SAN JOSE >> With each passing game, it’s increasingly difficult to believe that the San Jose Sharks picked up defenseman Jake Walman — and a 2024 second-round draft pick — from the Detroit Red Wings this summer for basically nothing.

After 11 games, Walman leads all Sharks skaters in average time on ice (22:41) while being second in assists (seven) and tied for third in points (eight), going into tonight’s game against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.

“He was a good player in Detroit, and he was a great add for us,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Walman on Tuesday after the Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2. “A puck-moving guy and those are hard to find.

“He’s big, he’s physical, he can skate. (Those guys) don’t just fall off trees. So it’s a good acquisition, for sure.”

Walman had a goal, two assists and more than 21 minutes in ice time on Tuesday as San Jose (2-7-2) earned its second straight win and its first at SAP Center this season. Walman’s goal at the 2:20 mark of the second period was the first by a Sharks defenseman this year.

Walman also had three assists in the Sharks’ dramatic comeback win over the Utah Hockey Club on Monday. Now, he has more three-point games this week than in the first 211 games of his NHL career (one).

“There were some moments in that game where we bent, but I felt we didn’t break and stuck together the whole time,” Walman said after Tuesday’s game. “I think we have a pretty close group. Obviously, we’ve gone through a lot of adversity, but we know how to battle those tough times now.”

Walman’s increased responsibility speaks to how much more of an opportunity he’s getting now with the rebuilding Sharks.

His tenure in Detroit didn’t end well.

At the end of last season, Walman was listed as a healthy scratch for what would turn out to be his final six games in the Red Wings organization.

The only issue with that, Walman said during training camp, was that he wasn’t healthy.

Walman said he was dealing with a lower-body injury for roughly the season’s final two months when the Red Wings were trying to chase down a playoff spot. He missed time in March dealing with the ailment and returned for two games in April but was held out the rest of the way.

Detroit missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.

When the Sharks acquired Walman and the draft pick on June 25 for future considerations, it was unofficially because the Red Wings needed to clear cap space to try and get forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider under contract. Raymond signed an eight-year, $64.6 million deal, and Seider inked a seven-year, $59.85 million contract.

Walman is in the second year of a three-year, $10.2 million contract with a not-insignificant $3.4 million cap hit.

“I was hurt at the end of the year last year. There wasn’t any media stuff that kind of came out about that,” Walman told this news organization during training camp. “I think (the Red Wings) were keeping it quiet, but a lot of mixed kind of signals from coaches, trainers, type thing.

“So I guess I just want to let everybody know that I was actually dealing with something. That’s why I wasn’t in the lineup. Obviously, I was trying my best to get back in there, but when I got the call in the summer about that trade, it was cap reasons.

“But I had to get my body healthy in the summer, and I’m looking forward to being healthy and managing what I had going on. But at the same time, just proving to everybody why (the Red Wings) shouldn’t have gotten rid of me.”

Without question, the Sharks love having Walman right now.

Walman averaged 19:46 in ice time last season when he set a new career-high with 21 points in 63 games with the Wings. He is almost halfway to that total through 11 games in San Jose.

After tonight, the Sharks continue their homestand with games against Vancouver on Saturday and Columbus and Minnesota next week.

“Maybe don’t turn the TV off when the Sharks are playing,” Walman said of Monday’s win. “I’m sure a lot of people did. Stick with us. For most of the games, we’re doing the right things, and it’s only a matter of time, and it’s going to come.

“We have confidence now, and it’s a lot more fun coming to the rink when we’re winning.”

Sharks swing trade for defenseman >> The Sharks acquired defenseman Tomas Liljegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday in exchange for defenseman Matt Benning and a pair of draft picks.

Liljegren, a 25-year-old Swede, was the No. 17 overall pick in the 2017 draft but has struggled to live up to those expectations under the pressure of hockey’s brightest lights, with 65 career points (14 goals) over 197 games since making his NHL debut in 2019.

The rebuilding Sharks, who have allowed the third-most goals in the NHL this season, hope to give him a fresh start. In exchange, they packaged a 2025 third-rounder — the best of the two the Sharks own — and a 2026 sixth-rounder along with Benning, who arrived in San Jose on a four-year, $5 million deal as a free agent in 2022 but missed much of last year with a lower-body injury.