The contractSan Jose Sharks sign Jacob Trouba to a four-year, $8.25 million AAV contract.Mark Lazerus: Mike Grier, it turns out, is fallible.Through a combination of savvy moves and lottery luck, the Sharks general manager has been understandably lauded for speed-running the rebuilding process in San Jose. But signing Jacob Trouba to a four-year deal at an $8.25-million cap hit — even considering the rocketing rates for defensemen — is a head-scratcher, for sure.Did the Sharks need some veteran stability on the back end after spending so much draft capital and attention on the forward group? Absolutely. Is Trouba coming off his best season in years in Anaheim, even if it was buoyed by playing alongside Jackson LaCombe? Sure. Did the speed- and skill-oriented Sharks just get nastier and harder to play against, with Trouba joining Mason Marchment as new signings? They did.Is Trouba worth $8.25 million a year? He is absolutely not.Not counting your Cale Makars and Quinn Hugheses and Zach Werenskis, the best defensemen tend to go largely unnoticed. And for better or worse — often worse — Trouba is one of the most noticeable defensemen in the league. He’s known for his booming, borderline hits, but his unquenchable thirst to dole out those hits often leaves him badly out of position. LaCombe masked a lot of his issues in Anaheim, to the point he was essentially a break-even player in terms of expected goals, a plateau he hadn’t reached since his Winnipeg days. His big shot found the back of the net 10 times, too, after scoring four in the previous two seasons combined. But in San Jose, he’s not going to have a partner anywhere near LaCombe’s level. He’s too slow to be a true top-pairing defenseman alongside Sam Dickinson, he’s not responsible enough to be a shutdown defender alongside, say, Dmitry Orlov, and he’s too pricey to make sense as a depth guy.Who are the top five NHL players to hit free agency?Signing Trouba in a vacuum isn’t a bad idea. The Sharks could use some of what he brings, and a young team can benefit from having a player who was a captain in a major market in New York. But this isn’t a vacuum, and while prices are high all over the place (other than Montreal, it seems), this was simply too high for too long.