San Jose Sharks
BREAKING: Sharks Let Prospect Oberg Walk
The San Jose Sharks are not signing prospect Linus Oberg to a contract, according to San Jose Hockey Now’s sources.
Oberg is now a UFA.
The Swedish winger was part of a list of 29 prospects whose exclusive team rights are set to expire on Jun. 1 at 5 PM EST.
Signing Deadline Update
June 1 is the deadline to sign these 29 prospects, if they remain unsigned, their respective team loses their exclusive signing rights.
Those eligible to re-enter the draft can be selected this July, otherwise they become UFAs.https://t.co/3B8UOBLIyt pic.twitter.com/aNKhhU3xuO
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) May 30, 2022
Oberg, 21, has scored 30 goals in two seasons with Örebro HK in the SHL since the San Jose Sharks selected him with the 206th pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. He was actually the second-highest Under-22 goal scorer in the SHL this season with 17 goals.
“He goes to the dirty areas and is quite uncomfortable to play against around the net,” Swedish reporter Uffe Bodin told SJHN. “If it would translate to the NHL is harder to predict, but I do believe his style would be a good fit in smaller rinks.”
But it’s San Jose Hockey Now’s understanding that Oberg intends to return to Örebro HK next year, and the San Jose Sharks wanted to keep that contract slot – one of their 50 allowed standard-player contracts – for a likely NHL player in the 2022-23 campaign. Even if Oberg had come over, he seems to project as an AHL player next season.
That said, Oberg should be a decent flier for an NHL organization that doesn’t mind stashing a prospect in Sweden for a little while longer.
Sharks director of scouting Doug Wilson Jr. spoke highly of Oberg to the San Jose Hockey Podcast last month, though he also suggested that there were some challenges that might prevent the prospect from coming over.
“Still trying to figure [a contract with Oberg] all out. The Swedish agreement with the NHL was just [re-upped] recently, so there’s some changes with it,” Wilson Jr. said. “I went over there, saw he played some really good games against high-end opponents. He’s trending well.”
To be more exact, the big change in the NHL-SHL agreement is that Swedish players are encouraged to develop in the SHL instead of the AHL. Per Pro Hockey Rumors: “Under the old agreement, players drafted in the second round or later that are also signed in Sweden had to be at least 21 before they could be sent to the AHL. If they were younger than that, they had to be returned to their Swedish team. In the new agreement, that threshold has been increased to 24.”
Johan Ekberg of VF Sport does remind me that this isn’t an ironclad agreement. If an age 21-24 Swedish prospect wants to play in the AHL and his Swedish club agrees to it (or he doesn’t have a Swedish club), it’s certainly possible.
Regardless, such prospects and their contracts with NHL teams still count against the 50-contract limit. So to some degree, it’s become NHL or bust for a layer of age 21-24 Swedish prospects, which includes Oberg.
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Not sure why but this really bothers me, they’re ok signing a guys like Hamaliuk and Stenn Pasinchuk who’ve done nothing IMO to earn contracts yet a 21 year old coming off a 17 goal campaign in the SHL they let walk…not sure what the big deal with him staying another year in Sweden is.
Pasichnuk is a totally different situation insofar he’s signed to the Barracuda.
You have a fair point on Hamaliuk, but he was a second-round pick, and you have to presume that they think the ceiling is still high enough, you want to see it through his ELC with him. Looking bad though. But at the time they signed Hamaliuk too, they may have had more player contracts available too.
I will add that Hamaliuk signed his ELC in 2019, right after his Draft, which is fairly standard for a higher pick. He just hasn’t panned out.
is this a situation where the player expressed a desire to remain in Sweden long term? if that’s the case, then i can understand the Sharks passing on him. perhaps they just don’t want to go down the Dahlen route again?
Not necessarily — I think it’s more as I described in the story (and just added to)
i’d imagine this will negatively impact the appeal of drafting a Swede beyond the 1st round of the NHL entry draft if teams can’t get control of a player they drafted until he turns 24. that’s practically old! if you haven’t made an NHL club by then you probably won’t ever.
To a small degree — but if the prospect is NHL-worthy, from my understanding, there’s nothing to prevent that prospect from jumping. This rule is to keep this layer of Swedish prospects from the AHL
financial incentives to their own league aside, this change in the age is seemingly (to me at least) a pretty big deal. the CHL (although a junior league) only conditions are 20 yoa or 4 years of service in their league. not being able to get a drafted prospect from the SHL onto NHL-sized ice until he hits 24 yoa is potentially problematic, no? how are you going to know, as with a player like Dahlen, if his skill on bigger/more open ice translates well to the rough and tumble smaller ice of NA? i’d probably take a pass on… Read more »
This layer of players can still come to training camp to compete for a job. Like Dahlen, if he hadn’t made the Sharks out of camp last year, it wouldn’t have shocked anyone if he went home, right? But yea, if you’re using a SPC on the player, it better be someone that you have some belief will make NHL immediately. They didn’t have that with Oberg, hence letting a promising prospect walk.