Sheng Peng
It wasn’t an ideal first day of school for the San Jose Sharks, with the announcement that captain Logan Couture was out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Regardless, GM Mike Grier was excited for the opening of training camp, and touched on a variety of topics, from keeping Couture and Tomas Hertl, what’s a successful season for the San Jose Sharks this year, who impressed him today, perhaps extending pending UFAs Alexander Barabanov and Anthony Duclair, when the Sharks will come out of their rebuild, if there’s enough puck-moving in the back-end, and Rookie Faceoff standouts.
Mike Grier, on expectations for the San Jose Sharks this season:
Just to get better, really. From day one, I’ve said I wanted to see improvement. Improvement in the culture and the way we’re doing things around here, improvement on the ice, individual improvement from the player. You know, that’s pretty much the goal.
I haven’t really ever wanted to put a number on anything as far as how we’re going to do standings-wise, or things like that. I just want to see the things we’re working on and that we’re getting better each day.
Grier, on who stood out to him on the first day of training camp:
I think a lot of guys had good summers, to be honest.
I think [Alexander Barabanov] looks good. He put a lot of time in, and I think Quinny asked him to work on a few things this summer, and he looks stronger and quicker out there.
[Nikolai] Knyzhov, I think, looks more confident. Having all the injuries he’s had over the last couple of years, I think him having a full summer of training has helped him. He looks good.
I’ll also add Nikita Okhotiuk in there. We didn’t get to see at the end of the year through injury, but it’s good to see him skating the way he was skating today. He looks healthy and confident as well. A lot of guys have good summers and those are a few that kind of jumped a little bit today.
Grier, on what success looks like to him this year:
It’s similar to what I said: It’s players getting better, us playing better as a team consistently throughout the year.
I know something Quinny and the staff have addressed is being better defensively and things like that. We had a lot of defensive breakdowns that cost us games last year, so being better defensively. Just getting better.
When I was playing, it was kind of said that the league wasn’t a developmental league, but now it’s kind of shifted, so we have to hopefully see guys improve and develop a little bit at the NHL level. For us, that’s a win and hopefully, by doing that, we’ll get a few wins along the way.
Grier, on what veterans like Mikael Granlund and other newcomers bring to the locker room:
It’s really important for young players to have people they can look up to — you kind of call them good pros, right?
They learn what these guys are eating, what they’re doing after practice, what they’re doing before practice, what they’re doing during practice. Just all of the little things that you need to pick up along the way in professional sports to survive and make a living off of, which I know all our young guys want to do.
We’re fortunate to have some good people that we brought in last year and this year. Kyle Burroughs, Granlund, Rutta, those guys are good pros, guys that we can be pretty happy that our young players will be able to look to them.
Even for some of our skilled younger players to have [Anthony Duclair] here will be good. He’s someone who has gone through the ups and downs of being a 19-year-old and making the team out of camp in New York and then having to go back down and then getting traded and bouncing around and waivers and all these things. Now he’s found his game, so he’s a good example for perseverance and what it takes in this league.
Maybe you think the league’s easy because you make it earlier, have success earlier, but it’s a tough league, and it’s tough to stay in. I think we’re fortunate to have some older guys in here and the older guys that are coming back. We’ll definitely lean on them from Logan to Tomas to [Nico Sturm] to [Matt Benning] and guys like that.
Grier, on potentially extending UFAs like Alexander Barabanov and Anthony Duclair:
We’ll look at them all individually, but no, you’re right. There’s definitely some merit to thinking about extending those guys and having them around here.
We’ll definitely keep an eye on how they’re fitting in with the group, and if they’re doing the things that we want culture-wise in here and being examples like we talked about earlier. It’s definitely something that’s on the table.
As we kind of transition here, like you said, we have a lot of UFA’s and we have some young guys that are kind of knocking on the door. One of these years, these guys will be ready to play and we’ll be a young team, but we’re also going to need some vets around them to, like we said, show them the way and show them how things are done and support them on the ice and off the ice.
You don’t want to have these young guys come in and all of a sudden we’re like, “Alright, you’ve got to score [this number of] goals for us” [or] “You’ve got to be power play one.” It’s a lot. It’s hard enough just to stay in the league and to find your way, so we don’t want to dump all the responsibility on these kids.
Grier, on when San Jose Sharks will be ready to come out of this rebuild:
It’s tough to put an exact time frame on it. I think our young players will determine a lot of that.
