Tierney accepts Sharks’ qualifying offer, could still be traded

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in game four of the Western Conference Finals during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at HP Pavilion on May 21, 2016 in San Jose, California.

Christian Petersen

Update: The Sharks confirmed the signing on Thursday.
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Sometimes a signing puts speculation to bed for almost a decade. Every now and then, a deal barely delays additional questions.

TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that Chris Tierney accepted the San Jose Sharks’ qualifying offer: a one-year offer for $730K. NBC Sports California’s Kevin Kurz believes that such a move won’t quiet trade talk regarding Tierney.

Kurz indicates that, in re-signing Ryan Carpenter, the Sharks had less incentive to give Tierney more than that minimal qualifying offer. He brings up some interesting comparisons to other players who recently signed more lucrative deals and who enjoy more comfortable placements on their respective teams:

Still, it’s notable that the Sharks - according to a source - did not offer Tierney anything other than a one-year deal for his qualifying offer. In comparable deals in Dallas, Brett Ritchie, who has 34 points (22g, 12a) in 117 games over three seasons, recently signed a two-year, $3.5 million extension (although Ritchie did have arbitration rights). Radek Faksa, who did not have arbitration rights and has 45 points (12g, 21a) in 125 career games, signed a three-year, $6.6 million contract on Monday.

(Read more about Ritchie in this post and Faksa’s contract here.)

Tierney, 23, made a solid impact as a rookie, managing 21 points in 43 games back in 2014-15. Since then, his production has stalled out in the 20 range even while playing essentially full seasons in 2015-16 (20 points) and 2016-17 (23).

Tierney did appear in 24 games during San Jose’s 2016 Stanley Cup Final run, nabbing nine points and averaging a respectable TOI of 14:46.

It’s unclear what kind of trade market there would be, although that playoff experience and having 202 regular-season games under his belt at 23 means there could be at least mild interest.