San Jose Hockey Now
Draft Lottery AMA: Get SJHN YouTube Perks, Join Our New Discord!
It’s a new frontier for San Jose Hockey Now!
SJHN is expanding its community with a YouTube channel membership and brand-new Discord channel, both opening today.
We’re going to kick off these communities with a couple big events on Tuesday, May 5th!
At 3 PM PT/6 PM ET tomorrow, Keegan McNally of the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast will host a 2026 Draft Lottery party on San Jose Hockey Now YouTube. Will the San Jose Sharks move up from their current No. 9 spot and take aim at Gavin McKenna next to Macklin Celebrini? Find out live with us on YouTube!
After the Draft Lottery, at about 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET, Keegan and Sheng will jump on Discord and host a private AMA for Discord special access members — this will be a SJHN Discord exclusive!
Join the YouTube channel membership for special access to both events!
https://www.youtube.com/@ShengPeng/membership
You’ll get, in addition to the special events tomorrow:
+ With the YouTube channel membership, you’ll also have SPECIAL ACCESS to SJHN Discord: Keegan will host regular live San Jose Sharks game Discord chats with you and other members of San Jose Hockey Now during the upcoming 2026-2027 season. Ask Keegan and Sheng and Zubair questions! Also interact with a vibrant fan community!
+ Exclusive San Jose Sharks game YouTube live streams with Keegan next year!
+ Member comments and questions highlighted/featured on ALL SJHN YouTube videos, including podcast and post-game interviews and events, including tomorrow’s Draft Lottery stream
+ First access to Keegan’s articles on Discord and prospect breakdown videos on YouTube
+ YouTube & Discord Loyalty badges + Emojis (in progress)
(If you have questions about linking your SJHN YouTube channel membership to Discord, ask Keegan at sjhockeypod@gmail.com)
Again, click the link below to sign up! It’s just $4.99 a month:
https://www.youtube.com/@ShengPeng/membership
This is just the beginning of the excitement at SJHN YouTube and Discord!
Get behind the scenes of SJHN and the SJHN Podcast! Join the community!
ALSO: Exclusively for current SJHN website subscribers, if you want JUST special access to the Discord AMA tomorrow to ask Keegan and Sheng questions, write sjhockeypod@gmail.com with your SJHN website subscriber e-mail address, and we’ll send you a FREE invite link to the Discord.
Thank you all for your continued support, we’ll see you behind the curtain!
So no discord access for people subscribed to SJHN, we need to pay another 5 bucks a month for that?
You can view the Discord for free, to participate, you’ll have to pay extra.
We are offered a free one-month trial for SJHN subscribers for tomorrow’s AMA, as noted below, so e-mail sjhockeypod@gmail.com if interested
ALSO: Exclusively for current SJHN website subscribers, if you want JUST special access to the Discord AMA tomorrow to ask Keegan and Sheng questions, write sjhockeypod@gmail.com with your SJHN website subscriber e-mail address, and we’ll send you a FREE invite link to the Discord.
I happy for you Keegan. Throwing away a promising medical career to cover the Sharks on Discord is a bold move, but I’m applauding you for it. Guessing the hard part was convincing the wife …
A man of many talents I say
Where’s the pod, Sheng
We’re recording on Thursday
How much just for Keegan’s Prospect Corner?
fwiw, if the Sharks get 1st or 2nd overall, I’m thinking Stenberg. Everything I hear says McKenna is the bigger talent with huge upside. But the other thing I hear is Stenberg’s got that compete with the high-end talent. Macklin is setting the culture — be a dog all 200 feet — and Stenberg seems a much better fit for this culture. If I’m Vancouver and I get a chance at whoever I want, I think they oughta take Stenberg. Take the guy who builds the culture. If Sharks do get a lottery win (which would be the first time… Read more »
Hmm. Drafting for fit over drafting for value?
I feel like trading down is something fans talk about more than actual front office people. With obvious exceptions like Eric Lindros, you can rarely get an offer that matches the value. I suspect to some extent, the example of Eric Lindros is kind of why you don’t get that kind of offer anymore.
