Sheng Peng
It feels like a new era for the San Jose Sharks.
“Feels”, of course, is the operative word — it’s just the first day of training camp.
The players can feel it too though, from the addition of top prospects like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith and Yaroslav Askarov, to the acquisition of solid veterans like Tyler Toffoli, Barclay Goodrow, Jake Walman, Cody Ceci, and more.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for a season,” William Eklund said.
Here are some of my observations from Day 1 of training camp, along with thoughts from new head coach Ryan Warsofsky and GM Mike Grier.
The San Jose Sharks’ braintrust touched on a wide range of topics, from injuries to Askarov and Shakir Mukhamadullin, under-the-radar Rookie Faceoff standouts, the possibility of Quentin Musty breaking camp with the NHL club, Luca Cagnoni’s future, offersheeting RFAs, and more.
“He was flying out there, one of the best players on the ice, for sure,” Toffoli said of Celebrini’s scrimmage.
I can’t argue with that.
A scrimmage is just that, a scrimmage, not a lot of physicality. But just like Celebrini showed quickly at Rookie Faceoff that he more than belonged, he appeared to pass his first NHL test. Of course, this was a relatively easy exam, the hard stuff is coming.
But it’s a good sign.
Oftentimes too, teams like to pair forwards as a nucleus of a line, so perhaps the Sharks have Celebrini-Toffoli in mind (Klim Kostin was the other winger). There’s an obvious passer and shooter in this duo.
Other lines of particular note that I saw over three separate practice sessions: Mikael Granlund centered William Eklund and Collin Graf, Will Smith was between Fabian Zetterlund and Barclay Goodrow, and Alex Wennberg centered Quentin Musty and Luke Kunin.
Of course, it’s just the first day of camp! But it’s good food for thought.
On the defensive side, left-hander Jake Walman and right-hander Jan Rutta were paired. That’s a logical veteran defensive pairing, a good blend of offense and defense, we’ll see if that has any legs.
Let’s close Day 1 of camp with various notes from Warsofsky and Grier:
Warsofsky said Askarov (lower body), Mukhamadullin (lower body), and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper body) could all be considered day-to-day injuries. The Sharks’ last two head coaches, Bob Boughner and David Quinn, were fairly transparent about injuries, we’ll see if Warsofsky is.
Warsofsky shouted out Ethan Cardwell, Braden Hache, and Sam Dickinson as having strong Rookie Faceoffs. For what it’s worth, Cardwell looked good in today’s scrimmage.
Warsofsky said that Grier has been talking to 2018 Olympic gold medalist Brianna Decker about joining the coaches on the ice: “She’s been around the last couple days, and she’ll be around the next few days, just learning, I’m learning from her. Hopefully, she can take some stuff from our staff.”
Warsofsky didn’t rule out the teenage Musty starting the season with the San Jose Sharks, but…“He had a good rookie tournament. Obviously, put up some good points. There’s some other areas of his game that we need to continue to improve on.”
Grier was quick with his answer when asked how Musty can break camp with the Sharks: “Outplay someone else who’s ahead of him on the depth chart.”
Grier shared that it was the Sharks who asked Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau about potentially putting up Celebrini and Smith, to which the future Hall of Famers agreed. Celebrini noted that he hasn’t moved in yet.
On Monday, San Jose Hockey Now reported that Cagnoni, who has the choice of going professional or going back to the WHL for his overage season, was earmarked for pro, likely AHL hockey. Grier didn’t go that far, but it still sounds like Cagnoni ends up in San Jose, unless something goes wrong: “His play will dictate where he is. There’s still an option for him to go back to junior. He had a good rookie tournament in LA, played well. It was a big, big improvement from him, from how he played last year and how he was in camp last year. We think it would probably benefit him to be here, but at the same time, it’s as I told the group, if he wants to be here, he’s going to have to earn that spot.”
See you tomorrow!