Labanc, Sharks working together to find fresh start

The San Jose Sharks and Kevin Labanc are working to find a new home for the struggling forward.

"We are working with the (Sharks) to find (Labanc) a new opportunity in the NHL, either by the trade deadline or the offseason," Labanc's agent Mike Curran told The Hockey News' Max Miller.

Curran noted that teams were interested in Labanc earlier this season, but a trade never materialized.

Labanc will be a healthy scratch for a seventh consecutive game on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets. He has just two goals and seven points in 32 games this season.

The 28-year-old could prove tough to move with a $4.725-million cap hit. He's set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Sharks can retain salary on one more contract this season.

"It's just an understanding that it's not working here," Labanc told Miller on Tuesday. "Maybe go somewhere else and get a fresh start. Maybe when you were younger, you thought you'd be with the same team for your whole career, but that's not necessarily the case. Not everyone can be Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Logan Couture, and Tomas Hertl."

The Brooklyn, New York, native tallied a career-high 17 goals and 56 points in 2018-19 before registering nine points in 20 playoff games as the Sharks went all the way to the conference finals.

Despite his successful campaign, Labanc signed a modest one-year contract worth $1 million in July 2019 as a restricted free agent amid a San Jose cap crunch.

The Sharks took a significant step back the following season, and Labanc's numbers dipped as well. Still, San Jose inked the then-24-year-old to a four-year, $18.9-million contract in October 2020.

Since his career-best campaign in 2018-19, Labanc has tallied 46 goals and 107 points in 250 games and is a minus-79 in that span.