Sheng Peng
LOS ANGELES — What did the San Jose Sharks think of Day 2 of their 2025 Draft?
Director of amateur scouting Chris Morehouse shared his thoughts on Haoxi (Simon) Wang, Cole McKinney, Teddy Mutryn, Ilyas Magomedsultanov, Zack Sharp, Max Heise, and Richard Gallant.
He was also asked about whether or not the Sharks tried to trade up for Victor Eklund, Sam Dickinson’s future, and more.
Chris Morehouse, on the picks made on day 2 of the draft:
It was an interesting day. We knew having that first pick in the second round what our idea was, and then after that, you wait and see how things are set up on our board the way we wanted. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of decisions, but I like how our day 2 went. There’s a lot of exciting pieces on the way.
Morehouse, on the decision to draft Simon Wang with the 33rd pick:
I think raw untapped potential is probably the best way to put it with him. He’s such a unique story in terms of his hockey background and his hockey upbringing. Looking at the transition this year from starting in Junior A and then moving on to the OHL major junior, you could see some of those raw physical abilities really shine through. For us, it’s like Mike said from the very beginning, we’re going to draft the best player available and the best fit for us. When you look at what Simon could be in the future—and even where his game has been over the last 18 months, it’s impressive. We really believe there’s a lot of untapped potential here.
Morehouse, on comparing Simon Wang to other “safer” options as a defenseman at No. 33:
The word “safe” is always an interesting one. You look at a guy that’s almost 6’7, and can really skate and compete and can use his length, that’s pretty safe too if you look around the NHL right now in terms of who’s playing. Yes, there’s some raw potential, and it’s going to take time, but all these kids are. I think as long as we understand the human—which we do—and we understand what our process is for him, we have such a fantastic development staff here that we make the investment that we feel comfortable with. Whether it’s safe or not, we like the profile that’s there.
Morehouse, on Cole McKinney, Teddy Mutryn, and Richard Gallant as players:
Mutryn played most of the year in Chicago, so he played with [the US] at the end when he got called up. We know Mutryn through our area guys, so we obviously have some knowledge there with him prior to it. With McKinney and Gallant, all three guys bring a high level of compete. They bring a high motor. Gallant is on the smaller side in terms of he’s not 6’2, he’s not 6’3, but I think if you spend any time watching him, he plays like that. We’ve talked about it all along: we want to bring in highly competitive kids. Although all three were taken in different spots, the one common denominator is that they’re highly, highly competitive kids.
Morehouse, on what goes into picking players later in the draft:
You’re sweating it out. Obviously, we have our board, and we have certain ways we want to follow it, so there is a little bit of sweating it out. But again, we put so much preparation time in the last nine months into getting our list right, our board right, so we really are prepared for anything that happens. We have multiple options in place—if a player goes here, what do you want to do? Sometimes, drafts will allow you a little bit more movement in terms of clusters of players. Other times, you’re afraid if you move off a player, you’re not going to get them your next time around, so I think we’re always in conversation, we’re always in dialogue with that. A lot of the work’s been done before in terms of where our cutoffs are, where we see value. It’s really important for our group to make sure we just kind of talk things through beforehand, because, really, those 3 minutes when you’re on the clock, it goes really fast—especially on day 2, where it’s kind of running. We talk through it, and then when we get to that point, just like anything else, we want our guys to have that passion, we want them to push for players they like, and who want to be a Shark. That’s what they did, and that’s what we did here today.
Morehouse, on the how the prospects are benefitted from the changing landscape of major junior to NCAA hockey:
The one example right away would be like Max Heise—we drafted Max Heise, his plan is to go to Michigan State, but he’s going to go play a year major junior next year—I believe it’s Prince Albert—I think is the plan for him, at least, that’s what I’m understanding. It obviously could change, but that’s a prime example of a kid that didn’t have that option before. I kind of mentioned this yesterday a little bit with Dan, the kids have options now, they have places to go. You’re going to go through a period where kids are going to think that the grass is greener on the other side, they can go and get better somewhere else, where maybe the situation they were in was actually pretty good to begin with. It’s certainly changing for us, because kids have more options, and kids are going to want to do what they want to do. I think our perspective is you just kind of take it as it goes. I do think in general that there are more ways for kids to really do get what they want. If it’s a kid that needs more games, there are options for that, if there’s a kid that needs more practice time or maybe needs more working out, there’s other routes for that. The landscape is going to continue to change, and I think right now, especially the first couple years, is going to be a lot of figuring out what’s going on. Once things settle in, at the end of the day, it should be what’s best for the kids, and this system in place should allow kids to really be where they think they need to be for their development.
