Sheng Peng
The San Jose Sharks have zero questions at the top of their line-up.
Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane, Timo Meier, and Kevin Labanc are the top-five forwards. Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Mario Ferraro, and Radim Simek are the top-five defensemen. Martin Jones and Devan Dubynk are the top-two goalies.
But beyond that? Especially up front, they have more question marks than the Riddler’s suit.
As this shortened training camp comes to a close, let’s talk about some of the forwards who have emerged as candidates to skate on the third and fourth lines. It’s worth noting, the San Jose Sharks could keep up to 14 forwards on their 23-man roster, assuming seven defensemen and two netminders.
Let’s take a generally more upbeat look here too — all these forwards have their flaws — we’ll consider their upsides more in our evaluations.
John Leonard
I was speaking with an NHL scout about John Leonard a couple months ago and he said his organization rated the 22-year-old as a B-/C+ prospect. That’s the equivalent of a third-line winger.
I mention this to temper San Jose Sharks fans’ expectations about the rookie, who’s been skating with Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane on the second line.
Now a legitimate third-line winger is nothing to sneeze at — that could be a meaningful 15-20 goal scorer, roughly. But it’s also worth noting that Leonard has zero NHL experience as of now — it’s a big ask to slot a rookie there and expect immediate production.
But the talent is there.
Noah Gregor
An NHL scout told me of Gregor, in February: “I think he can be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL, if he develops. Shows that potential for sure.”
The big question with Gregor is how he handles duties up the middle in the NHL — last year, he was used mostly at wing by the Sharks. So far in training camp, he’s San Jose’s presumptive third-line center.
Justin Froese of Future Considerations, who saw Gregor play pivot with the Prince Albert Raiders, isn’t worried at all about how the speedy forward will handle elevated responsibilities in the defensive zone.
“I was really impressed with him as a 20-year-old and he was probably one of, if not the best overage in the league,” Froese offered. “The NHL is a different story though, but there’s defensive details he has that aren’t just placeholder tools.”
Gregor, however, did not distinguish himself at the faceoff circle in the WHL, winning just 47.3 percent of his draws, regular season and playffs combined, in 2018-19.
That will have to improve for the 22-year-old to cement a 3C role in the NHL. And like Leonard, it’s a big ask to expect Gregor to hold his own in such a high-leverage role at such a young age.
Ryan Donato
Ryan Donato is probably the surest top-nine forward of this bunch.
While he was relegated to the fourth line last year in Minnesota, he also led the Wild in even strength goals.
There isn’t much doubt, among NHL scouts, that Donato can score at this level.
But what about his defensive game? There’s a reason why Minnesota demoted the 24-year-old.
“[When] we get to the game time and there’s pressure and another team, you’re going to be able to tell a little more about players at that point,” Boughner acknowledged today. “But I like what I see so far.”
At the moment, it appears that Boughner may be ready to roll with a third line of Matt Nieto-Gregor-Donato. They’ve played together the last few days to great acclaim.
Boughner has stated, “I believe we’re going to have a third line that can contribute on the scoresheet this year.”
Can this trio notch 15-20 goals and 30-40 points apiece? It’s not a reach in terms of talent, but none of these forwards have proven themselves to be shoo-ins for those relatively-modest milestones.
Matt Nieto
Speaking of, Matt Nieto has scored 15 goals just once. But a scout that I spoke with recently believes that the 28-year-old can be more than what he’s been in Colorado, a crack fourth-line penalty killer:
“Nieto is a guy who came into the league as a skill player and couldn’t really make it as a skill player. Didn’t know how to be a fourth-liner until he went to Colorado, figured it out and became good at it. But it’s not like those players forget how to be skilled. They just rounded out their games.
“I think there’s more to him.
“He’s a really good fourth-line left winger. I’ve always maintained he can play higher in the line-up.”
I don’t think it’s a stretch to call Nieto a championship-caliber fourth-line winger — and that’s no backhanded compliment — but can he be a playoff-caliber third-liner? The Sharks are hoping so.
Boughner, by the way, was effusive in his praise of this line after tonight’s scrimmage:
Marcus Sorensen
Marcus Sorensen was an easy target for San Jose Sharks fans after slumping to seven goals last year. But he’s also the only forward in this group — save for far-from-his-prime Patrick Marleau — who’s potted over 15 goals or touched 30 points in an NHL season. He registered 17 goals and 30 points with Labanc and Joe Thornton on San Jose’s third line in 2018-19.
So there’s a resume here that’s more impressive than he’s being given credit for. What other skills might keep him in the mix?
Under Boughner last year, Sorensen was the most-used penalty-killing forward after Barclay Goodrow and Melker Karlsson. Both Goodrow and Karlsson are gone, so it might be between Sorensen and Nieto for top PK’er.
He also fits Boughner’s edict of speed in the bottom-six: “We’re going to be a faster team between our third and fourth lines than we were last year.”
You can do a lot worse than Sorensen as a third and fourth-line swing guy — except for the rapidly-aging Marleau, he’s actually the only proven playoff-caliber third-line forward of this bunch.
Dylan Gambrell
Dylan Gambrell has also been a subject of ire from fans, due to the combination of his high-draft status and relatively-disappointing NHL play.
But let’s look at the player he is and not who he’s supposed to be as a second-round pick.
