Former New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba is on his way to San Jose after signing a four-year contract with the up-and-coming Sharks on Wednesday. The deal is worth $33 million, an average annual value of $8.25 million.
The Sharks, one of the NHL’s most improved teams in 2025-26, were in the market for a veteran defenseman to shore up a shaky blue line. Trouba brings physicality and leadership to go along with a host of young forwards that’s led by Macklin Celebrini.
The 32-year-old helped the Anaheim Ducks make the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season for the first time since 2017-18, putting up 10 goals and 35 assists while averaging 22:50 of ice time in 81 games. He led Ducks defensemen in blocked shots (149), tied for first in goals, and was second in points, assists and hits (143).
Trouba also had one point, a goal, in 12 playoff games as the Ducks defeated the Utah Mammoth in a six-game opening-round series before losing in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.
The Rangers acquired Trouba from the Winnipeg Jets on June 17, 2019, and signed him to a seven-year, $56 million contract ($8 million AAV) a month later. He was the 28th player in franchise history to be named captain on Aug. 9, 2022, a move that followed the Rangers’ trip to the Eastern Conference Final and his career-best 11-goal season.
Trouba wore the “C” when the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24 and reached the conference final for the second time in three seasons. He won the 2024 Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award, presented annually to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team on and off the ice, and plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey.
Former Rangers captain Trouba inks 4-year deal with Sharks
However, Trouba’s captaincy and his time with the Rangers ended when he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6, 2024, for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. But the 30-year-old became expendable last summer after a disappointing season. General manager Chris Drury sought to get Trouba to agree to a trade in June, but he used his 15-team no-trade clause, not wanting to leave New York while his wife, Kelly, was in her medical residency at a local hospital.
“I had a choice to make between my career and my family,” he told ESPN soon after the trade. “I chose my family. I’d make that decision 1,000 times over. It’s unfortunate how it all unfolded and became public.
“It is what it is, and I’m ready to move past it.”
The Rangers’ desire to move on from their captain went public didn’t make Trouba happy, especially when combined with his family interest to remain in New York. But after a poor start in 2024-25, Trouba agreed to be traded to Anaheim, where he joined former Rangers teammates Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano. Chris Kreider made it four ex-Rangers on the Ducks when Drury traded him in June 2025.
“I’ll be honest, I was put in a decision this summer to make a decision between my career and my family and I chose my family,” Trouba said after the trade. “I would choose my family 100 times over again. I don’t feel bad about that. I was happy about it. I don’t like that it was made public necessarily or how everything unfolded so publicly, but I guess that’s part of New York and what happens.
“It made it difficult to play kind of what that hanging over everything. The result is the result. I’m happy with moving forward, but I’m not overly thrilled with how it went down. In my opinion, things could’ve been handled better. I’m not blaming anybody or anything, just kind of how it happened I thought was kind of unfortunate.”
Trouba has appeared in 906 regular-season games with the Jets, Rangers and Ducks. Among all defensemen taken in the 2012 NHL Draft, he ranks fourth in career goals (84), third in assists (274) and third in points (358). He also has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 85 playoff games.
Aside from the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season, Trouba has at least 100 blocked shots each season and leads all defensemen with 1,943 since making his NHL debut in 2013-14.
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