Sheng Peng
What traits will the new San Jose Sharks prioritize in the Draft?
We don’t know – it’s director of player personnel Scott Fitzgerald, director of player development Todd Marchant, and director of amateur scouting Chris Morehouse’s first time helming the Draft for second-year GM Mike Grier – but we’re about to find out in two weeks.
“You want competitive skill,” Fitzgerald said three weeks ago in a Sharks’ 1991 Club town hall.
“They seem to value big guys who can skate,” an NHL scout from outside the San Jose Sharks organization suggested.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think skating, [the Sharks come] off as an organization that really values skating,” another scout volunteered. “But I think they’ll take a competitive 5-foot-11 guy over a softer 6-foot-2 guy.”
So…competitive skill?
“Some of it is looking at some of the comments that Grier’s made publicly. Some of it is questions I’ve gotten from Sharks [employees] over the years,” the scout shared. “Just Morehouse’s track record [with the New York Rangers]. Like even his most recent picks like Othmann and stuff.”
We’re probably going to start to get a good sense of what the Sharks value most with the No. 26 and 36 picks. Of course, they’re picking No. 4 too, but that selection might be more about pure skill than fit.
With a wide range of prospects in mind, I checked in with a couple NHL scouts to get their thoughts about some of the defensemen that the Sharks could be interested in during the late first or early second round.
Tom Willander and Dmitri Simashev probably won’t be there.
But maybe Caden Price, Jakub Dvorak, Maxim Strbak, Andrew Gibson, Oliver Bonk, Lukas Dragicevic, or Mikhail Gulyayev will be?
We’ve already talked about the goalies that the San Jose Sharks could grab at No. 26 and 36 – we’ll get to the forwards later this week.
Tom Willander
Scout #1: Yeah, seems like he’s getting a lot of momentum.
Before the World U18, he would have been there.
He wasn’t that good at the Hlinka in February. He was good at the Five Nations, not great.
But at the U18’s, he led Sweden in icetime in the back end. He’s a really good skater. Got good size.
Sometimes, it’s hard to jam a kid up that high based on one tournament, really. He had a good playoff in J20 [Nationell] and a good U18. That’s not a big body of work yet.
So if he does get to San Jose at 26, he checks off what they do. He’s got NHL size, big, strong kid. He skates very well.
I can’t say he’s high-end, he’s an elite shutdown defender or he’s an elite, offensive power play guy. But he’s pretty good at both. You’re getting a big defenseman who can skate and play a two-way game. That makes sense, for sure.
Scout #2: Exceptional skater. Really good skater, really plays hard. Physical, probably [considers himself] defense-first, I would say.
I think the offensive side of it will be a little bit more of a work in progress. But defensively very, very strong. Closes guys quickly. That more modern skating defenseman, where he leads with his skating and then follows it up with physicality and closing plays off and winning pucks.
The transition element, I would say is a little bit lesser. But the way he skates — and he’s not dumb — he might just overcomplicate [with the puck] a little bit at times.
But he’s gonna be able to rely on his defense and his skating no matter what.
From what I understand, there’s pretty good leadership qualities. Really serious. Does a lot of extra work off ice.
Dmitri Simashev
Scout #1: Tall kid, good feet. He reminds me of Mukhamadullin. That’s what I see when I watch Simashev. So if they if value Mukhamadullin enough to make him a core piece of the deal for Timo Meier, then I would think Simashev is a guy they like a lot too.
They look almost identical to me at the same age.
6-foot-4 long kid. But some people are like I wish he was a little bit harder and grittier. But he defends well, and his ability to move pucks and make plays really stands out.
Scout #2: Skates really well. He’s kind of similar to Willander in the sense that the offensive game isn’t what he relies on. But the offensive game is quite good. Got a huge wingspan. He’s intelligent, can be simple [with the puck].
Would be a first pass kind of guy, first guy getting it up the zone, out of the zone. He’s not going to be making stretch passes or anything like that. But he’s efficient.
The way the league is going, having a 6-foot-4 skating defenseman who’s good in his own zone and makes clean exit passes, that’s becoming so valuable.
You might not be looking at a 30 or 40-point NHL defenseman.
Caden Price
Scout #2: He was terrible this year. (laughs)
The fact that he’s still being talked about in the area that he is, it’s surprising. Kelowna wasn’t a good team, so that hurt him.
But he played way over his head on that team. Again, they were a bad team. They played him a lot. Led their team in icetime by quite a bit. Played like 25 minutes a night. It was embarrassing.