It’s a good experience for them at camp now for the first-time guys, Kasper, Luca, and Quentin. Once those guys and from the Gushchins to the Coes to the Bordeleaus, Mukhamadullins, all these guys, and then you look at the Cam Lunds, Bystedt, Havelid, and Will Smith. There’s a lot of young players that we’re really excited about, but we don’t want to rush them.
When they’re ready, I think that’s when we’ll start looking, hopefully, to turn the page and start pushing this thing forward and becoming a Stanley Cup contender again.
Grier, on if he’s happy to keep Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl on the team:
I think I have a good relationship with both of them. I love having them around — from their personality to their leadership to their work ethic and just the general, good people that they are. It’s great to have them around.
But like I did when I first got the job, I check in with them a lot. If there ever were to come a time when they felt like they needed or wanted to go somewhere else, it’s definitely something I would listen to. If it made sense for us, then I would explore it. As of right now, I’m happy that they’re part of our group.
Grier, on if Couture and Hertl are on board with how he’s building the team:
Yeah, it’s been good. Like I said, I got a good relationship with them. Logan was here all summer, so we talked a bunch. Tomas, we talked on the phone a couple of times. I think they’re all in. They enjoy working with Quinny and the coaching staff and they’re excited by some of the young players that we have around, kind of the prospects of what lies ahead. As of right now, I think they’re all in a good headspace, and hopefully that continues.
Grier, on if he’s optimistic that Couture will be ready to start the season:
I’m optimistic, but at the same time, it’s an 82-game season. If he’s not ready for the first week of the season, we’ll deal with it. We won’t rush him back. Hopefully he’s ready, but if he’s not, I think, especially this year, we’ve got enough depth to handle it with someone like Granlund having the ability to slide into that role.
Grier, on if the San Jose Sharks have enough puck-moving in the back-end:
We’ll see.
Erik did such a great job for us, getting us out of our own end. It’s something that we hope we have enough of. Guys will definitely get the opportunity. Sometimes it’s easy when you have a guy like Erik on your team, it’s just bumping over to him, he’ll get us out of the zone.
Now there’s some responsibility on the other D, and the D as a whole, to make some plays and try and up their game. But we’ll see. I think every team, pretty much, is looking for a puck mover, guys who can get their team out of their end. And we’re no different.
Grier, on Nikita Okhotiuk’s waiver status:
Yeah, he’s got to go on waivers.
Grier, on having to make some tough roster decisions on the blueline and elsewhere:
We’re going to definitely have some tough decisions to make on the back-end and up front.
But that’s what I wanted from day one — to have competition in here, internal competition where guys are pushing themselves, and the guys from underneath are pushing up to grab a spot. You’ve got to play well — it’s the best league in the world for a reason, and no one should have a spot in the league or in the line-up given to them.
That’s what we’re trying to create here, an atmosphere of competition, and I think we have that this year, and it will definitely lead to some tough decisions down the road.
Grier, on who stood out to him at Rookie Faceoff:
We’ll have to see how camp goes.
I thought Kasper [Halttunen] and Quentin [Musty] both played well.
It’s an adjustment when you come from junior hockey, and you realize how fast guys are and how strong they are, but I thought they both showed well. They pushed back, they didn’t back down, and they both played their games. They played different style of games, but I thought Kasper did a good job getting open and trying to use his shot and being physical when he needed to be.
Quentin made some made some high-end plays and he finally got rewarded at the end of the day. I thought those guys played well.
I thought [Shakir] played really well, all three games. To your question earlier, he’s been more aggressive and more assertive in that camp, and even at practice today. He’s getting accustomed to playing over here.
[William Eklund] was great, in his one game. I thought Henry was solid too. [Bordeleau] obviously had a good second game. Felix Gagnon earned a chance to come to main camp because he played three really good games. Chrona and Romanov both played great in the two games we won.
Apologies, I’m sure I left someone out. (laughs)
Grier, on adding Ryan Miller as a goaltending development coach:
Millsy was a good friend and good teammate.
Playing with him, seeing how he saw the game, he was so thoughtful about how he saw the game and the goalie position and so analytical about it.
If you look at his style and his history in the game, every so many years, he changed his style and was able to adapt to the way the game was played. When he was younger, being super-aggressive, and then slowly backing in and playing more in the blue paint, and things like that, he kind of adjusted his style. I’m really excited to have him.
As you guys could probably see today, he was excited to be out there on the ice for all three sessions. Told him he didn’t have to do that, but he’s itching to work and to get to know these guys. It’ll be a good year for the management and myself, but also for [Evgeni Nabokov and Thomas Speer], and most importantly, the goalies in the system.
Special thanks to Maddie Dutra for the transcription help.