Morehouse, on whether the team is shaping up to be what the San Jose Sharks has envisioned:
For me, personally, and from our staff’s perspective on the amateur side, I think we’ve set out to execute Mike’s plan. I look at their job we’ve done—and obviously, we’re never going to know where things are, we’re three years in, and I’m really proud of the group. I think we have, in a short amount of time, been able to go out and get some really quality talent, some quality kids. To your point, it’s never over, and the next step is even harder than the first one. For us on the amateur side, the continued expectation is we should find players every year. Hopefully, soon enough, we won’t be in these situations where we’re picking 1, 2, or high picks, but the expectation for me—for our group—is to continue filling the cupboards. If we can get more players in terms of high-end prospects or fine guys in the draft in the right spots, they just become assets in terms of trying to make your team better. We are really proud of our group, and for me and the group of guys that work with me and work all out throughout the world, I’m really proud of us, but we’re also just getting started, and we need to keep going.
Morehouse, on how important this draft was especially to setting up the core long-term:
It’s one of those things where I tell our guys at the beginning of every year, and certainly going into the draft, that this is our one opportunity to impact the organization. We’re not on the road with the team every day, we’re not in the rink, we’re not in San Jose, but trust me, behind the scenes, we are doing everything we possibly can to make a difference in the organization. For me, in terms of where I’ve been before now and with the way Mike treats us and how we’re all allowed to speak our mind and have an opinion, and the trust he puts in not only myself, but our group, it’s infectious. You have a bunch of people that show up here wanting to work every day for Mike. It is a really great, awesome work environment. When we get into these conversations and figure out which way we want to go—to your point about not picking high, we want to find a way to find the best player, and in doing that, we look at every single possible question, every possible situation. We look at every possible player, we analyze everything. At the end of the day, the decisions we make, whether it might make sense to some or it might not make sense to anybody, it’s what we truly believe is the best decision for the team.
Morehouse, on whether there were discussions about moving up or down in the draft:
That’s more of a question for Mike, but there were obviously lots of conversations, lots of situations. Again, it’s my responsibility to just kind of sit there, if he has ideas in terms of value and where things may lay and what’s coming up next for prospects. At the end of the day, we kind of just stayed pat. The last couple years, we made moves and moved up or changed, and I think this year was just one of those things where we sat pat and and we feel like we did pretty well.
Morehouse, on whether the NCAA option would have benefitted other players like Sam Dickinson last year:
On Sam, he had 98 points in the OHL, he won a championship, he won a Memorial Cup, he was defenseman of the year. I think Sam was just fine where he was. Ideally, in a perfect world, having that luxury of being able to put guys in the NCAA is a great option. Again, players develop at different times, players are going to hit at different times, players are going to peak at different times. There’s no way to say that if Sam was in college hockey either next year or this year, that it would be better for him than wherever he is going to be. As we fill in and as we go along, whether Sam’s playing 30 minutes a night in the OHL versus 25 or 30 minutes in NCAA, I don’t know if it necessarily affects Sam—other players, it might. Thankfully, that’s not in my hands, I’m kind of just trying to find the players. We have such a great staff with Todd and his crew and Mike that, ultimately, they’re going to make the best decision for the kid, the agent, and the family, and then we’ll go from there.
Morehouse, on whether all drafted players will be at development camp next week:
Magomedsultanov I don’t think we’ll get in in time. Other than that, I haven’t heard of anybody else not being in, but I don’t believe that Magomedsultanov will make it in.
Morehouse, on what he wants to see from the picks and existing prospects at development camp:
You guys all have to write really good things about them all. That’s the first thing. That’s the first step. (laughs)
Be yourself. It is summer hockey. I love the way that Todd approaches it, it’s all come in, get your feet wet, get to know the city, get to know your teammates, be around the group, be around the coaches. We’ve talked about a million times over, and even when I first came here, you don’t walk into a locker room and you have Joe Thornton, Patty Marleau, Mike Grier, Todd Marchant, Doug Weight, Thomas Vanek—you have all these guys that are in our group that these kids have a chance to really be around, and that’s exciting. Just come in, get to know the group, look at the facilities, see where we’re at, meet your new teammates. If we’re sitting there really judging them in terms of how they play and how they do in a 3-day thing, it’s not fair to them. It’s really just to get to know the kids even more and have them come in and feel comfortable being part of the sharks organization.
