Lin on Practicing With Celebrini, Hanging With Buble, Representing Asians in Hockey

Picking Ryan Lin at No. 21 had many NHL draft experts declaring GM Mike Grier and the San Jose Sharks as the big winners of this year’s draft.

And Ryan Lin?!

You'd have looked like an absolute lunatic if you said this back in November.

— Cam Robinson (@Hockey_Robinson) June 27, 2026

Mike Grier this offseason: pic.twitter.com/MjLX6RDi4h

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 27, 2026

Lin is a 5-foot-11 right-handed defenseman from Richmond, British Columbia. He put up 14 goals and 43 assists in 53 games for the Vancouver Giants of the WHL this season. Next year, he’s headed to Denver University, where he’ll be competing with friend and Buffalo Sabres draft pick Daxon Rudolph for playing time.

Lin has also represented Canada at the under-18 World Juniors the last two years. In the 2024-25 season, he played with Rudolph and fellow San Jose Sharks draft pick Keaton Verhoeff.

In Vancouver, he played with San Jose Sharks’ 2024 draft pick Colton Roberts. When Lin announced his commitment to Denver, Roberts – who now plays for Colorado College – commented “rivals…” on Instagram. Now, they’ve been drafted by the same organization.

“Ever since I came to the Giants at 15, Colton and a couple other guys took me under their wing and showed me the ropes and helped me out and helped me succeed that first year,” Lin said. “I couldn’t be more happy to join him and see him in a few days here.”

Lin spoke about a winning trip to San Jose for box lacrosse, a Michael Bublé documentary, representing Asians in hockey, and more.

On what it means that the San Jose Sharks traded up to get him…

It feels good, I’m not going to lie. They see something in me that I see in myself as well. For them to trade up and get me it feels great, and I want to prove them right now.

On why he chose to go to the NCAA and Denver…

I just want to challenge myself. Going to Denver, I’m going to be challenged with older, stronger guys, and better competition. I want to succeed there. Denver was the spot for me, because the coaching staff, their culture, you have a chance to win every year going there. A bunch of good players are heading there with me as well. So I’m excited.

On his father being part Japanese and part Taiwanese and representing Asians in hockey…

I see, you look around here and there’s not a whole lot of Asian people. Being able to represent that community, I’ve put myself more in a role where I can. I didn’t really think about it too much growing up or anything. But now that I have a little bigger of a voice, I’d like to use it to advocate, and get out there a little bit.

Ryan Lin says, "I'm not a guy full personality or anything, so might be a little boring."

But post-Draft, he touched on practicing w/ Celebrini, hanging out w/ Michael Buble, being friends w/ Verhoeff & Colton Roberts, and his dad being Japanese-Taiwanese…pretty interesting! pic.twitter.com/s949i8pswH

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) June 27, 2026

On winning a box (indoor) lacrosse tournament in San Jose…

I played lacrosse for a while, and our team back in Richmond actually got invited to the US box lacrosse national championships in San Jose. This is maybe seven, eight years ago. So I have been there, I’ve been to the SAP Center [in the summer], and I loved my time there. It was awesome.

On how box lacrosse has translated to ice hockey…

I told a lot of teams that it helped hand-eye coordination, cardio. It’s a tough sport, and really physical as well. In Richmond it’s pretty big. It was awesome. We had a good team.

On Keaton Verhoeff…

He’s a great friend of mine, like Daxon as well. We played all those Canada events together, and I was fortunate to win too with him. He’s a really good friend now, and I couldn’t be more happy we got drafted to the same team and we can go through this journey together.

On if he knew the Sharks were interested in him before…

I had really good interviews with them and really good talks with everyone in their organization, but you just never know. It just takes one team to like you and pick you. So I’m glad it was them, for sure.

On being part of Michael Bublé and Drew Scott’s documentary about their time as part-owners of the Vancouver Giants…

Michael Bublé, Drew Scott, those are the two guys behind it. It was great. I’m not a guy full of personality or anything, so might be a little boring for them at times. But I think it’s going to turn out great, and they’re going to do a good job with it, show the world, pull the curtain back a little bit.