Sheng Peng
BUFFALO — Where the San Jose Sharks go, the 2026 Draft goes.
That appears to be the case, since Combine buzz has Gavin McKenna pretty much a lock to go to the Toronto Maple Leafs at No. 1.
So who will the Sharks pick at No. 2?
A defenseman is the prevailing buzz, but keep in mind, it’s just chatter, albeit educated by league executives, scouts, player agents.
My personal feeling, at the moment, is defensemen Chase Reid or Carson Carels, but I stress, it’s just a feeling.
The Sharks did take Reid and Carels out for dinner. They also took out defenseman Keaton Verhoeff and winger Ivar Stenberg.
San Jose Sharks director of amateur scouting Chris Morehouse says that the team took out six prospects, which joking not joking, has to be league lead.
San Jose Hockey Now can confirm that the team did not take out McKenna (no dinners this week), Alberts Smits (no dinners), Caleb Malhotra (no dinners), Viggo Bjorck (Seattle Kraken and Florida Panthers), Daxon Rudolph (Seattle and Florida), Ethan Belchetz (couple dinners but not with Sharks), Ryan Lin (no dinners), Tynan Lawrence (no dinners), Malte Gustafsson (one dinner but not with Sharks), Wyatt Cullen (no dinners), or Oscar Hemming (no dinners).
That leaves two mystery dinners…like last Combine. Last year, the Sharks took out Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa, and two others.
Outside of dinner, Morehouse says the Sharks interviewed 50-60 prospects.
The Sharks did interview Reid, Carels, Verhoeff, Stenberg, McKenna, Smits, Malhotra, Bjorck, Rudolph, Belchetz, Lin, Lawrence, Gustafsson, Cullen, and Hemming.
In addition, they interviewed Casey Mutryn, Thomas Bleyl, Liam Ruck, Markus Ruck, Alexander Command, Maksim Sokolovskii, Matias Vanhanen, J.P. Hurlbert, Adam Goljer, and Niklas Aaram-Olsen, among many others.
They did not interview Xavier Villeneuve and Simas Ignatavicius, among many others.
Defenseman Lin and winger Hemming and center Mutryn had interesting things to say about the Sharks’ interviews.
San Jose, under Morehouse, is known for more relaxed interviews, for not turning up the heat on prospects.
“If we’re trying to get to know them as hockey players [in the first week of June], I didn’t do my job. It’s more of just, ‘Come on, let’s talk, let’s have fun. Let’s talk about your favorite movies. Let’s laugh’,” Chris Morehouse told San Jose Hockey Now last year.
“There is no grilling,” he added. “Why do you think you need to make them more uncomfortable? For me, I want to see these kids in the best light we can.”
But Lin did share a test that the Sharks gave him in season.
“They did a little brain test at a computer with me in Vancouver,” he said. “It was just like shapes, numbers. I think they said it was about learning efficiency, and how your brain thinks.”
Lin thinks he did well on this test.
That’s a good reminder that teams, or at least their area scouts, talk regularly with these prospects all season, so no dinner or interview at the Combine doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Hemming did get a good feeling about his interview with the Sharks.
“I think it went well,” the 6-foot-4 Boston College winger with a big shot said. “Nice guys, easy to talk to. Kind of felt like they maybe liked me, but you never know.”
Meanwhile, Mutryn is the younger brother of 2025 third-round pick Teddy Mutryn.
“Mike Grier is a St. Sebastian’s guy, like myself and my brother,” Mutryn said. “It was a great conversation.”
Teddy will join Casey at BC next year.
Race for No. 2?
Stenberg and Carels did not do fitness testing: Stenberg was sick and Carels is coming off an injury.
Both did speak to the media.
Stenberg says he models his game after Nikita Kucherov and Lucas Raymond: “I like how they see the ice, how they carry the puck, how they read the game.”
He also shared that he did speak with San Jose Sharks prospect and World Juniors teammate Leo Sahlin Wallenius about the organization: “He said it was a nice place.”
Carels dropped this gem, when asked about the best chirp that he received this year: “I got called a psychopath this year on the ice. I thought that was a compliment, honestly.”
Also, Chase Reid revealed that the Chicago Blackhawks visited him at his home before the Combine:
(SoundCloud audio courtesy Ben Pope)
Chase Reid, Ivar Stenberg, Carson Carels, and Keaton Verhoeff also spoke exclusively with San Jose Hockey Now earlier this week.
Overtime
The San Jose Sharks, of course, are referred to as Boston West.
Tynan Lawrence, Boston University, models his game after alumni Macklin Celebrini: “He’s obviously a really talented player, but the little things he does away from the puck, the battles, [if] he’s not offensively there that game, he can always find a way to help his team out and still impact the game.”
Lawrence has also heard plenty about Celebrini from the Sharks star’s old teammates, which includes older brother Aiden: “Overall, just how hard [Macklin] worked, he was very hard worker in practice and in the gym, just the little things like that. He just cared so much about the team. I feel like that’s one of the big things.”
Hemming, BC, says alumni Will Smith has joined the Eagles at skates. Hemming was impressed by “just how well [Smith] sees the guys, how he makes the passes.”
Mutryn, meanwhile, gave real family insight about brother Teddy.
“I think often Teddy is honestly one of the nicest humans that I know, he’s just a great guy. Sometimes, I get mad, I think sometimes he maybe needs to stand up for himself more. Be a little bit more mean,” Casey laughed. “We’re best friends, we hang out all the time, my best friends are his best friends. Being home this summer, I’m excited to get home and spend some time with him.”
The Boston bloodlines, of course, run deep for the Mutryns. Their dad, Scott, was the starting quarterback for Boston College in 1998.
Casey mentioned that he has a younger brother Ryan who’s a “stud quarterback”.
This is part one of a two-part Combine Notebook: Today was about 2026 Draft prospects, tomorrow will be about the San Jose Sharks free agents and how they might add to their blueline.