San Jose Sharks
Schaefer, Eklund Top Central Scouting’s Mid-Term 2025 Draft Rankings
Despite having a much better on-ice product this season, the San Jose Sharks are likely to end up in familiar territory this summer, with an early selection in the 2025 NHL Draft.
The NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings were released on Tuesday, giving us an idea of some names that could soon be wearing teal. The rankings are split up between North American and European skaters, here are the top-five North American skaters:
1) Matthew Schaefer is a 6-foot-2 Erie Otters defenseman, described as “left-shot Drew Doughty” in a recent article from Elite Prospects.
EP’s Cam Robinson took a survey of 10 NHL scouts and executives during World Juniors, and seven of them pegged Schaefer as their No. 1. Fans of the San Jose Sharks will definitely know how impactful a player like Doughty can be.
At the moment, he appears to be separating himself as a clear-cut No. 1.
2) James Hagens is a 5-foot-11 center, who has taken Will Smith’s spot at Boston College between Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, and has also been in consideration to go first-overall going back to last year.
One NHL scout told Robinson that the USA star is a “strong top-six center who can make a lot of plays and be responsible in his own end.”
3) Michael Misa is a 6-foot-1 center for the Saginaw Spirit. An all-around offensive threat, his goal-scoring prowess has been on display this season. Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff said, “What a shot. What a player.” Post-WJCs, Ellis had him going No. 4 in the 2025 Draft.
4) Porter Martone is a 6-foot-3 power forward winger. Ellis had him higher than Misa in his mock 2025 Draft, describing him as a “Matthew Tkachuk-type of player.” Simply, he plays a physical game and scores goals.
5) Roger McQueen is a 6-foot-5 center for the Brandon Wheat Kings. “Highly skilled and intelligent center who can make a difference,” said NHL director of Central Scouting Dan Marr.Â
Here are the top-three International skaters, including a familiar name:
1) Victor Eklund is a 5-foot-11 Swede, brother of the San Jose Sharks’ William Eklund.
Ellis was especially impressed with the physical, two-way winger in Ottawa: “Probably out of all the draft-eligible prospects, the first-year draft-eligible prospects, he was the most impressive at the World Juniors.”
Eklund looks like a threat to be a top-five pick.
2) Anton Frondell is a 6-foot-1 teammate of Eklund’s at Djurgardens. Ranked fifth in Elite Prospects’ recent consolidated rankings, Craig Button of TSN had the center as high as second overall right now, saying “Frondell reminds me of [Aleksander] Barkov.”
3) Ivan Ryabkin is a 6-foot center who recently made the jump from Russia to the USHL. At the moment though, he doesn’t appear to be a potential 2025 top-five pick.
Joshua Ravensbergen is the top North American goalie and Pyotr Andreyanov is the top International netminder. The San Jose Sharks appear to be set with Yaroslav Askarov between the pipes for the years to come though, so hard to say how much that they’ll prioritize goaltending in this Draft.
Viktor Eklund! I would love to see the Sharks draft him, if only to get that sibling dynamic. As a fan, I think anytime there’s a brother duo on a team, it adds so much marketability to a team. (Side rant: The Four Nations tournament should promote that we get to see the Tkachuk’s together! Just sayin’).
That being said, I think the Sharks don’t necessarily need another Eklund as much as they need Porter Martone. We can only have so many small guys.
ps. Is Musty expected to be on the Sharks team next year?
“We can only have so many small guys.” It is an interesting dilemma. Chicago and SJ hold the 2 worst records. Chicago has Bedard, who is 5’10” and d-man Levshunov who is 6’2″. Taken with 1st and 2nd overall picks. Sharks have taken 2 centers, Smith 5’11” and Celebrini 6’0″. Taken with 4th and 1st overall picks. Its hard to imagine either team really wanting 5’11’ James Hagens, as both have smaller, elite 1C in house already. Adding a smaller 2C might not be what either team wants. And yet, Hagens might well the best player available. Teams like Anaheim… Read more »
it is time to begin to look at the standings, as teams are all under 40 games left and the competition for 1st overall is starting to warm up. Ranking the 9 teams below NHL .500 here. These are the teams Sharks are ‘competing’ against for top spot in the draft lottery. Its possible some teams at/around NHL .500 could collapse and also possible, the Sharks have a strong rest of season. Neither is likely. The 5 teams between -1 and -4 are not out of contention for good lottery odds, but it’d require a rough second half to get… Read more »
fwiw, Schaeffer was the only d-man in the top 10in the linked article, the other 9 were forwards
Jackson Smith gets some top 10 love by some rankings. Elite Prospects has him 6… 6’3” left Shot D.
If Schaefer is still on the board when SJS picks, guaranteed GMMG nabs him, as he fills the #1 D man role. If he isn’t then it’s a toss-up between Martone & Misa, with Martone probably having a slight edge because SJS already has Cele, Smith, Bystedt & Svoboda at C.
SJS will likely have a top 4 pick which will guarantee one of the big 4, listed by preference: Schaefer, Martone, Misa & Hagens.
The future is Teal indeed!
I think statistically the top D in every draft has a lower chance to pan out than forwards. So picking a forward so high is safer. But it would theoretically really complete the rebuild if we got Shaeffer and he became the player that he is projected to become.