Mike Grier knows his blue line needs depth, so he went out and grabbed a familiar NHL name on a low-risk deal. Libor Hajek is back in North America.
The San Jose Sharks signed the 28-year-old defenseman to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2026-27 season, the team announced Wednesday. The cap hit is $850,000. If Hajek ends up in the AHL, he’ll make $350,000. He’s guaranteed at least $425,000, according to PuckPedia.
This isn’t Hajek’s first rodeo in the league. He spent five seasons with the New York Rangers, suiting up for 110 NHL games between 2018-19 and 2022-23. He put up 12 points, four goals and eight assists, with a minus-9 rating while averaging just under 15 minutes a night. Not flashy numbers, but he was a reliable third-pairing guy for a team that made a few playoff runs.
What changed is that Hajek spent the last three seasons in the Czech Extraliga with HC Dynamo Pardubice. And he was pretty good over there. Last season, he dropped 13 points in 44 regular-season games, six goals and seven assists, and finished plus-6. He tacked on three helpers in 17 playoff games as Pardubice won the league championship. Over his entire three-year stint, he piled up 32 points and a plus-26 rating in 111 games. That’s solid two-way production for a guy who used to be a second-round pick.
Where He Fits in San Jose’s Picture
Hajek was originally drafted 37th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2016. The Rangers grabbed him in the trade that sent Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa — a trade that aged well for New York, but not so much for Hajek’s long-term role there. He spent 129 games in the AHL with Syracuse, Hartford, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before heading back to Europe.
Now he’s walking into a Sharks blue line that’s been completely remade. San Jose has Michael Kesselring, Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, Dmitri Orlov, and rookie Sam Dickinson already on the roster. That’s a lot of bodies. Hajek is likely competing for the seventh or eighth spot, or maybe he starts the year in the AHL with the San Jose Barracuda. Either way, the Sharks get an experienced left-shot defenseman who can mentor younger prospects and step into the NHL if injuries hit.
It’s a depth signing, plain and simple. But for a team still stacking assets and trying to build a winning culture, adding a guy who just won a championship overseas isn’t nothing. Hajek knows what it takes to grind through a long season. The question is whether his game translates back to the NHL after three years away.
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