I’m a best player available guy. Talent is only part of what makes a player ‘best player available’ In the case of McKenna vs Stenberg, I’d rate Stenberg the better player because he does more for the culture. He’s also more likely to reach his full potential. However, if you have a shortage in one area — and the Sharks clearly do — you can move inside the draft to get to the spot where the best player available is also the one who fills your bigger need. Its pretty much what GMMG did when he traded from 14th to… Read more »
That very next pick of the one traded became Cole Huston. Who the caps did not want to trade for Quinn Hughes. 🔥
Definitely Stenberg over McKenna for the Sharks. I actually might take Reid, and many of you will disagree, and I’d give all my reasons, starting with how a true #1 RHD is more valuable than a slightly undersized wing, but I’ll save that debate with y’all until there’s actually a debate to be had (we move up). I will say, however, that I do think there’s a trade to made if we move up. The lack of trades is usually driven by many factors. Teams at the top usually need lots of things, they’re not going to move down if… Read more »
It’d be an interesting scenario. Forwards have proven far more predictable and with that much on the line, the downside risk on d-men as to come into play. I will say this, teams have been burned a bunch by getting the wrong d-man at the top of the draft. In the 2020 draft, Brock Faber was 11th d-man taken. Sanderson was the 5th overall and is likely the best d-man in that class. But a lot of so-so went between him and Faber, whose probably 2nd best. In 2021, Owen Power went 1st overall and is probably the best d-man… Read more »
Yep, D men are hard to pick, no doubt!! Agree 1000%. But we’re not at a point where we can just draft forwards because they are easier to project. And I really do think the forwards in this draft class – and you can add guys like Malhotra and Lawrence into this, have more questions than your typical group of top of the draft forwards. At a certain point, we’ve got to depend on our scouts. Be fearless. Hard to confirm with certainty, but it seems the Sharks had Dickinson rated higher than most of the D in that class.… Read more »
I jokingly say teams should use every pick after the midpoint of rd 1 on defensemen. Really good and possibly elite d-man are often drafted outside the premium pick areas. Vlasic was a 2nd rd pick. Burns was 20th overall. EK65 was 15th.
That said, most of the rather long list of Norris candidates this season were top-10 picks, Hutson is the outlier
If they don’t see any as a top pair they should look to move the pick for a 21 and under D in someone else’s prospect pool that they believe in. A couple years post draft development would give a clearer picture who to invest in. Throw in both first round picks to get someone potentially great even.
I think a lot of that may also be player development rather than pure scouting. It takes longer to learn the position at the NHL level and so player development post-draft plays a bigger role for D than for forwards. That’s why goalies are even harder to predict, because at age 18 they are basically still raw material. So much is left to your player development staff. Some franchises are definitely better than others at player development. Dallas and Tampa seem able to keep churning out good players from different parts of the draft. I remember Grier gave a quote… Read more »
His development staff is massive from all the hirings. Lots of non DW people there too. He does believe in bringing in ex sharks from their best teams though.
I’ve been saying for years that a RD is worth more than undersized wings. It’s why no one should be buying Eklund Sharks jerseys this offseason.
FINDS DISCORD OVERWHELMING
Clasping Muscled Arms meme
CAN’T AFFORD ANOTHER MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION
Spot on. Discord is just so much information, so many channels, feeds, whatever they call it. It’s hard to get a hang of. I guess my brain doesn’t mesh well with that interface.
Reminds me of sitting on the couch having to watch ponies with my daughter.
Been a proud subscriber for a couple seasons now, I’m happy for you guys 🙂🤙 I’ll look into the YouTube option. Do our questions get answered mail bag style via live stream like on articles, or would they be answered on a game livestream? Cheers to your success 🍻 keep the episodes long btw lol
There’s a channel on our Discord specifically where you can drop questions, and we’ll do our best to get to them.
Live game watches will mostly be run by Keegan, and he’ll answer questions as the game goes along, best he can
Like: you guys are engaging more with sharks fans
Dislike: the additional paywall for that privilege. Also, I wish there would have been a way to leverage the existing sharks unofficial discord in someway, as opposed to splintering the discourse a bit.