My take on it, he doesn’t do a whole lot really well. Like he skates really well.
But for every good play he made, there were two bad ones. Or you’d go see him one night, he’d be very good. He’d be good defensively. And then the next night, he’d be a train wreck.
So the consistency was really a huge issue this year for him. He has talent.
There is skill. There is sense. The skating is there every night.
He was talked about, coming in, as one of the better defensive prospects.
He and Cam Allen are basically like the same guy. Like there’s a lot of talk about them coming in, being the big first-round defensive prospects. Both on tough teams, both in tough situations where I don’t think they lived up to the hype.
That being said, Allen will be the exact opposite where he’s more of a defensive-minded guy. Price has offensive talent and tools.
You’re really taking a risk with him because his on-ice play was disappointing this year.
Jakub Dvorak
Scout #1: He wasn’t a guy that jumped out for me.
Scout #2: Big Czech kid. Injuries really hurt his season.
But any time you get guys that play up in the Czech League their Draft year, that’s impressive, because it’s a really difficult place to play in. And he played decent minutes too.
He started getting second-pair [minutes] right before he got injured.
Humongous. Giant wingspan, he can already skate at an above-average level. He’s good defensively. He’s intelligent.
The puck game is a little bit touch-and-go. He has decent hands. Like the hands, they’ll probably come.
There aren’t a lot of holes in his game. Really, really raw, and talented.
Again, the way the league is going, you get a 6-foot-5 guy who can skate, make first passes, and defend well, money.
Maxim Strbak
Scout #1: Strbak at 36 would make sense.
In the USHL this year in Sioux Falls, he wasn’t bad by any means. But he was just pretty like blend-in vanilla. But then, when he played for Slovakia, put that jersey on, especially the World Juniors and U18s, he was very strong.
He’s a big body defenseman, high character, high compete, very trustworthy, dependable, reliable, blocks shots. He’s a great defender, he kills a lot of plays.
Decent-enough puck play, really no offensive upside there. But potentially a [No. 4 defenseman] with a defensive bent to his game. More realistically, like a No. 5-6 penalty kill guy.
Scout #2: Bit of a tough year too. Sioux Falls was a tough situation. Similar to Price, a lot of hype going in for him. He had a bit of a struggle adjusting.
I would say his first half maybe wasn’t really sure what he was as a defenseman. Was he offensive? Was he defensive? Was he two-way?
Really, really impressive World Juniors, a lot of people had hope in that, he was a big part of that Slovak team. Then, he went back and was a little bit better in the second half.
I’m not sure we think it’s there [though].
He’s not bad defensively. He’s not bad offensively. He’s probably more defensive-leaning.
Really exceptional, exceptional kid. Really nice. I can’t say enough good things about him off the ice. I guess he’s just like a tremendous person. So there’s some intangible leadership.
Andrew Gibson
Scout #2: Really, really good U18’s.
The big skating defensemen of the world are becoming more and more valuable. Gibson definitely fits that mold. Would probably be like a [good second-pairing guy].
Skates pretty well. Big kid, really engaged. When you watch him, he wants to be involved. He wants to make a difference.
Soo was terrible. Absolutely terrible.
He was put in such a difficult position, having to play minutes over his head in situations.
So he was a bit messy, both moving the puck and defensively.
But the style he plays, you saw it when he went to the Worlds.
He did very, very well in the right environment. I think that everybody got more excited about the prospect of a 6-foot-3 skating D who doesn’t have a whole ton of deficiencies.
Oliver Bonk
Scout #1: I don’t really think he’s got an elite trait, an elite ceiling.
I think there’s a chance he’s gone before 26. But he could get to 26.
He checks out a lot of those boxes too. He’s 6-foot-2, 200 pounds. Really solid, big, strong right shot D. Intelligent with the puck, intelligent without it. Really solid defensively, kills plays, and he’s very capable to move pucks to the middle of the ice, has poise. I think there’s a good upside there.
Lukas Dragicevic
Scout #2: Offensive-minded D, doesn’t skate super well, doesn’t defend well. But very good passer. Crisp long pass. Short and long vision. Can be very efficient, but also offensively, sees a lot of multiple-layered plays. Really, really, really talented. offensively. You’d be real worried about the skating and defense.
Mikhail Gulyayev
Scout #2: Skating. Small and under-sized. But he’s honestly not that different from Sandin Pellikka who’s gonna go way higher.
They’re very, very similar players. They’re competitive. Excellent, excellent mobile skaters. Great passers, offensive.
Yeah, the defense is tough because they’re smaller, the reach is limited.