The San Jose Sharks have re-signed Henry Thrun to a two-year, $2 million contract, locking up one of their top young defensemen through the 2025-26 season.
“Henry has been a reliable addition to our defense corps since he joined the organization,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said in a statement. “We are encouraged by his development since he came to San Jose and look forward to seeing him continue to grow his game with our club.”
Thrun’s re-signing is not surprising, given that the Sharks issued him a qualifying offer in late June. His previous contract, signed with the Sharks in March 2023, was for two years and carried a salary cap hit of $912,500.
In 51 games last season for the Sharks, Thrun, in his first full professional year, had 11 points and averaged 20 minutes per game in ice time. For his NHL career, Thrun has 14 points in 59 games.
Thrun, 23, was a restricted free agent, one of two the Sharks had entering this week. The other is forward Thomas Bordeleau, who still needs a new contract.
Thrun, at six-foot-two, 190 pounds, was originally selected by Anaheim in the 2019 NHL Draft (fourth round, 101st overall). He was acquired in Feb. 2023 by San Jose from Anaheim in exchange for a 2024 third-round selection.
Thrun is expected to make the Sharks’ roster out of training camp and might be ready for a bigger role with the team.
After the end of last season, Thrun said he’s comfortable playing big minutes and wants to be on the Sharks’ No. 1 defense pair. That probably means he’ll have to chip in more offense.
In his final two seasons at Harvard from 2021 to 2023, Thrun had 63 points in 70 games.
“I’m striving to be the best player that I can be, and I want to be a first-pair d-man. I want to be a dominant player in this league,” Thrun said in April. “This year, there were aspects of my game that I wasn’t fully able to display, particularly on the offensive side.
“The past couple of years, I’ve produced at a pretty high clip, and I’ve always been really confident in my offensive game. This year, I obviously didn’t expect to produce at the same rate that I did in college, but t it was a little longer than I had hoped for. It’s something that I know I have and I think just with team success, that’ll come a little bit more.”