Hi Kevin, I hope you will consider the value provided. I personally think SJHN, the website, is a tremendous value, just over the last two weeks, there’s arguably the best English Chernyshov story produced so far, and exclusive interviews with Pohlkamp, LSW, and Havelid. This is for less than $5 a month or $40 a year (and there’s an easily accessible coupon code for an extra $10 off annual). And at a time in the season where there isn’t a lot of original Sharks stories out there. The YouTube perks and Discord are a whole separate thing, spearheaded a lot… Read more »
I wouldn’t argue that it’s not a great value Sheng! It’s just that my checkbook is being great-valued to death already. It’s tough these days where everyone wants or even practically forces you into a subscription…hell I have some features for my Jeep that I need to pay a subscription for if I want to use them.
I’m right there with you.
100%. We can view for free though? Fits in the budget.
I hear you, Steve! I certainly get that to ask anyone for any money every month, you have to provide value, and even if you do provide value, it’s exhausting and adds up to pay for every little thing. I’m personally going through this now with streaming services, like Disney+, their cheaper version with ads, there are so many ads, a show is pretty much unwatchable lol. And they want $7 more a month for an ad-free version?? It’s death by a thousand cuts. So I get balking at paying more for another community. But I also think this venture,… Read more »
the idea that Keegan’s discord has the same or more value than the whole website seems a bit off!
Or, consider the idea that the website is a huge, huge bargain?
I’m not saying at all that they’re the same value.
A lottery win — either 1st or 2nd — is a game changer. It won’t get used on a d-man, but it opens up the chance to trade Eklund and/or Smith, and that can get an elite d-man via trade. At some point. As best as I can guess and based on comments I’ve heard from the various people who talk prospects, I’d be pretty OK if the Sharks wind up with Gustafsson and Lin. The team does need to get bigger on the back-end and it needs to get high-end talent on the back-end. For all this draft seems… Read more »
not sure it’s even worth much discussion pre draft but ok.
they’re not trading Smith. Any premise along those lines is doa.
IMO… Regardless of whether the Sharks move up, the two wings at the top are not at all the level of prospects that Bedard/Celebrini/Shaefer were. They are not game changers at that level. If McKenna goes number one, you will have to go back four years to find a number #1 overall with as many flags and as low a floor as him. They are also both a little undersized and do not play a premium position. There’s plenty of reason to think McKenna will make a lot of fancy plays and pile up stats during the regular season and… Read more »
From all the stuff I’ve listened to, I’d go with Stenberg if given the choice. Even though almost everyone agrees McKenna’s the most talent by a decent amount.
Stenberg has that dog in him, plays a 200 ft game. That’s the cultural blueprint this team needs. Yo want to be on Macklin’s wing, play that 200 ft game. Want to have Stenberg on your wing, play the 200 ft game.
The idea of a top 6 with Misa, Macklin, Stenberg and Chernyshov is really enticing. Even after if Smith and Eklund get moved …
I’m fully onboard with Stenberg over McKenna. I don’t think there’s any chance Smith is getting moved. We are nowhere close to understanding how close he’s going to get to an extremely high ceiling. I don’t think it would be shocking at all if Smith ends up being better than Stenberg, to be honest. Eklund is the one getting closer to the point where we can question how much more he will improve and how critical he is or isn’t to the future core, and would still have very good trade value if we decided we didn’t need him. I… Read more »
I assume the pick will be Stenberg or McKenna, and that will definitely mean another forward, probably Eklund, is super available. I’m shaking, this is so cool.
From center to traded… not happening. Let it go.
Rigged
RIGGED BUT AMAZING!
It was rigged, until it wasn’t? lol
Happy to take that rigged number 2 pick.
I love this analysis!!!
That went better than I expected!
F-YEAH!!!
Oh shit I’m just tuning in, sharks get 2OA?!?!? WTF?!?!
Fuck YESSSSSS !!!!!
FUCKING RIGHTS, BOYS – Probably Zubair somewhere
Nice BDAY present for me! #2 baby!
Let the “who do we draft at #2” armchair GM’ing commence, and may the odds ever be in your favor.
holllyyy shit we got number 2
Grier looked like he was already running the scenarios in his head when they cut to him post-draw.
This is crazy. Final nail, coffin!!!
I wonder if Sundin takes Stenberg at #1. Both Swedes.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Celebrini-Smith buddy duo
Eklund-Stenberg buddy duo
Misa-Dickinson buddy duo
Chernyshov-Askarov buddy duo
Make it be!
I thought Asky and Shak were already best friends?