Sheng Peng
Keaton Verhoeff is already friends with Ryan Lin, and he’s making friends with Ivar Stenberg.
Verhoeff and Stenberg are roommates at San Jose Sharks development camp.
San Jose Barracuda head coach John McCarthy liked what he saw from the defenseman on Tuesday: “I thought Verhoeff skated well. I thought he was pretty smooth in the skating work. I was working with the forwards, so he was down the other end with the D, but in the small [area] game, made some nice plays with the puck.”
The 2026 San Jose Sharks No. 9 pick talked about his skating, joked about how to beat Alexander Karmanov one-on-one, shared a funny Lin story, and talked Matthew Schaefer and Macklin Celebrini.
Keaton Verhoeff, on today’s emphasis on skating drills:
It’s awesome. Obviously, a big thing that I want to work on, and to be out there doing some skating drills and working on my feet, working on my edges, it’s huge. It’s fun to be out there, just not even just the skating drills, but on the ice as well, all the drills that we did, cool opportunities to get better. Same thing I said, third time going back to it, but just trying to be a sponge out there, learn everything you can.
Verhoeff, on how to beat Alexander Karmanov in a small area game:
Maybe try sneak through his legs. (laughs) No, he is unbelievable. He uses his body really well, too, and is able to hit guys and box guys out. So definitely takes some speed, but you obviously have to get used to him. Glad he’s on my team.
Verhoeff, on his friend Ryan Lin getting drafted to the San Jose Sharks right after him:
It’s been unbelievable. There’s pure excitement when we saw each other.
I was doing some sort of photo shoot after the draft, the camera guy was looking at me, he was trying to take photos, he was saying look at the camera, and I ended up looking at the TV, because Linner was getting drafted. He kept on getting mad at me for not looking at the camera. Like, come on, it’s one of my buddies getting drafted, and he’s like, okay, whatever.
First time we saw each other, too, when I saw him in the Sharks jersey, he saw me, had a big, big, cool moment there. It’s fun to go to a place with guys you know, and be around that type of person and player.
Verhoeff, on hanging out with Matthew Schaefer at the draft:
It’s really cool. Anytime you get to be around a guy like that, just the same as, he’s an inspiration to a lot of Canadians, just same as Macklin is, too. Those two guys are two young players that have really paved the way for not only Canadian kids, but players coming up in the league. They’re guys that really have shown that you can jump in the league and make an impact right away.
So it was cool to kind of talk with Matthew. I’ve never really been around him that much, so see the type of person he is off the ice.