Morehouse, on if it’s fair to say the San Jose Sharks wanted to add more size to the prospect pool this year:
I think it happened with Wang being as big as he is, but we still like the player. You look at the trend around the NHL now, especially in this draft, there’s a lot of big boys that were taken, and they’re all big kids that can skate. You’re obviously trying to pay attention to trends and where things are going, but you also have to be able to play hockey, and you also have to be a good player, and you also have to do things. We are constantly looking at everything. I never want to say we strictly look and focus on one thing, because it’s just not true. We are always looking at everything. Yes, Richard Gallant is not the prototypical, maybe what we’ve necessarily done last year, because we have taken guys like Cags a couple years ago, he wasn’t big on the back end. Richard’s a little bit different than that as well. It worked out with Cags in terms of what he’s been able to do. The one thing that Richard has, that all these other big guys have—even probably even more, in a lot of cases, is unbelievable, compete and relentlessness, and he’s a rat. Those are all things that are going to give that kid every opportunity despite being the size he is to play, so that’s exciting.
Morehouse, on Magomedsultanov:
He’s a very, very dynamic skater, and he loves to play physical. He’s over 6’2, really skates. Not going to give you a ton of high-end stuff with the puck, but he’ll make a first pass, and be really, really physical. We talked about passion, how our conversations go in a room, and that was one guy that we walked in and talked to our group about, and everybody in the room had passion for. He’s a little bit of a different one, he’s a late birthday, maybe not as much notoriety around him, but he’s a skater, really can skate, he hits extremely hard, and he plays with a lot of compete energy, and we’re excited.
I don’t think there’s any rush in. We’re obviously familiar with his contract status and things like that, but there isn’t really any rush in terms of getting him over here in a hurry and seeing where it goes. We want to see him develop. He got games last year in the KHL—I believe, VHL, MHL, so the next step for him is getting himself established and playing even more in the KHL on a regular basis, and getting big minutes. We’ll worry about the rest later.
We did our due diligence on him. We wouldn’t have drafted him if we didn’t think he’d ever want to come over. A lot of times with those kids, he’s developing in a men’s league, pro league over there, playing against men every day. If he comes over at—not what everybody wants—but he comes over and plays, that’s what we want. For him, we’re letting him enjoy the day, and then we’ll get into all that stuff later.
Morehouse, on picking over-agers this draft to build out the group:
I think it goes back to the same question you guys asked earlier about the landscape. We mentioned in the room this morning, I said, the draft isn’t just late birthdays and straight birthdays. Now it becomes, ’06 is this year, ‘05 has become—the extension of their runway makes for more teams willing to take over age kids. It’s a double edged sword, right? Do you take an older kid who’s been through a couple drafts, he’s got 2 more years of maturity, you kind of know more about what his floor is going to be, maybe not enough ceiling left as some kids, but you have a better idea of what their floor is. With Sharp, he was coming to our camp. Scott Fitzgerald watched him a ton this year, he had a great year in the NCAA, a really good skater, and a really good first pass. He went back Western Michigan and won, so we had him come to camp. The more we started talking about it over the course of the year, and at the final meeting, we decided the kid deserved to be on our list and deserved to be drafted. We had a little background on him, just in terms of skating. With Heise again, this is a passion pick. Jaren Burke on her staff, Ryan Russell, they really liked this kid, and they went to bat for him. They’ve watched him for a couple of years, and kept getting better, long range kid. Developed in tier two, now has a chance to go for a year, get better in the Western Hockey League and then go into school. Michigan State has a good program. Looking at their runway, where are they going to develop, and how can they get better? Both kids check those boxes.
Morehouse, on Victor Eklund falling in the draft and possibly trading for him:
Mike will be able to give you that one better. Obviously, we liked Eklund, it was just a matter of where the list was and how things went. Mike will be able to give you more in terms of that, for sure.
Morehouse, on Cole McKinney:
Consistency, strength, faceoffs, power. Maybe not necessarily comes in being a highly-touted offensive guy, but we really like the consistency of the player. He got better as the year went on—really good on the PK, really good on the power play for the program. There’s a little bit of everything there with him. He was one of the guys that, once he got to that spot, and we noticed he kept sliding, we were really excited to get him, because he brings the same thing night to night. The details are there. He’s not the biggest kid in terms of being 6’3 or 6’4, but he’s 200 pounds, he’s got a great foundation, the details are there. He’s going to Michigan, great development path. It’s just kind of one of those things where we really like the idea, the profile, the kid, and now it’s up to him and our development to make sure it works.
Thanks to Maddie Dutra for her help transcribing. Watch the full interview here.