Boughner has gone out of his way to point out that Gambrell is the only right-handed centerman on this roster. However, that plus might be mitigated by Gambrell’s 45.9 Faceoff % last year.
Perhaps more interesting is how Boughner relied on Gambrell on the PK. After Goodrow, Karlsson, Sorensen, and Logan Couture, Gambrell’s 1:24 SH TOI per game was above Joel Kellman’s 00:53.
Kellman is noteworthy here because he might be Gambrell’s strongest competition for the 4C role, presuming Gregor has 3C locked up.
The Sharks may have arrived at a solution, as Gambrell has been skating at right wing next to Kellman and Marleau recently. There, Gambrell will still be able to take faceoffs on his strong side, while adding speed, and hopefully, some offense.
Joel Kellman
At the beginning of training camp, I had Fredrik Handemark ahead of Kellman on the depth chart. I think most observers hold Handemark in higher overall regard.
But Kellman should be a better fit for a quicker bottom-six.
He also has received, in hockey speak, high praise from Boughner.
“He just does all the little things right,” Boughner said yesterday. “A guy like that really shows his worth when the real game starts.”
On the other hand, Handemark himself has shared his not surprising learning curve with the North American pace.
“High pace. A lot of skating,” Handemark shared of his first impressions of NHL-like hockey. “A lot of new things to learn for me.”
Speed and pace are Handemark’s question marks — and Boughner has already given his answer for what he wants from his bottom-six.
Fredrik Handemark
That said, scouts do like Handemark.
“I think he’s got a good-enough brain, whatever he needs to do, he’ll figure it out,” a scout told San Jose Hockey Now. “Whether he puts up points or not, I think he’ll be a good pick-up for them.”
It wouldn’t be a surprise then, if Handemark gets used to North American hockey on the taxi squad or the AHL, that he eventually proves himself useful to the San Jose Sharks.
Patrick Marleau
Here’s the question that nobody wants to ask about the 41-year-old franchise legend: What do you do if Patrick Marleau begins to actively hurt the team?
Just 45 games away from breaking Gordie Howe’s all-time games played record, there is some pressure to dress Marleau, though it’s not a consecutive games record. Of course, Marleau is also just 111 contests from breaking Doug Jarvis’s 964 consecutive games played streak too.
Speaking of that record, funny enough, Marleau is one of three active players within two seasons of that mark. If Keith Yandle, Marleau, and Phil Kessel all complete this upcoming 56-game campaign, they’ll be respectively at 922, 910, and 900 consecutive games played.
But the 41-year-old winger has to get through this year. He wouldn’t be the first 40-plus great to suddenly fall off the map — Brett Hull comes to mind. One day, you just don’t have it.
On the bright side, Marleau was still a very solid fourth-line winger for San Jose last season — there’s a reason why he garnered a third-round pick and multiple calls from teams at the Trade Deadline. If he’s at least as good, there’s no concern about his place in the line-up.
Stefan Noesen
Stefan Noesen injected energy and a pinch of scoring last year from the fourth line. That may be the extent of the 27-year-old winger’s ceiling — he also doesn’t do much in way of special teams — but he’s a useful extra forward.
Opening Night Roster?
My guess? I think the San Jose Sharks open the season with 14 forwards on their 23-man roster. Besides the top-five, I’d pencil in Leonard, Gregor, Donato, Nieto, Sorensen, Gambrell, Marleau, Kellman, and Noesen.
There’s a really good fourth line in that group — we’ll see if there’s an NHL-caliber third line in that mix.
Sorensen and Gambrell are not waiver-exempt, while Kellman is, so that may factor into decision-making. However, Sorensen, because of his relatively-hefty contract, and Gambrell, because he’s so unproven, probably wouldn’t get claimed.
Keeping 14 forwards also doesn’t hurt because it gives you a little more time to evaluate Gambrell’s NHL future. Meanwhile, prospects like Handemark or Sasha Chmelevski or Joachim Blichfeld can still develop on the taxi squad or the San Jose Barracuda.
Speaking of Chmelevski and Blichfeld, Boughner talked up their line recently, but it doesn’t appear as if they’re going to become NHL regulars just yet. Lean Bergmann and Alexander True might also be on the cusp — especially True, who’s had the misfortune of missing all of training camp so far because of injury.
Interestingly, Boughner noted recently that these scrimmages weren’t ideal for physical forces like Bergmann, because they obvious don’t want Sharks to hurt Sharks. So Bergmann may need live game action against an opponent to truly distinguish himself once again.
Beyond these prospects, Antti Suomela, Kurtis Gabriel, Jeffrey Viel, Maxim Letunov, and Jayden Halbgewachs may be taxi squad candidates — Suomela and Gabriel have significant NHL experience under their belts — but at this point, it’s hard to see them cracking the opening night roster.
Boughner, perhaps surprisingly, did elevate Viel to the third line during tonight’s scrimmage, and he’s complimented Halbgewachs, unprompted, twice during camp.
And in fairness to Letunov, he’s been deemed “unfit to play” for the last three days, so he hasn’t received a fair look.
Boughner says the Jan. 10 scrimmage will be telling, as groups will be split into NHL and AHL factions.
Just days away from the beginning of the regular season, Boughner wants the San Jose Sharks to really start to practice and play together.